Welcome to all who stop by this website! Benvenuti! Bienvenidos! Bienvenues! Willkommen!

“You know, you can lose yourself in a book, but you can find yourself too.” – Pete Brassett, in his Munro crime series.

Happy holidays to all!

What can you find at this website?

You’ll see a description of my novels and short fiction, of course. After all, I’m an author, and this is an author’s website. As a voracious reader myself, I want the fiction I read to be more than formulaic fluff. I won’t write that either, so you won’t find that here.

No, I offer something different that you might have trouble finding these days: Fiction that entertains and informs the educated reader. (Of course, I have a lot of fun writing it as well!)

Reading my fiction, for example, you, as an intrepid, armchair-traveler, can visit faraway places around the world and even travel to the stars! You can learn about different people and their cultures or about ETs and their societies. US readers can travel to Asia, Europe, South America, and especially to visit our close cousins’ country across the pond, there in the UK, via my British-style mysteries. And, of course, the British and other readers outside the US can also travel the other way or otherwise visit new places and strange times in the US by comfortably and safely at home while reading in their comfy armchairs.

All are welcome here!  

And FYI: There’s a lot more here than just a description of my fiction. To dip your toes into the water, please read on to see what I have to offer on this website.  Yes, you’ll see my novels and short fiction listed, but there’s a lot of other stuff too, and some of it is even free!  It’s all about entertaining you with good reading material.

If you have any questions, just drop me an email (use the contact page at this site) – I love your questions and suggestions. Or even just to send me a simple hello.

Many regards,

And who’s A. B. Carolan?

A. B. has taken over my story writing for young adults, in particular, the “ABC Sci-Fi Mysteries”  (The Secret Lab, The Secret of the Urns, and Mind Games), although we still work together. Those stories take place in my usual sci-fi universe described in “The Chaos Chronicles” trilogy. His most recent novel, Origins: The Denisovan Trilogy, Book One, takes place elsewhere, but it is also part of that body of work for young adults. (While their protagonists are young adults and they’re written with young adults in mind, I’ve found that many adults who are young at heart love these stories too!)

The A. B. makes sense when you consider that Irishman’s full name.  In his native haunts of Donegal, Republic of Ireland, Alsandair Breandan Carolan is rumored to have been raised by leprechauns. (He sometimes responds to that only by stating that the Irish like to kid a lot!) I find it more believable that he might be a descendant of the great Irish harpist and songwriter, Turlough O’Carolan.

Even though he’s over there across the pond doing his best to enjoy life on that Emerald Isle, we frequently communicate, SOP for serious literary collaborators everywhere. We both favor Irish whiskey, a mighty fine drink, but he often lapses into Gaelic (Leprechaunese?) when tippling.

My Bulletin Board (newsy items will often appear here):

Events of Note:

Post-election blues. I’m extremely disappointed, to say the least, that so many of my fellow Americans voted for such a disgraceful and inept presidential candidate, a convicted felon, pervert, two-times impeached, six-times bankrupted, and a leader of an attempted coup. (And that’s just some of the things he did before the 2024 election!) For many Americans and others around the world, sad days are coming to America and its international reputation. Just his cabinet choices indicate dark days ahead.

Yes, it’s difficult for me to understand why any sane American could have voted for such an inferior candidate! A lot of us who are more sane can take comfort  in the fact, though, that the election results were far from being a landslide (that winning candidate and his sycophants wrongly claim that) and do not even come close to representing a mandate. The winning candidate won the popular vote by only about 1.5%. (The anachronistic Electoral College, which no other true democracy has to bedevil it, almost always distorts election results!) Conclusion: The country is equally divided, so hopefully the new president and his cronies won’t be able to do that much damage during the next four years. But can we survive four more years of his inept government and irrational policies? Who knows? Time will tell.

All who visit here are still welcome at this website, though. (Maybe those who voted for that orange devil can even learn something here? For example, that democracy is the better alternative compared to bigotry, chaos, perversion, racism, violence, and insulting and threatening rhetoric?) I can’t say that I wish his voters success in getting what they thought they voted for. (Hint: He, who like Voldemort, shall not be named here, doesn’t really care about any of his followers!)

For those other more logical and intelligent visitors to this website, you might want to join the ACLU. We’re going to need them, folks! That man who will soon be leading our country again, proving some people will never learn, will have both houses of Congress and SCOTUS doing his bidding as well, so it’ll be hard to rein this wannabe dictator in. He’ll try to continue to destroy our rights along with his “enemies” in what he calls his “retribution term.”  We must stop that from occurring the best we can! Our lives might depend on it!

