(Damien Dsoul, The Rabbit’s Man, CreateSpace, 2013, ISBN 978-1492841173)

First, the positives.  This is one hell of a story.  The plot is suspenseful and the characters are complex and well drawn.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and can recommend it to anyone interested in mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels, with one caveat I add at the end of this review.

Although technically a setting, Nigeria, the country, is one of the main characters.  I learned more about it in this book than in the sum total of many non-fiction books on modern Africa I’ve read.  Like all good characters, Nigeria is complex, and the author, a Nigerian, captures this complexity well.

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[TANSTAAFL: Do you read this blog?  I’m not asking if you agree with the posts, just whether you read it!  If so, don’t be passive.  React.  Write a comment—chew me out if you like (no foul language, please).  You can even receive a free ebook—see the bottom of the “Free Stuff and Contests” webpage; or write an honest review of one of my ebooks in exchange for the ebook.  In general, buy, read, and review some of my books.  Your participation motivates me and helps defray the costs of this website and my ebook releases.  Be active.  Help indie authors provide you with inexpensive entertainment.  It’s a two-way street, folks!]

#1: 12 Years a Slave.  Although not for the squeamish, this is Hollywood at its best.  Chiwetel Ejiofor is superb as the musician who is kidnapped and taken to the South.  We see the whole spectrum of this ignoble period in the nation’s history—from a concerned Canadian to a compassionate slave owner to a rat bastard who is a monster, not human.  My only complaint is that the movie is too long—after a few sadistic scenes you get the idea, and you know that no matter what they show on the screen, the real situation was much worse!

#2: Last Vegas.  Basically a vehicle designed to let some marvelous old actors, including the inimitable Mary Steenburgen, frolic around on the set.  Good for a chuckle here and there, but isn’t it terrible to see all these old people making fools of themselves?  This is Cocoon with much less plot, except aging.  Your money is probably better spent elsewhere, or wait for NetFlix.

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#329: New feature.  Starting next Wednesday (Nov. 20), I’ll start posting movie reviews, when available.  Because I see many movies, I thought it might be useful to readers of this blog to have an outside opinion about certain movies.  (By “outside opinion,” I mean (1) I’m not a professional movie reviewer; (2) I express my own opinion, often contrary to popular fads and pundits; and (3) I have no hidden agendas, actors in my family, or any connection to Hollywood, Bollywood, or Broadway.)  Sometimes my review will simply be: “I won’t see this movie because…” (that’s not really a review of the movie but a prejudice, but it can possibly help you in your viewing decisions—for example, the fiasco associated with casting Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher).

Caveat emptor: as usual, you can certainly disagree with what I write in the movie review.  You’re entitled to your opinion, but comment on the post then—other moviegoers might enjoy your opinion, whether you agree with me or not.  The posts in this blog are always open to reasonable comments—we’re a community of readers and writers and the intelligent exchange of ideas is priceless.

#330: New contest.  Every month, I’ll give a free ebook to the first person who mentions the MAGIC WORD in a reasonable comment to a blog post (see my webpage “Join the Conversation” for the definition of “reasonable comment”).  Your comment on the post has to refer to the post, of course.  In other words, it has to be more than “The Magic Word is XXX,” but the Magic Word doesn’t have to be cleverly included as part of your comment—you can finish your comment with that sentence, substituting the Magic Word for XXX, of course.

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In many states controlled by Republican governors and legislatures—even here in NJ with a Republican governor and Democratic legislature—teachers’ unions and public school teachers have come under fire.  The issue here isn’t black and white—issues rarely are.  I can’t pretend to be comprehensive in a simple blog post, but let me throw in some loose change to up the ante and gray up the issue even more (forty shades, remember?).

Most of us have heard the adage that goes something like “People who know, create; people who don’t know, teach.”  Like many stereotypes and adages, there is some truth to that statement.  Back in prehistoric times when I attended college (I’m a product of state-run universities–when I started, I paid about $300/quarter + room and board and everyone with a B+ HS average could enter some state university), this adage was somewhat formalized, at least in the math department—there was a track for math majors and another track for students who wanted to teach primary and/or secondary mathematics.  This bifurcation engendered a bit of what nowadays we call bullying.  Moreover, for whatever reason, students in the first track seemed to do better than students in the second.

