The list of books you’ll find on my “Steve’s Bookshelf” web page at this website is representative of my reading choices but far too short to cover them all. Consequently, I decided it might be interesting to add about what books I won’t read. (Of course, if you read all my posts—why not?—you might have a better idea about what I will read!)

I rarely read fantasy, not even sci-fi that’s nearly fantasy. The boundary between fantasy and sci-fi is a blurred one, but the “magic” in AB Carolan’s Mind Games differs greatly from JK Rowling’s “Harry Potter” tales.

I avoid romance and erotica stories. I don’t mind either in a mystery, thriller, or sci-fi story, but they have to take second place. My novel, A Time-Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse, is sci-fi with rom-com elements; in other words, it’s not The Time-Traveler’s Wife.

I avoid like the plague books written by famous or infamous celebs, especially the tell-all ones. I just don’t care about their miserable lives. Of course, I mean by “celebs” those generally mentally disturbed people with big egos whose lives and exploits more generally appeal to non-readers who are bored with their own lives. (I don’t know what percentage of the population fits in that category, but I do know that mind-numbing Hollywood blockbusters and streaming video have added to their numbers.) I will read about Enrico Fermi, Alan Turing, or the warrior popes; at least they’ve actually done something noteworthy.

In fact, I’ll also read history and politics as long as they’re as accurate and as fair as they can be. Historical fiction is a bit iffy because it tries to fill in the blanks (that’s the fictional part, of course), but it often fits in the mystery or thriller category too, like my Son of Thunder.

What really turns me off sometimes is how authors pimp their books. I stopped reading James Patterson long ago. (It seems he doesn’t write much of anything original anymore without a co-author, so you have to wonder.)

When celebs try to write fiction and it doesn’t work for me, I also can get upset. Jake Tapper is an example. In his fiction, he can’t decide if he’s a CNN pundit or a true author. (I think he was quite good as a newsman until recently, by the way! Jim Acosta might have been better, though.) Using his bully pulpit on CNN to frequently pimp Original Sin is beyond the pale, though, and I’m surprised CNN allows that. (Of course, CNN is going downhill just like MSNBC and CBS, while Fox News is already in the cesspool.) Yes, Jake, we knows the Dems blew the 2024 election, and Biden should have kept his 2020 promise to be a one-term president, a transition to the new guard. But we only needed that disastrous debate and old Joe’s stumbling about upon leaving the Marine chopper to confirm that running again was a mistake; there should have been a full primary, and then having David Plough et al preparing for four years like Trump’s handlers! Jake’s book might have some use as a record of all the mistakes made by the Dems, I suppose. It’s just that I hate to see Jake pimping it almost everyday. That’s not advertising; it’s akin to brainwashing.

I know which books I don’t want to read the same way that I always do: I read the blurbs and “peek inside,” either online or at a bookstore, to see if the author can write something original in a professional manner. Sometimes I even glance at the book’s cover.  (Celeb books often have awful covers, and most covers for books published by the Big Five publishing conglomerates are horrible.) You can use this tactic too. It’s all about being a smart consumer, isn’t it?

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Freebies. You don’t need much energy to get them here! Just go to the list of free PDF downloads on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page at this website and click away. You’ll find a lot of short fiction in collections (short stories and novellas), two complete novels, and my course on “Writing Fiction.” Those few clicks are a great way to get to know me and my writing. Of course, my published books (over thirty now) are all available as inexpensive ebooks at various online book dealers (see the list on the “Books & Short Fiction” web page).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas.

I wonder about readers’ lack of sanity sometimes. In a recent trend (via Substack, etc.), they spend good money subscribing to authors’ email newsletters. Those used to be free (ones I subscribe too still are!), and much of the same info is often available on their websites.

Like many things in the book biz, advertising has been turned on its head. I suppose authors who write those newsletters think they’re very clever in duping readers to pay for the authors’ advertising. “Oh, they include interesting material in those emails,” those readers say. “For a price,” I counter.

I guess I’m old-fashioned. When I used to advertise (now I just rely on this blog and word-of-mouth from fans), I paid for it, not my readers: Some person more skilled than I am would be doing a lot of work that I didn’t want to do, after all. I’d rather be writing my stories, spending my time trying to ensure they’re not sloppy ones that have no literary value. I suppose some gurus would argue that if people are willing to pay for my advertising, they’d also be willing to buy my books? Um, I don’t buy that. I don’t think readers can possibly determine if they’ll like a full novel by reading a short story or a snippet of one…or an author’s email!