Have you checked the list of free PDF downloads on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page recently? I often post new material there. For example:

Sleuthing, British-Style, Volume 4. Three more mystery-crime novellas that take place in the UK.

“Revenge at Last.” This novella is a sequel to the “Inspector Steve Morgan” trilogy: Morgan finally gets a new boss. Two other novellas are also included as a surprise gift for readers.

“Esther Brookstone and the Art Forgers.” This lengthy novella is a prequel to the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. It features the British sleuth after she steps down from leading the Art and Antiques Division of Scotland Yard to continue there as Detective Inspector.  Who knew the art world could be such a dark place? Of course, this 21st-century version of Dame Agatha’s Miss Marple can shed some light!

Goodbye to some brilliant and favorite professors…

In 2023, Professor James Hartle passed on. This theoretical physicist and collaborator with Professor Stephen Hawking tried to teach me the theory of gravitation…little did he know that I’d later become a writer of sci-fi stories! (A few even feature black holes!)

And in 2024, Professor N. Scott Momaday passed on too. As my English professor, this writer long ago taught me to love poetry (even though I can’t write it!) and showed us all how the ravages of PTSD can affect Native Americans in the Pulitzer-winning novel House Made of Dawn.

How lucky this world was to have these creative geniuses around for a long time! How lucky I was to have once been in their classes!

A POD sails into the sunset. “Effective October 15th, 2023, Infinity Publishing will be sunsetting its book publishing and distribution services [classic print-on-demand services].” This action affects my novels The Midas Bomb (print version only of the first edition), Survivors of the Chaos (print and ebook versions), and Soldiers of God (print version only). Readers need not worry about availability of these works (they’re “evergreen books” after all, i.e., just as fresh and exciting as the day I finished their manuscripts) because all three novels have second-edition ebook versions. (Survivors of the Chaos‘s second edition is part of the ebook bundle The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection.) I must thank Infinity Publishing, though, for helping me get my publishing life on track when ebook-media was largely non-existent!

Revision 11 of “Writing Fiction.” Readers of my blog know that I post a lot of articles there about reading, writing, and publishing. This little course that I continuously update is a distillation of ideas expressed in those articles plus a lot more. The course is primarily for writers who want to read more than platitudes and cheerleading about what this creative writing business is like – I can be downright acerbic at times! – but other readers might enjoy perusing it to understand a bit of the mystery involved in the publishing business. This new revision contains all you’ll need to know to self-publish your novels using Draft2Digital/Smashwords! (Okay, you’ll need to know how to create an original manuscript!) See the list of free PDF downloads on my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page for this useful document.

A second blog. Sometimes you just have to try something new and different! I thought my more political articles I used to post here in this website’s blog might get lost among the ones dedicated to reading, writing, and publishing per se, so beginning in 8/24/2021, all new op-eds with a more political slant have been posted to Pub Progressive, a new blog I’ve created. (Warning: Your browser might tell you it’s “unsafe” because it’s only http. Ignore that. It’s safe. I just can’t afford the https version!) From now on, this website’s blog will contain no overtly political posts and focus only on reading, writing, and publishing topics. (Some of these latter posts might still be considered political in a sense – for example, reviews of politically oriented non-fiction books or my anti-Amazon sentiments that have led to my boycotting them as much as possible!)

I hope this doesn’t cause you any inconvenience. (Or maybe it will bring a sigh of relief. Who knows?) For more about this second blog, see the “Join the Conversation” web page at this site.

Recently Published Books:

Menace from Moscow. The Last Humans, Book Three. In the third novel of this post-apocalyptic sci-fi trilogy, the critical and difficult job of managing of geopolitics in a post-apocalyptic world caused by the dispersal of a worldwide bioengineered virus continues: Survivor Penny Castro and her friends’ new task is to recover nuclear-armed missiles aboard a US submarine that sunk off Cuba’s coast at the beginning of the pandemic. As if the train ride from Colorado to Florida across a dangerous, desolate, and devasted US isn’t enough, what awaits them in the Caribbean and beyond will put any fan of sci-fi thrillers on the edge of their seats. From SoCal to Cheyenne Mountain and on to Florida, Cuba, and what remains of the Russian Federation, Penny’s adventures are full of mystery, thrills, and suspense.