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We often talk about the flip-side of the coin.  In Thursday’s NY Times editorial, the Times editors, like many people ignoring the flip-side of one particular coin, lamented the civilian lives lost in drone attacks in the Middle East.  The two sides of the coin—at least, in recent experience—are drone and special forces versus “boots on the ground,” lots of boots!  The Times editors either suffered a lobotomy, or, like many pacifist activists with blinders on, have forgotten the perils of massive invasions and nation building.  Many more innocents were killed in both Afghanistan and Iraq when the massive U.S. war machine was launched against terrorists, a small minority hidden among a much larger majority.

Like many people, I think war is hell and would like to see the end of it, but, with respect to terrorism, we didn’t start it…and we have to finish it!  The real choice—and I don’t have a coin for this—is to decide whether we’re going to practice Old Testament policies or New Testament ones.  The problem is that the terrorists don’t give a rat’s ass which one we choose.  If we turn the other cheek, they’ll lop off our heads.  They’ll do that too if we fight—as long as there are terrorists left breathing.  I remember—do you?—an interview where a reporter asks a grinning and dentally challenged Taliban if the fanatic would kill him if he suddenly found himself free.  Remember what the Taliban said?  That sounds like it should be in a fighting song to the tune of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”—we should always remember what that Taliban said!  Off with his head, he said!

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[Reminder: No Amber Waves of Grain and Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape are freebies on Amazon, today, Oct. 17, through Monday, Oct. 21.  Download and enjoy!]

No, this post isn’t about Jane Austen.  I hate most 19^th century novels in general and hers in particular.  Yeah, I know she’s enjoying a revival of sorts—like an oozing zombie rising out of the tomb to bore us to death with romantic drivel.  Instead, I want to talk about all the senses you might use as you write your thriller or mystery.

I was reading Preston and Child’s Two Graves (no one gave it to me as a gift—it was on sale at $2.99), and I was struck by the scene where Pendergast’s ex-special forces manservant uses his keen sense of smell to help him combat a serial killer (if you don’t know the book, fine—I won’t give away any spoilers).  In my sci-fi mystery Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder, Detective Castilblanco appeals to Detective Chen’s sense of smell to generate some additional and useful evidence about the events surrounding a murder (again, no spoilers here).  Castilblanco comments that the police don’t use odors much for evidence.

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[Reminder: No Amber Waves of Grain and Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape are freebies on Amazon, Oct. 17-Oct. 21.  Download and enjoy!]

(DK Halling, Pendulum of Justice, Quantum Dot Publishing, ISBN 978-1491264225)

Like some real roller coasters, this book starts slowly but soon becomes a thrill ride.  As a writer of sci-fi thrillers, I was immediately attracted to the concept.  Hank Rangar, entrepreneur and engineering genius, and friends try to file a patent and begin a start-up.  The apparatus will solve a problem with stents, namely that some arteries are just too small for stents.  This problem occurs around the heart as well as in leg stents.

I’m not sure I completely understand the science and engineering behind the device, but a stent company wants to torpedo it to avoid losing business (why wouldn’t the two technologies complement each other?).  Added to the mix are a crooked senator and a sleazy patent office head.  Hank’s personal stake in the patent appears when, after successful animal trials, his sister Janine is a first candidate for human trials.  Events soon get out of hand, and Hank learns that the patent office head has hired a shadowy organization to eliminate him after he talks to the reporter Christine.