I’ve always believed that giving away some freebies (see my list on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page) is the best kind of advertising of all. Except for time spent, a reader has to pay and work very little to download and read them (my free PDF downloads just need one mouse click!), and they can peruse a variety of fiction—mysteries, thrillers, and sci-fi; short stories, novellas, and two complete novels (so far)—that’s enough to decide whether they want to read more by paying real money (a decision maybe aided by much lower prices for my books compared to what the Big Five offers, by the way).

Of course, I run the risk that readers will hate those free samples of my fiction and assume my books for sale will also annoy them, but at least they won’t have paid good money to develop that opinion. That’s the kind of advertising that should keep readers happy!

What I do to sell my books is more like a car dealer offering a potential buyer a demo ride. They might not buy exactly that model or choose the same features (color, upholstery, etc.), but they can see if they might like a similar product and are willing to make the investment. And they might just pass on info lauding that model to his family and friends, saying that the car dealer has something valuable to offer them. There’s no better advertising than that!

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

I never start a new story thinking it will become a novel, let alone the first book in a series. Sometimes it becomes a stand-alone novel (More than Human: The Mensa Contagion is an example of a stand-alone) or a bridge book between two series (The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan is an example). The only exception was A.B. Carolan’s Origins, where we’re all still waiting for the rest of that trilogy [wink, wink]. Characters in a series often inspire me to give them their own novel(s), though: Ashley Scott in The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan and Steve Morgan in the “Inspector Steve Morgan” trilogy both appeared in previous series; and the inimitable Esther Brookstone and her paramour and later husband Bastiann van Coevorden first appeared in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco” series.

That inspiration—indeed, creating the series itself—allows a fiction writer to do something often missed by even those who set out to create a series: Portraying the evolution of their characters. Michael Connolly does a good job of that in his Harry Bosch series; David Baldacci, Lee Child, and Jeffrey Deaver not so much in theirs. In fact, Baldacci and Deaver’s stand-alone novels are far better than the ones in their series because there is little character evolution in those!

Generally speaking, time progresses in a series, so character evolution should do that too. For example, Esther Brookstone progresses from a widow (three husbands before Bastiann) working for Scotland Yard in Rembrandt’s Angel to a retired and remarried lady in her nine-book series. Flashbacks are used to add past events in her life. (Esther’s often recall her past as an MI6 spy in East Berlin when she was much younger.)

Flashbacks represent one way to achieve this character evolution, of course, and they often refer to events in previous stories. The Goldilocks principle applies: The author doesn’t want too much or too little of that, just enough. And it can be done via the principal character’s memories or their colleagues. (And, to give it an interesting spin, one secondary character might recall things differently compared to another’s.)

The same goes for villains. I’ve been very careful portraying Vladimir Kalinin, my Russian ex-pat arch-villain, for example. He appeared in my very first novel, Full Medical, but his appearances jump around my fictional timeline that includes several series and bridge books from The Midas Bomb to Soldiers of God. And because I jumped around that timeline in my storytelling, it was a challenge to make his evolution through various novels a smooth one.

Kalinin is in fact a good example in another way: He’s a complex character. You might even think he has a good side if you only read No Amber Waves of Grain and the last few Esther Brookstone and Steve Morgan novels. Going back and forth between good and evil doesn’t make him into a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; it makes him seem more human. His swings back and forth represent what we so often see in real human behavior, albeit a bit extreme at times, so why not include them in my fiction? Pure heroes and pure villains are stereotypes that belong in old Hollywood flicks. They don’t belong in modern storytelling. Real human beings are more complicated than that.

Your characters must evolve, and that evolution must seem real. We all change over our lifetimes as we react to different events and stimuli in our lives. Authors putting that into their fiction make their stories come alive.

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The “Clones and Mutants” trilogy. The evolution of Vladimir Kalinin’s character might be the most complicated and evolved of any fictional villain. While Full Medical, Evil Agenda, and No Amber Ways of Grain are technically sci-fi thrillers, readers and writers can consider them to be the study of an evil genius at work. It all really starts with The Midas Bomb and ends with Soldiers of God, but you, the reader, can jump in anywhere. All my novels can be read independently. And all those involving Kalinin are available in ebook format or are free PDF downloads (see the list on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

After thirty-plus books, some traditionally published but most self-published, I’ve experienced a major part of fiction publishing’s evolution—painful at times but always an adventure. After suffering initially with hundreds of rejections from literary agents, the majority being the sycophants of the major publishing conglomerates (the worst of traditional publishing now called the Big Five), the very people who are basically manuscript filters for acquisition editors so the latter don’t have to work too hard, I used self-publishing’s print-on-demand (POD) route for my first novels. I soon hopped on the ebook bandwagon (I do hate to kill forests!) and now exclusively publish in ebook format.

