7 FAQs…
[Note from Steve: You’ve seen these on other product websites—my ebooks are my products—so here’s some candid ones for prospective readers.]
I will entertain you. The stories I love to read—mysteries, thrillers, and sci-fi (or combos of these genres)—are similar to the ones I write. Mine are unique, of course, original entertainment you won’t find anywhere else. Sometimes I think my characters are really doing the writing, but I’ll take the credit.
I won’t coddle you. You might not find enough sex and violence for your tastes, but I often have some raw and non-trivial themes woven into my plots (see my post two weeks ago on the subject). I write mysteries, but I don’t write cozy mysteries. I often include romance in my novels, but I won’t write fluffy romances where X finds Y and everyone is left happy, happy, happy. I might include some weird ETs, humanoids or not, but no vampires, werewolves, zombies, or boy magicians. There is the good, the bad, and the ugly—fifty shades of gray because most things in life aren’t black or white.
I let you, the reader, become an active participant. I endorse both minimalist writing and the Goldilocks Principle. The first says that I’ll provide a minimal character description, for example, and allow you to complete and create your own mental image of that character. The second means, for example, that the minimal character description is just enough for you to do that, and not too much nor too little. You can participate in the creative process while reading my stories. Don’t like that? I’ll agree it’s not the usual passive experience you might be accustomed to in other books, movies, and TV shows. Tough! It’s more like an interactive computer game where you have fun experiencing the adventure.
I’ve minimized the expensive and commercial bureaucracy between you, the reader, and me, the author. Indie writers can do this, and most, like me, pass the savings obtained in this low-fat business model onto customers, like you. With the publication of the second edition of The Midas Bomb (coming soon!), ALL my ebooks save one will cost $3.99 or less (I hope to remedy the one exception in 2016). I offer quality entertainment at reasonable prices.
And I do mean quality! I’m my own worse taskmaster; I demand quality from Steve Moore, the writer. Even during my years of stressful day jobs and frustration as a wannabe writer, I had a masochistic work ethic that drove me, and continues to drive me, toward perfection—it’s never obtainable, of course, but it’s always my goal. That’s always been true, from when I washed highway construction equipment to save money for college, to my most recent cottage industry as a full-time writer (I have a lot of good hired help, skilled people and cherished friends). And you’re the beneficiary for the latter.
The story is all important. I’m a storyteller. I’m only half-Irish in spite of advertising an Irish hat factory (see Hanna Hats on my webpage “Join the Conversation”), but my blarney is intact and healthy. As part of that minimalist writing philosophy just described, I won’t burden you with pages and pages of verbosity, though—I shoot the starter’s gun on your adventurous marathon run through one of my stories, and you can set the pace you want to arrive at the finish line, without major distractions and a lot of excitement. I expect this in the books I read, and I cringe when someone tells me a book is a great character study, full of arcane details, or a fantastic travelogue. Ugh!
I’m not in this for the money. I’m lucky: I don’t have to make a living at this, but I’d like to break even sometimes. Now I pump all my royalties back into the next book. My writing business still runs in the red! I’m not proud of that because it means I’m not entertaining as many readers as I’d like to do, but I accept it. I always say that if each ebook can entertain just one reader, it’s a success. (FYI, among the few reviews my books have, most are positive, if that makes any difference—check some out excerpts on my Home page and “Books and short stories” webpage.)
So there you have them—seven FAQs about my writing. (Actually, not many have asked for them, so they’re just facts. But don’t be shy if you do have questions. Drop me an email or message on Goodreads.) The above are facts about my writing life you might not have realized before, in any case. Pick up one of my ebooks and start reading it in order to see if I’m just blowing smoke. (Caveat: I haven’t smoked anything since 1982 when I went cold turkey.) You might like what I write. (And, if that $3.99 price is too much for you, you can read an ebook for free in return for an honest review. Again, drop me an email.)
In elibris libertas….