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[A heartfelt thanks to you! I don’t say it often enough here, but I want to thank every person who reads this newsletter, my other blog posts, and, of course, my novels and short stories.  My goal is to entertain.  If I’ve entertained just one person with any sample of my writing, I feel successful.  If I’ve made you pause and reflect, even better.  And, if you’ve enjoyed my writing, please pass a kind word on to your friends and relatives.  In spite of today’s internet marketing, word of mouth is still the best marketing tool an author can have!  Read on for some freebies.—Steve]

#323: Amazon promos of my new releases.  Just for you, my faithful readers of this newsletter, I offer this advance notice: My two new releases, No Amber Waves of Grain and Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape, are available as freebies on Amazon from Thursday, October 17, through Monday, October 21.  The first ebook, a sci-fi thriller, completes the “Clones and Mutant Series,” initiated by Full Medical and Evil Agenda.  The second ebook, an anthology of speculative fiction, contains the novella “Flight from Mother World,” several Doctor Carlos stories set in a future beyond that of the “Chaos Chronicles Series,” and many short stories about zombies, ghosts, weird and/or humorous situations, and unconventional sci-fi themes (please note that these short stories are no longer available in “Steve’s Shorts”).

Here’s the blurb from the Amazon webpage for No Amber Waves of Grain:  “Steve Moore’s new sci-fi thriller carries the reader beyond government conspiracies and political intrigue to world-wide suspense and action. His new addition to the “Clones and Mutants Series” features many players from Full Medical and Evil Agenda: Kalidas Metropolis and friend, two clones, and your favorite evildoer Vladimir Kalinin aka Rupert Snyder aka Sergio Battaglia, who will surprise readers of the first two books in the series. But this country-hopping tale also stands alone as a glimpse into a possible future where forces, both good and evil, aided by science and technology, fight to the death.”

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I read most of Tom Clancy’s books until he started writing about a secret, privately financed, vigilante organization…a bit over the top for even this old thriller writer.  Up to that point and independent of his politics, I thought he could spin a good yarn backed by enough techno-babble that it all seemed real (see the Clancy quote running across the banner of this website).  In fact, I’d wager that some higher mucky-mucks in the Pentagon weren’t happy at times with his description of U.S. and Soviet military capabilities.

More importantly, Clancy covered an era from Cold War to counterterrorism.  His first two books, Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising, portrayed anti-Soviet operations featuring the U.S. Navy (the latter is an interesting Tolstoy-length account of what World War III might have been like).  The last books I read focused on terrorism (did the Japanese pilot who flew his aircraft into Congress in Debt of Honor provide ideas for the 9/11 terrorists?).  In between, he even touched on the emergence of China (The Bear and the Dragon), although he didn’t predict the kind of fascist capitalism that has taken over in that country.

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#317: Wish Donna well!  On Sept. 19, mystery writer Donna Carrick, co-founder of Carrick Publishing with hubby Alex, had surgery.  Donna’s book, The First Excellence, is a great mystery story set in China.  She also has other works to quench your thirst for a good mystery.  For those in the know, she’s also my trusty ebook formatter.  Wish her a speedy recovery.

#318: Full Medical might not be sci-fi.  My sci-fi thriller Full Medical (now available as a second edition ebook) was written before Obamacare and painted a dystopic world where only the rich could afford complete medical coverage and a black market in body parts was pervasive, not to mention those obtained from illegal human cloning.  Now that the Speaker of the House, Mr. Boehner, is holding Obamacare hostage, with approval of the budget and increase in debt ceiling depending on cancellation of the medical program, events in my book could become painful reality.

By the way, Full Medical is followed by Evil Agenda and the soon-to-be released No Amber Waves of Grain.  Look for the latter—coming real soon!  It completes this “Clones and Mutants Trilogy.”  For all lovers of good dystopian sci-fi thrillers.

#319: Welcome Scott Dyson!  People might know Scott as a frequent commenter to some of my blog posts.  He’s embarking on an indie writing career…let’s wish him success!  Check out his speculative fiction short stories “Odd Man Out,” “The Gateway,” “Jack’o’Lantern,” and “Sole Occupant”—all $0.99 on Amazon.  I read the first and last—a lot of fun!  Thanks, Scott, for that opportunity.  Visit Scott at his website.

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