While I have arrived at this point where I’m one hundred percent in control of my fiction writing (book covers being the obvious exception, as they should be), I feel compelled to list some recent trends I find very disturbing.

Demographics. This is a general worry and that’s perhaps better described as the diminishing numbers of discerning readers. Whether it’s a failure of our educational system—teachers who are more interested in their union’s power (that’s all one candidate for NJ’s governor has to offer!) and their benefits, rather than teaching?—or failures of parents for their lack of time or understanding, or lazy and uncaring youths addicted to computer games and streaming video–generally speaking, the younger you are, the less you read (and write!). This obviously biases the fiction produced in unpredictable and often negative ways and destroys centuries of advances in traditional storytelling, once a highly respected art form. Many of the other points listed below  relate to these demographic changes.

Print vs. ebooks. For example, even from young readers, I often hear, “I just like the feel of a print book, even if it’s just a paperback.” These readers might have valid ecological concerns otherwise, global warming and climate control among them, but they fail to understand that killing forests hurts the environment. Paper waste is a major component in our landfills, for example. Ebooks are eco-friendly and also more cost-effective. (Except for the Big Five’s, because they want to preserve print formats. They make more money from them and don’t give a rat’s ass about the environment!)

AI. While ebooks represent an advance for publishing with some negatives, AI has negative consequences as well. Even now you probably have an AI app on your phone to help you create a document. Even for a young student wanting to write something original (or a supposedly responsible adult?), AI offers a shortcut. I can now ask an AI program to write in the style of Stephen King, or even to write like the long-dead Charles Dickens, and the program can do a damn good job doing it. (My son had a chatbot write in the style of Steven M. Moore. That experiment was a failure, probably because the AI program got confused with the training set: I don’t have just one style. I vary styles even within one genre, and pity the poor AI confronting a mix of first- and third-person storytelling in my mysteries, thrillers, and sci-fi stories!) AI can go a long ways, though, in eliminating the need for human editors who robotically follow a very limited set of rules designed to please an acquistions editor..

Fan fiction fixes. A troubling new twist on how technology can be a negative influence on publishing, whether AI is used or not, is found where readers can modify plots to create something they prefer. For example, one editor of my Son of Thunder complained that I killed off the Turkish police detective. But that was my choice; I’m the author! Why should a reader be allowed to make changes on a whim? Besides the obvious illegality for such actions—they’re at least a violation of copyright!—it’s morally reprehensible! And the “fan fiction” part of “fan fiction fixes” is an insult: If you change an author’s story, you’re not really a fan! You can write a review containing your complaints, but be forewarned that other readers might consider them nitpicking…or worse! (In her defense, by the way, the editor didn’t propose any changes, and I agree that the Turkish detective was a good and noble man.)

I’m guessing that the positive advances in publishing—for example, how easy it is to self-publish now with Draft2Digital (see the free PDF download “Writing Fiction” found in the list on my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page)—will win the war even though losing some battles. Maybe new readers will realize the limitations of computer games and streaming video (viewers’ participation can be unlimited when reading a book if the author does their job properly). Time will tell.

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Free PDF downloads. Besides the short course “Writing Fiction,” you can download short story collections and even two complete novels. See the list on the “Free Stuff and Contests” web page at this website.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

My previous post about religion in fiction naturally is a segue into the topic of mortality in fiction. In typical thrillers, protagonists usually survive despite many odds against them, but they might be avenging the death of others near and dear to them. And while the main protagonists often live a charmed life because of luck or skills, secondary characters are often become victims. Most mysteries start with the victims, of course; there has to be a crime for the protagonist(s) to solve.

The novel Mind Games is a classic mystery/thriller in that sense, although it is set in the far future. A.B. Carolan starts with an heinous murder of a man’s adopted daughter, and she swears revenge. The ensuing action is more thriller than mystery, and many readers would just say that the story is just good sci-fi, which was my Irish colleague Carolan’s intention, of course [wink, wink]. I use this as an example to show that even young-adult literature can deal with mortality!

