Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 81
August 16, 2018
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #162…
Welcome. If this is your first time here, thank you for joining the conversation. If you’re an old hand, thank you for sticking with me. This newsletter is my way of telling you about what’s going on in my writing world. Thank you for reading…and being a reader. Storytelling is what makes us human.
Summertime. I can’t believe we’re already into August. With all the bad weather (heat waves, thunderstorms, etc.), it’s been a good time to get some reading done. Some of my reading is reported on...
August 15, 2018
Interview with author Cygne duLac…
[Today’s guest is Cygne duLac, a widely acclaimed writer of romance novels. Without further ado, let’s listen to what she says.]
Cygne introduces herself…
SM: Why don’t you tell us about yourself?
CdL: Hello, Steve. Thank you for inviting me to your blog. I’d never considered being a professional writer. In school, I was more inclined toward math and the sciences. Being an ugly duckling, my mother drilled into my head that I wasn’t pretty enough to attract a husband, so I focused on my academ...
August 14, 2018
No poetry slam here…
I write fiction. I know my limitations, so I don’t write poetry very often. You might have enjoyed my “Ode to Cassini” on the home page of this website; it probably broke all the rules, although it was heartfelt.
That poem was my most recent one—I mean, it’s been several decades since I wrote the last one. I’ve included some old poems in The Collector (the poem there was written for my father, who was a landscape and still life artist who hated abstract art). The Last Humans (to be published...
August 9, 2018
Making the world small…
[In memory of Anthony Bourdain.]
Anthony Bourdain showed us the world of food. What’s more important, though, is that he showed us places and people there who ate that food. One can make the argument that anything we can do to help people learn that we’re all on spaceship Earth together, and, in spite of our differences, we’re all human beings with similar yet simple goals in life—a good job, good health, and a loving family—that’s a good thing. Bourdain could do that; so can authors when the...
August 8, 2018
Interviewing author Saralyn Richard…
[Today I have the privilege of interviewing author Saralyn Richard. Saralyn is a mystery and children’s book writer who teaches on the side. Some of her poems and essays have won awards and contests from the time she was in high school. Her children’s picture book, Naughty Nana, has reached thousands of children worldwide. The mystery novel Murder in the One Percent, from Black Opal Books, pulls back the curtain on the privileged and powerful rich. Set on a gentleman’s farm in Pennsylvania an...
August 7, 2018
Back story versus flashbacks…
They’re very similar but differ enough that I thought I’d go over the two concepts. A flashback is a short narrative where authors, often through one of their characters, thinks back to a previous situation. It’s short. It can be used anywhere in fiction, often to relieve tension, but it can be used in non-fiction too—for example, in a memoir. Back story is a longer narrative that authors often use when new characters are introduced, but again, chapters of it might be in a memoir.
Length is i...
August 2, 2018
Movie Reviews #62…
Incredibles 2. I’m often a sucker for cartoons and other animated features. I learned to read and write as a pre-schooler “making” my own comic books, and those cartoons sandwiched between Saturday matinee features were a popular pastime as kids (probably my favorite was Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd parodying The Barber of Seville, a classic!).
Animation has changed a lot, and I can’t stand a lot of it. My favorite animated features are the Ice Age series (love the prehistoric squirrel); my leas...
August 1, 2018
Interviewing author S. P. Brown…
[I’m honored today to interview author S. P. Brown. Like me, Stan writes in various genres. Also, like me, he has an academic background. Without further ado, let’s begin….]
Steve: Stan, let’s start with some back story: why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?
S.P.: My full name is Stanley Paul Brown, but I write fiction as S. P. Brown. Some of my published genres are Political Thrillers/Paranormal Thrillers, Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy/Sci-Fi, found in the following books: The Legac...
July 31, 2018
When I read large…
What do I mean by this? Peruse the “Steve’s Bookshelf” webpage. You’ll see more non-fiction than fiction. I’m an avid fiction reader; I’m also a fiction writer. Shouldn’t there be more fiction in this list?
No, the list is reserved for books that really resonated with me. Consider Baldacci; his listed books aren’t his thrillers. Consider Deaver; Garden of Beasts and not the Lincoln Rhyme books is listed. That doesn’t mean that I don’t like their other books. While I’ll probably recognize the...
July 26, 2018
Two summer jobs…
Readers often ask me, “What influenced my writing?” With the hot summer weather upon us, my thoughts often turn to my last high school summer jobs as a partial answer to that question. College costs are onerous for most parents and students now, and still rising, but we forget it’s always been so. Free college tuition at state and community college might alleviate that somewhat, but the incidental costs—food, housing, books, transportation, etc—can still be a hardship. Even when I was a colle...
