Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 72
January 30, 2019
Review of Marc Liebman’s Cherubs 2…
Cherubs 2. Marc Liebman, author (Penmore Press, 2017). Numerous historical fiction stories about the Vietnam War portray how this conflict ripped at the fabric of U.S. society ad created mental and physical wounds for those who fought in an unpopular war. This is such a story, and it is a good one.
I confess that I approached it with some trepidation. Most readers won’t be able to approach this novel lightly either. Yes, it’s about SAR (search and rescue for downed aviators, not synthetic ape...
January 29, 2019
When fiction should NOT seem real…
[Note from Steve: The reader may consider this post a sequel to a previous one, “Real Events in Fiction.”]
In your area the percentage might be different, but in news about my tristate area (NJ, NY, Conn), the media generally focuses on the negative and ignores the positive—maybe 90% of the news stories are negative, especially those involving the Big Apple. That gives me lots of ideas for mysteries and thrillers, but it’s an unwarranted bias created by the media. Since 9/11, NYC has been one...
January 25, 2019
Movie Reviews #69…
On the Basis of Sex. Mimi Leder, dir. Felicity Jones does a good job portraying Ruth Bader Ginsburg, while Armie Hammer and Cailee Spaeny do well as her husband and daughter, respectively. The movie is a wee bit slow in parts, but it was generally interesting, if only for its historical importance. It is the story of how the first domino fell on the way to the now stalled Equal Rights Amendment (which will never be approved under the Trump administration, of course—one only needs to remember...
January 24, 2019
Real events in fiction…
When I read Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal, I was impressed at the get-go because the author starts with real events—the war with Algeria waged by France under DeGaulle—and continues the plot from there to make a tense, taut thriller. Other thrillers by the same author often followed the same scheme.
Mixing real events into our fiction can help make the fiction seem more real. If the author can get the reader thinking, “Could this really happen?” or even “This could really happen,”...
January 23, 2019
Steve’s shorts: A Long Way from Home, Part Three…
A Long Way from Home
Copyright 2018, Steven M. Moore
Part Three
Kris was on the ship’s bridge monitoring the next jump through the metaverses when Kerouac the AI wanted to have a discussion.
“This mind-wipe policy has been in effect for over a thousand standard years,” it began. “Tell me, Kris, what are its moral justifications?”
Kris smiled. An AI worrying about moral issues in applying punishment to biological beings? That was common in androids; she’d never experienced it with a ship’s AI....
January 22, 2019
Amazon v. authors and publishers…
Evidence accrues all the time showing how Amazon, the world’s mega-retailer and biggest online bookstore, is neither an author’s nor a publisher’s friend.
Authors Guild, which is more a representative for Big Five publishers’ and their authors’ interests than a true union for writers, has recently added more logs to that bonfire. They’re alarmed that their author members only made an average of $20K in 2018, down from the previous year. I’m embarrassed to say how much I made (not my main moti...
January 18, 2019
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #165…
A belated welcome to 2019! I’m not suspicious. I was born in an even year, married in an odd year, and our kids were born in even years. 2019 will bring what it will…and I wish all of you a safe, prosperous, and happy next twelve months. Thanks for being readers.
Publishing in 2018. Two articles about publishing caught my interest in the NY Times over the holidays. The first covered the expiration of copyrights. Some classics and many old books will be losing their copyrights. That mainly aff...
January 17, 2019
Morality clauses…
Many Big Five publishers’ book contracts have them now. Most small presses don’t. What are they?
Mostly thanks to Twitter being a haven for far-left and far-right trolls and home for the rants of other special interest groups , some authors have been slammed as they’re tried in the court of public opinion. Whether the actions of these authors is reprehensible or not, this can especially hurt the Big Five’s bottom line, hence the clauses.
In an exposé in the NY Times (Jan. 6), I was surprised...
January 16, 2019
Steve’s shorts: A Long Way From Home (Part Two)…
A Long Way from Home
Copyright 2018, Steven M. Moore
Part Two
“Not a bad little planet,” said Geoff Rivera, the security team’s head.
Kris was studying the screen in the ops tent that showed a view of a vast, grassy plain. “Looks like Kansas,” she said.
“Pardon?”
“Center of the North American continent on Earth. It was a state in the United States of America before the Chaos.”
Geoff shrugged. “You know more history than I do. But why do you bother?”
“Because I can trace my roots all the way b...
January 15, 2019
The world’s big cities…
They often appear as settings in novels, especially mysteries, thrillers, and romance books. They’re also often characters in their own right too.
Consider New York City. You’ll hear only a sampling of its many languages on any trip there. You’ll have access to just a many ethnic food restaurants too. And, even though crime dominates the local news, after 9/11 it has become one of the safest big cities in the world—vibrant, exciting, and full of culture.
That said, it’s not my favorite big ci...