In general, victims can become a problem if readers become too attached to them (although in a mystery, that might be what the author wants because it justifies the revenge motive). An editor of Son of Thunder lamented when a Turkish detective who aided Esther Brookstone…well, read the book. Similarly, a reviewer was upset while reading Aristocrats and Assassins when a friend of Castilblanco’s wife…again, read the book. An attachment to certain characters often occurs, even villains.

I even toyed with the idea of killing off main character Ashley Scott in The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan, just to be radically different. After all, she doesn’t appear in any more novels on that long fictional timeline extending beyond the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco” series, although her novel can be considered a bridge book to the “Clones and Mutants” trilogy. (There are now a few other stories and series in between!) Yet one can argue that principal characters like Ashley Scott and even Esther Brookstone deserve to retire gracefully, living on in relative peace.

But fiction must seem real, and our mortality is part of our human reality. Good fiction must avoid the “lived happily ever” syndrome of childhood’s fairy tales. Shakespeare knew to include mortality in his dramas, most notably in Hamlet, which is a play that considers mortality in almost every scene. Mortality is also a big theme in Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities, where it’s closely tied to religion.

Fiction authors can add significant meaning to their tales by including mortality as a theme. One can argue that both the morality and religious themes are what separates profound fiction from fluff.

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The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan. DHS agent Ashley Scott witnesses a murder in a riverside park. She and an investigative reporter become involved in the case…and a lot more. This mystery/thriller considers the answer to the following question: What will a future US government do to keep old agents who know a lot of secrets from revealing them when they slip into dementia and Alzheimer’s? You might not like the answer! Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (even on Amazon).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

With the somewhat limited pomp and circumstances despite his wishes, the Catholic Church and many thousands of admirers and curiosity seekers, Catholics or not, said their goodbyes to a decent man who’ll surely be remembered as one of history’s most memorable popes, the Argentine Jesuit Pope Francis, although some well-known politicians who probably believed he stole their time in the spotlight will be naysayers. Many probably thought of their own mortality and what it means live moral lives.

Because good fiction must reflect reality, one is led to ask: What role should religion play in fiction? Obviously, good vs. evil is a common theme in fiction whether explicitly religious or not. Many readers will enjoy a story containing a clever villain, if only for the challenge he presents for the protagonists. Few stories without the eternal battle between good and evil will resonate, in fact. But including specific references to religion? Why not? If those references add to the storyline, they might be indispensable!

For example, in my sci-fi  thriller Soldiers of God, various religions come into play as well as the unconsummated love between an FBI agent and a Catholic priest. In the sci-fi thriller Muddlin’ Through from the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries,”, the protagonist’s religious upbringing plays a big role. And in Son of Thunder, the plot actually revolves around the life story of St. John the Divine, although it’s an “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” mystery/thriller. (By the way, Esther’s paramour and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden maintains a close relationship with Father Jean, a Jesuit priest, and often consults with him. I admire Jesuits and celebrated the election of Pope Francis. They’re wise fellows who aren’t just politicians dressed in priestly garb.) All these example of religion in my prose are essential elements.

The stories we tell in fiction are best when commenting on the human condition. Authors shouldn’t be afraid to include religious and spiritual themes appropriate to their stories. They can add depth and meaning to a plot.

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Son of Thunder. As in Rembrandt’s Angel, Esther Brookstone, now retired from Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Division, becomes obsessed yet again, this time to prove that the Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli never traveled to what’s present-day Turkey. She’s proven wrong, very wrong, and solving this mystery leads her to the tomb of St. John the Divine. Available in ebook and trade paperback versions from Penmore Press or your favorite book dealer. (Two complete novels in this nine-book series are free PDF downloads; see the list on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page.)

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

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…if you’ve been looking to peruse my sagacious words about reading, writing, and publishing fiction here: Due to circumstances beyond my control, I had to take a few weeks off (more than a month, to be more specific). I hope to return soon to posting my usual acerbic, pithy, and hopefully entertaining and informative articles.

Of course, if you really need your mental high obtained from reading this blog, perhaps you can find a worthy substitute by reading one of my many books or downloading some of my free fiction available on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page at my author’s website https://stevenmmoore.com.

Otherwise, bear with me. I promise to return soon, never fear. The pen is mightier than most anything!

