Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 98
August 31, 2017
Looking for a publisher?
I don’t have much experience with this, but let me quote UK’s The Guardian: “These days, it is minimally staffed and funded firms who invest in new authors. The giants avoid such risk, only picking the writers once their names are made….” “The giants…” refers to the Big Five publishing conglomerates, of course. A contract with one of their subsidiary publishing houses might please most authors, so how are we to explain The Guardian’s comment?
Readers will find that new authors publish in vari...
August 30, 2017
Steve’s shorts: Marci…
Marci
Copyright 2017, Steven M. Moore
Anjum opened the invitation, read it, and then tore it up. No way am I going to send my daughter to a party to be bullied by those brats!
She smiled as her daughter started to play another piece. Her birth-mother had rejected her; Anjum and her husband had adopted her. I think that’s a Debussy étude.
She’d always wanted to give Hakeem a son or daughter, but she couldn’t. Now all their parental love was for their adopted daughter, who came with the name Ma...
August 29, 2017
Identity politics…
If one thing can be singled out to be the cause of America’s problems right now, it’s “identity politics.” Consider this the antithesis of “melting pot,” or the idea expressed in the Constitution that “all men are created equal.” (Unfortunately, back in those days, the word “men” didn’t refer to blacks or women; today we’d be more politically correct and simply write “persons.”) “Identity politics” is more like adding the famous “…but some animals are more equal than others” from Orwell’s Ani...
August 28, 2017
Monday words of wisdom…
The word for “fake news” in Putin’s Russia is simply “news.”—Garry Kasparov
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Rogue Planet. Hard sci-fi with Game-of-Thrones fantasy, shaken and stirred. This sequel to the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” is a stand-alone that differs from the trilogy’s novels. Prince Kaushal of the Second Tribe is a survivor of the First Tribe’s rebellion and creation of a theocracy so brutal that the Interstellar Trade Union of Independent Planets (ITUIP) has quarantined his home planet Eden. He and his compan...
August 25, 2017
Mini-Reviews of Books #31…
Ice Cold. Tess Gerritsen, author. I usually can’t afford Ms. Gerritsen’s books, so I snap one up when I see them on sale. The Rizzoli and Isles TV show doesn’t do justice to them, and this one is a gripper and a fun read.
While R & I are the main characters, it’s more about Isles than Rizzoli. The good M.E. is attending a convention in Wyoming, and she and some casual friends she encounters there get lost in a snowstorm. Surviving the cold is only part of the story, though, as we discover the...
August 24, 2017
Waiting for Hollywood?
If you read this blog regularly, you know I see quite a few movies—some blockbusters, others more artistic films that don’t draw crowds. In spite of Hollywood’s attempts to halt its influence, my favorite review site is Rotten Tomatoes, but to be honest, I don’t put much stock in either book or movie reviews, except my own, of course. That’s not being smug; it’s simply a recognition that anyone’s opinion of a book or film is subjective.
As an author, though, I can’t help wondering how my many...
August 23, 2017
Steve’s shorts: Siege…
Siege
Copyright 2017, Steven M. Moore
“Have you heard, Josefina?”
The woman put the paper plates in front of her small children. She watched them begin to devour the PB&J sandwiches.
“Heard what, Father Sullivan?”
“The police have said they’re outnumbered. They’re letting the mad dogs take over the city.”
Josefina paled, caught her breath, and sat down on the fourth chair at the little table.
“Will we still be safe here?”
The young priest shook his head. “Your case has been in the local news....
August 22, 2017
White House cleaning?
It’s amazing that many were demanding that only Steve Bannon be fired. Julia Halin, Stephen Miller, Ben Shapiro, and other alt-right sympathizers (if not card-carrying members) on the White House staff should be fired along with Bannon, but his would be like Hitler firing his staff—Goebbels, Goering, Heydrich, Himmler, and others. Until we’re rid of the two guys at the top, Pence and He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, order won’t be restored.
I don’t envy Kelly. He looked like he was in existential a...
August 21, 2017
Monday words of wisdom…
Don’t have fits watching the eclipse. Keep in mind you can go blind. Timeline for NYC area: 1:23 p.m. à 2:44 p.m. (71% eclipsed)à 4:00 p.m.
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Rogue Planet. Hard sci-fi with Game-of-Thrones fantasy, shaken and stirred. This sequel to the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” is a stand-alone that differs from the trilogy’s novels. Prince Kaushal of the Second Tribe is a survivor of the First Tribe’s rebellion and creation of theocracy so brutal that the Interstellar Trade Union of Independent Planets (...
August 18, 2017
Movie Reviews #49…
[Before reading this review, please read my “Monday Words of Wisdom: Special Edition.” This movie takes on new meaning in the dark and somber aftermath of what happened in Charottesville.]
Detroit. Kathryn Bigelow, dir. I wasn’t enthusiastic about going to this movie. I’d seen Zero Dark Thirty; Bigelow’s emphasis in that movie changed the story too much. And, when the director becomes the story, I feel the movie already has one strike against it.
Another reason for my lack of enthusiasm is th...
