Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 78
October 12, 2018
Movie Reviews #66…
The House with a Clock in Its Walls. Eli Roth, dir. Based on the classic 1973 book by John Bellairs (1938-1991). Do you have Harry Potter withdrawal symptoms? Looking for a magical movie that’s fantastic fun and not full of dark, adult-level angst? Trying to find a movie based on a good book that was a fun read? Then this movie is an answer to all three questions.
Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro) loses his parents in a traffic accident and goes to live with his uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) in Mi...
October 11, 2018
Steve’s Shorts: P. Arnold Crandall’s Old Book Emporium…
[An author on Twitter—sorry, I can’t remember her name—gave me the idea for this. Well, not exactly the details, because I changed the story plot a lot while writing it. We were chatting about Zafon’s two novels involving a bookstore (highly recommended). Stan Brown’s The Legacy, reviewed last week, was a bit of inspiration too. I love bookstores, and I even have some cameos in my novels where I’m a bookstore owner!]
P. Arnold Crandall’s Old Book Emporium
Copyright 2018, Steven M. Moore
Arni...
October 10, 2018
Interviewing author Leonardus G. Rougoor…
Steve: I’m honored to interview author Leonardus G. Rougoor today. He writes mystery/thriller novels, among them Waiting in the Shadows, The Chase, The Revelation, The Clock, and The Murderer and the Lost Treasures. Our reading interests are also similar, so we have lots in common. Without further ado and with great pleasure, let’s hear from Leonardus.
Leonardus on reading and writing…
Steve: Why, how, and when did you start writing?
Leonardus: I never wrote much my entire life, except for mu...
October 9, 2018
Story evolution…
Because I’m taking a breather after three novel-writing marathons by writing short fiction (the novels are: The Last Humans, to be published by Black Opal Books in 2019; Goin’ the Extra Mile, #3 in the Mary Jo Melendez/MECHs trilogy, to be published by Carrick Publishing this fall; and Son of Thunder, the sequel to Rembrandt’s Angel), I decided to take the time to analyze how my short fiction often morphs into a novel later on. The reason is simple and probably applies to many authors: I deci...
October 5, 2018
Mini-Reviews #35…
Quiet. Susan Cain, author. (Broadway Books, 2012, 2013.) Goodreads (AKA Amazon) offered this on sale, and I grabbed it. I’m glad I did. What it’s about in a nutshell is the quiet anti-social people who do the creative things in the world, the introverts, as opposed to the extroverts, those blustering, often narcissistic, and outgoing people who often do nothing creative, unless putting down the nerds and pounding their own chests can be called creative.
OK, I’m being excessive maybe, and cert...
October 4, 2018
Settings…
Harry Bosch is an LAPD detective because Michael Connolly lives in the LA area. Inspector Rebus is an Edinburgh detective because Ian Rankin is from there. A lot of Geza Tatrallyay’s thriller Twisted Traffick takes place in Vienna; he doesn’t live there now, but he did (see the previous interview). My new book The Last Humans (to be published by Black Opal Books in 2019) is a post-apocalyptic thriller set in SoCal; I grew up there. Is the best way to come up with realistic settings to live in...
October 3, 2018
Interview with author Geza Tatrallyay…
Steve: Today I have the honor of interviewing author Geza Tatrallyay. This man of the world, scholar, and gentleman writes thrillers, memoirs, poetry, and children’s picture storybooks. Readers can visit his website https://www.gezatatrallyay.com/, but this interview will provide even more insight about this talented and versatile writer.
Geza’s essential data:
Steve: Why don’t you tell us about yourself, Geza? You’ve had an interesting life!
Geza: I was born in Budapest, Hungary, and escaped...
October 2, 2018
Motivation…
“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim, you don’t grab hold of the water because, if you do, you will sink and drown. Instead you relax…and float.”—Alan Watts
OK, Mr. Watts probably didn’t write this advice for authors. But authors must have faith in their work, that what they’re saying is worthwhile saying. But that’s not enough. That faith builds with your motivation. I see “the water” of our writing lives as that vast ocean of good books and good authors where we...
September 28, 2018
Book review of Bob Woodward’s Fear…
Fear. Bob Woodward, author (Simon and Schuster, 2018). I’ve been a Bob Woodward fan since Nixon. Journalists keep politicians honest and the public informed. (Two at the NY Times made a mistake with their Rosenstein/25th Amendment report, but these are few and far between.) Freedom of the press is one of our most important freedoms, and it distinguishes democracies from the ubiquitous authoritarian regimes around the globe.
That said, this book only stands out because other books of the same...
September 27, 2018
Hook…
I’m not talking about Peter Pan’s nemesis here. I’m talking about the beginning of a novel. In a way, “hook” is an insulting term. It refers to the first chapter, first paragraphs, first words even, of a novel that can get a reader interested in the story. Readers aren’t fish, though, and an author can’t hook them and reel them in. That said, all fiction has to interest the reader at the beginning. Readers usually don’t start reading in the middle of the book, after all.
There is only one ba...