If you’re a sci-fi fan, you’ll know Isaac Asimov’s answer to this question, although he might prefer the word “robots” to “androids.” In his “Robots Trilogy” (really part of the lengthy expansion of his Foundation series), he actually featured an eclectic mix, and I believe he actually called R. Daneel Olivaw an android. What he never considered as far as I know is AI (“Artificial Intelligence”).

Of course, androids and robots require artificial intelligence, sometimes not all that sophisticated, like when a robot does surgery or assembles cars. It doesn’t go the other way, though: AI doesn’t require robots or androids. HAL was just a lot of microchips and software programming (and could still be quite evil in 2001!).

Quality AI could be much more “useful” than robots or androids. Androids could satisfy human beings’ desires to have slaves (or willing sex partners?), but spending a lot of effort on copying the human body seems like a waste of time, especially because there are jobs where the human form isn’t too practical. (That surgical robot arm is an example where only a precise hand is required.)

AI can be a lot more useful because it can provide information and do it rapidly. Current AI is primitive in this sense—not much more than a super search engine that finds stuff and gloms it together (hopefully into something useful, but don’t count on it). In that sense, the AIs in my fictional starships that traverse the alternate realities of the multiverse are much more necessary than the androids and robots even though the human villains in Mind Games want to give then psi powers. Wouldn’t an AI with psi powers be more dangerous? (A bit of criticism never hurts, right, AB Carolan? [Wink, wink.])

Given the era when Asimov wrote his famous robot novels, we couldn’t have expected him to even conjure up a HAL, let alone an AI with psi powers. With AI such a fad now, though, isn’t it time to create such a super-villain. TBD!

Even though I’m an ex-scientist who writes sci-fi sometimes, just like many others, I’m not that keen on using AI. Current AI is primitive, like I said, and it must be trained. What might make a good sci-fi character, though, is one that trains itself. In Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, that scientist turned sci-fi author created such a character, not a villain like Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 1.0 or like the one in my novel The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan.

Maybe it’s better to avoid that Frankenstein complex. What do you think?

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Mind Games. In AB Carolan’s third sci-fi mystery, Della Dos Toros finds her foster-father murdered and vows to avenge him. In her search for his killer, she discovers a vast conspiracy that could tear apart the government body of near-Earth worlds. Robots and androids with psi powers like Della’s? What could go wrong?

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Most of my works have end notes where I discuss some of the reasons I had for creating the stories beyond any prefaces, acknowledge those who helped me reach out to readers who might enjoy them, and expand on disclaimers beyond my copyright notices that state I’m not necessarily in agreement with what characters in those stories opine. These aren’t idle words, although I suspect few readers bother reading these end notes.

In that bleak, dark, and strange world of the Big Five publishing conglomerates, a reader is more likely to see end notes for non-fiction works than for fiction works. James Patterson probably should acknowledge his co-authors more, for example, because I suspect they do most of the writing now in that assembly-line process used by Patterson Inc. Other Big Five formulaic mares or stallions might want to explain why their Gone-Something or Fifty-Shades-of-Something aren’t just take-offs on the first original titles in an attempt to sell more books by confusing readers. Or why some little brat can be a better magician than an adult with years of experience?

In brief, I believe fiction authors should include end notes. The authors’ readers might not read them much, but some of us (me, for example) like to know a few things about the writers’ motivations and themes used in their stories. And no author, not even me, who has discovered self-publishing is better than any contract from a traditional publisher or not, is an island. No author writes in a vacuum these days; they’re influenced by so many different things if their fiction has any relevance at all.

Yes, I know, some readers don’t look for relevance. Addicts of silly romances and farfetched fantasies don’t want a story that makes them think. Nothing wrong with that—people have the right to get the entertainment they want—but I have to wonder why they’re even bothering to read when they can get tons of formulaic fluff from streaming video and video game fantasies. Even reading a silly romance or farfetched fantasy might make them think a bit: There’s occasionally a bit of meat on the bones of a Nicholas Sparks or J. K. Rowling story that might make that happen.

In other words, I suspect that a lot of fiction writers don’t include end notes because their motivation for writing their stories is just to make money selling pablum. Very few treat controversial subjects or themes for that reason, especially among Big Five authors. That’s sad but also evidence for how low literature has sunk into that cesspool of irrelevance.

