Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 97
September 13, 2017
Steve’s shorts: Intern…
Intern
Copyright 2017, Steven M. Moore
[Some readers of this blog are probably familiar with my Dr. Carlos stories. Carlos Obregon is chief medical officer aboard the starship Brendan, part of the Interstellar Trade Union of Independent Planets’ (ITUIP’s) Space Exploration Bureau’s (SEB’s) fleet. His intern Dr. Julie Chen (not a future relation to my detective Dao-Ming Chen, as far as I know) plays an important role in some stories. The following story is about their first meeting.]
“Lester,...
September 12, 2017
The monuments men…
…and women—to all those misguided individuals jumping on the careening bandwagon of indiscriminately tearing down monuments, I understand the sentiments. After all, people like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were traitors to this nation while defending an ugly, racist economy based on slavery. Slavery and human trafficking are despicable crimes that aren’t justified by the nefarious concept that some humans aren’t humans at all but possessions.
That said, I’d rather place monuments to Co...
September 11, 2017
Monday words of wisdom…
When the truth is little more than an arbitrary personal decision, there is no common ground to be reached and no incentive to look for it.—Ned Resnikoff
***
Fanaticism, fundamentalism, and terrorism have no place in a rational world; if they do find a place, we have to weed them out. Remember 9/11. We miss you, Carlitos!
Book sale: Some authors bundle a series or part of a series. Here’s an alternative: from now through September 30, all three books in the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” are o...
September 10, 2017
Stay safe, everyone…
Irma is a monster storm. Floridians, it’s better to lose your possessions than your life. Stay safe; seek shelter. Like for those victims in the Houston, Texas area, help will be waiting on the other side. The whole country is pulling for all storm and disaster victims, including those in Chiapas and those suffering the wrath of Katia. Mother Nature is throwing a tantrum right now, for whatever reason (she has many).
September 8, 2017
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #149…
Reading “older books”. In a Goodreads thread, I championed reading “older books.” (You can follow me on GR and even become a “friend.”) I think too many readers overlook too many less recent books that they’d find just as entertaining and intriguing. (Some of my special favorites are listed on the “Steve’s Bookshelf” webpage at this site. I periodically talk about them on my Facebook author page.)
Many older books also contain current themes too. One of my gripes about Amazon and Smashwords i...
September 7, 2017
Do you get your money’s worth?
Readers and writers alike see those expensive ads for a book. Video trailers, full-page ads in the NY Times, and huge ads in that paper’s book section every Sunday. You also have Kirkus Reviews, little more than ads themselves because they’re paid for by Big Five publishers.
You also have ad agencies and marketing experts who make a huge amount of money as the proverbial “middle men.” A Big Five publisher doesn’t usually design the ad or run the marketing campaign, after all. Someone is hired...
September 6, 2017
Steve’s shorts: Lifeboat…
Lifeboat
Copyright 2017, Steven M. Moore
“Can we keep it?”
Jerry looked at the creature in his daughter’s hand. He had stopped sprinkling the new grass seed and considered her question. He held out his free hand, still gloved from raking the soil.
“Give it to me and let me rinse your hand off!” The creature looked like fancy lime Jello from a mold, except it wasn’t completely transparent. “Where did you get this?”
Susie pointed under the hedge. He saw something the size of a small, shiny, sta...
September 5, 2017
The anti-GMO movement…
It’s surprising how many people are anti-GMO, playing into the hands of unscrupulous marketers who have made a lot of money attending to their whims. The whole idea is absurd, of course. Humans have been making GMOs since prehistoric times. Their creations weren’t called such a nasty, degrading name as GMO, to be sure, because the usual name until hysteria took hold was “domesticated variety” or something similar. New technologies just speed up the process, but they just continue this process...
September 4, 2017
Monday words of wisdom…
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.—Aldous Huxley
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Have a safe and enjoyable Labor Day, but let’s celebrate the workers who form the backbone of America.
Book sale: Some authors bundle a series or part of a series. Here’s an alternative: from now through September 30, all three books in the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” are on sale only AT SMASHWORDS, $1.99 for each ebook, reduced from $2.99—that’s one-third off. The clones make their appearance in Full Medical as part o...
September 1, 2017
Notes on the eclipse…
Isaac Asimov in his extended Foundation series (it brings together the Foundation Trilogy, the robot novels, and The End of Eternity) commented toward the end during the search for Earth that humans’ home is an E-type planet with a very large moon. Some gas giants have even larger moons, of course, but Earth’s satisfies the Goldilocks Principle twice over: its distance from the Sun and its diameter are just right so that it just blocks the Sun. That occurs about every eighteen months on Earth...