Fear the Asian Evil: Inspector Steve Morgan, Book Three. Former Scotland Yard Inspector Steve Morgan’s next case at Bristol PD involves the attempted murder of a journalist who happens to be the sister-in-law of one of his sergeants. Its prelude, though, involves a fishing trip made during a vacation when Steve and his girlfriend’ father find a dead Chinese spy afloat in the North Sea. That leads to frictions with MI5 that distract from solving what should be the routine case of the woman’s attempted murder. The hunt for spies and ordinary policework clash until they come together.

Cult of Evil: Inspector Steve Morgan, Book Two. Steve Morgan, a former Scotland Yard Inspector and now one at Bristol PD, has another murder case to solve. A young woman appears to have been tortured as part of some cult’s evil rite and then hung lifeless from a Victorian folly. Is the cult leader the scam artist who took over the woman’s properties and other valuable assets? And to make matters even worse for Morgan, a deadly assassin is hunting him.

Legacy of Evil: Inspector Steve Morgan, Book One. The young inspector played an important role in The Klimt Connection, Esther Brookstone Art Detective, Book Eight, and now carries Esther’s torch. The former Scotland Yard inspector receives his first murder case after a transfer to Bristol PD and a stressful secondment to MI5. An old man’s murder is soon followed by three related ones. Their investigations lead the DI and his team to probe the operations of a national crime syndicate as well as uncover a Russian oligarch’s plans to destabilize the UK. Eventually, both MI5 and NCA become involved.

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Another note to readers: Beginning March 1, 2021, none of my NEW ebooks will appear on Amazon! You can still purchase my “evergreen books” there. By definition, these are previously published books as current and fresh as the day I finished the manuscript. You will only find new ebooks on Draft2Digital/Smashwords or their affiliated retailers and library and lending services. There will also be no new print books available unless Draft2Digital/Smashwords gets its beta-testing for print versions up and running!

Previous events of note:

I want to thank International Thriller Writers for accepting me into that authors’ group. It’s an honor to be associated with world famous authors of mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels like Baldacci, Deaver, and others. Readers know that even my sci-fi stories have thriller elements, so they’ll understand why I’m excited about this honor.

Enjoy the podcast interview with Carrick Publishing’s Donna Carrick.  Go to the iPhones store and find Donna’s podcast series Dead To Writes and choose S1, E3 – here’s the link. Donna begins with a reading of my short story “The Case of the Carriageless Horse” (Detective Castilblanco’s first homicide case), which appears in the anthology Donna edited, World Enough and Crime. In the interview, we discuss the state of publishing and my writing.

On January 26, 2018, I gave a talk at the Montclair Women’s Club (how time flies when you’re having fun!), on writing, the publishing business, and my most recent novel (at that time!), Rembrandt’s Angel. (Montclair’s Channel 34 recorded the talk; here’s the YouTube link. Thanks to the ladies for inviting me, and thanks to TV34 and Rick Gearhart for making an excellent video of the talk.  A good time was had by all. (Note: I loved to give these talks! Covid killed them.)

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OK, that’s a lot of material for you for you to peruse that you might have missed. You might need to catch up? Enjoy!

And here’s the legalese (you can probably skip this because it’s like those agreements and warnings before using the software you purchase):

Copyright Notice

Note:  Material at this website is NOT public domain – all material is copyrighted by me, Steven M. Moore.  However, I grant free personal and non-commercial use of any material found here if the copyright is fully acknowledged and/or I receive credit for the material.  Commercial use is strictly prohibited without my permission.

Disclaimers

The views expressed in this website’s blog posts are entirely those of the author of the post or comment.  In particular, they are not necessarily shared by other guest bloggers, interviewees, or reviewed authors. What my characters say is all theirs too!

This is not a site for children.  Let’s rate it “mostly PG-13.” While I make every attempt to maintain a “clean site” free of porn and erotica, adult themes are sometimes treated here.  In particular, some of my short fiction and novels have strong language, sex, and violence. Caveat emptor.

Nothing is sold at this site, and it is commercial free. I don’t offer any goods here beyond free fiction. No ads for products, causes, or groups are accepted.  Certain common product and place names can appear in my writings and should not be construed as endorsements for them. I also will recommend some vendors and providers at times who have impressed me with the quality of their products. Those recommendations aren’t ads – I wasn’t paid anything to make them!