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The “ABC Sci-Fi Mysteries for Young Adults.” Young adult literature can often avoid being fluff and contain profound themes. AB Carolan’s first three novels take place in my usual sci-fi universe, but even the third, Mind Games, a novel that’s a bit more fantastic for considering ESP, androids, and robots, has enough serious themes to hold the interest of young adults and adults who are young-at-heart alike. The fourth, Origins, doesn’t take place in my usual sci-fi universe, but it treats the disintegration of society now occurring as well as being a lesson on human evolution!

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Let’s consider the current political situation: Donald Jackass Trump and his whole horde of fascists from the executive, legislative, and judicial branches are bent on destroying American democracy! Maybe drastic measures are required? To help answer that question, let’s see what measures some screenwriters and fiction authors have considered appropriate.

For example, the incredibly original and unpredictable Tom Clancy might be able to offer a solution! The circumstances in Debt of Honor are different, but I’d like to remind everyone that what happens there is appealing, considering the takeover of our country by American fascists, especially in light of the Fascist Party of America’s letting Trump and his minions to literally get away with murder (pardoning those far-right snakes who maimed and killed cops on January 6, 2021, is only one of the orange devil’s sins). In effect, justice would finally be served even if fascist SCOTUS judges still considered Narcissus le Grand America’s king.

What happened in Debt of Honor? A pilot stole a jumbo jet, a 747, and crashed it into the Capitol during a joint session of Congress, taking out a whole slew of inept politicians. A new beginning, I’d call it. I can’t remember the Hollywood version—maybe I never saw it!—but Hollywood producers and screenwriters often destroy good plots and create stereotypical heroes and villains in a way that often annoys me and many others. I do remember Clancy’s book and maybe audience reactions to the movie, so maybe I did see the latter but focused on audience reaction more?

I tend to do that. I’m a fiction writer, so I observe situations and people, even if they’re acting stupid (like the fools at a Trump rally!). I compare audience reactions too. For example, the rest of the Alien franchise couldn’t begin to compare with the shock caused by the first movie’s scene when the alien popped out of that guy’s chest. (Something like America’s wannabe Il Duce and J. Done-Nothing Vance berating and insulting our brave and courageous Zelenskyy.) The audience’s gasp was quite audible over the soundtrack. (I’m sure similar gasps were heard all over the US and Europe as they watched Trump and Vance’s performance.)

More memorable for me, though, were two other movies when the audience actually stood up and cheered: Clancy’s Debt of Honor, and when the aliens destroyed most government buildings in Washington DC—I think that film was called Mars Attacks and featured Jack Nicholson recreating his Cuckoo Nest role (what Trump has turned Washington DC into, by the way!) and playing the US president. (The real one, who’s also hilarious at times, is a vicious fascist pig in comparison.)

I’ll focus on the Clancy story, though. To paraphrase one of his quotes that run across the top of this website, old Tom once said that fiction has to seem real. I’m not sure that scene with the jumbo jet was all that realistic, in the novel or on the silver screen, but the audience reactions I remember in the movie theater were interesting, to say the least. Now I’m thinking the audience’s cheers would be even louder: Maybe we need that jumbo jet!

Everywhere I look, I see incompetence in government. Sure, the Fascist Party of America (FPA) and their fuehrer, Donald Jackass Trump, are pretending to “straighten out the country.” What BS! They’re only creating chaos, destruction, and human suffering! And the Dems are so flummoxed by their complete mismanagement of their 2024 campaign efforts that they’re acting like deer in headlights. Federal judges are trying to stop the FPA and aid the hapless Dems, but they’ll soon run afoul of the fascist SCOTUS or be impeached by an FPA-controlled Congress.

In other words, all three branches of the US government are dominated by incompetent hacks now, intent on siding with Moscow, and that’s putting it nicely. A jumbo jet crashing into the Capitol during a joint session (gee, one’s occurring tonight, right?) could just be what our country needs: A clean sweep and a new start! Of course, there’s no Jack Ryan to save the day but the idea is appealing…and why all those movie audiences and most likely readers of Clancy’s book cheered!

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Anti-fascism in my stories. That’s been a theme since my very first novel Full Medical, accompanied by the theme of terrorism (the latter is just an extreme form of the former, of course). Trump is both a fascist and terrorist, of course. In my fiction, those who fight for democracy and freedom usually win. (In the real world, that’s always in doubt with autocratic personalities like Putin, Xi, and Trump around.) Pick a story—Legacy of Evil, for example—and get some satisfaction that the good guys can win. You might even get some ideas about how to help them win in the real world? We certainly need to do that, even though the US has abdicated its role as the leader of the free world with Trump in charge.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!