Likes. I’m not referring to Facebook here. I’m referring instead to readers’ tastes. Some readers like action, others intrigue, snappy dialog, interesting 3D characters, a complex plot, and so forth in their fiction (these elements can be in biographies too, of course). Authors have to write stories that can appeal to all these readers’ likes. The best way for an author to do that is provide a mix. Striking that right balance is work, but it’s also fun.

Word count. There are times when an author has to respect a word count limit—a 3000-word short story s/he’s planning to submit to a ‘zine, for example. For most of my writing, I just spin the yarn and later determine if it’s a short story, novella, or novel. That’s better than trying to pad a story or cut out large sections of prose.

Readers shouldn’t care about any of this, of course. They just want a good story to read. But I think that some are neglecting the short stories and novellas in favor of novels. Story collections don’t sell well, and those ‘zines are fast disappearing.

Voting and reading. When I voted in the NJ primary last week, I noticed all the voters were older adults. I only had a small sample, of course, but I think that’s a national trend. Since I’m an author, I wondered if this voting behavior correlates with readership numbers. Do readers tend to be voters, and vice versa, and do readers share the same trend: are they older adults? That might be even more stimulus for getting kids to read at an early age.

Younger adults shouldn’t be put out by this. I’m worried about the trend because there are so many entertainment and other distractions today, and forgetting to read could affect a lot of things.

Reviews of Rembrandt’s Angel. If you would like to review a free copy of my new book in exchange for an honest review, email me via my contact page. This goes for any of my books, of course, but I limit the numbers. No author needs thousands of reviews, only enough to cover all the opinions and inform other readers about the book. Of course, I learn from the reviews too. (If you’d like the free PDF “Two Articles for Readers of Rembrandt’s Angel,” mention it in your query.)

Reviews and interviews. I do both.

My “official reviewing” is done via Bookpleasures.com; authors should query there because there’s a whole team of reviewers, and that improves your chances for a review. I do not accept direct queries, but they still arrive. When they do, and if the book is interesting enough, I’ll add it to my TBRoR-list (that’s “to be read or reviewed”)—no guarantee about when I’ll read the book, and I’ll review it only if I like it (you take your chances with Bookpleasures).

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We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.—Oscar Wilde

***

The Collector. In #5 of the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” the detectives set out to solve the murder of a Manhattan art dealer. After twists and turns, they discover that the crime leads to something perverse financed by stolen artworks from the Gardner Museum in Boston as collateral. This intriguing and profoundly disturbing mystery/thriller/suspense novel is the crime-fighting duo’s toughest case so far. It also introduces Scotland Yard Arts and Antiques Inspector Esther Brookstone, the protagonist of my new book Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press). The ebook The Collector is on sale now at Smashwords in all ebook formats; use coupon code SV28G.

My new book Rembrandt’s Angel is available in ebook format on Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, B&N, and Apple and print format on Amazon, B&N, or at your local bookstore via Ingram (if they don’t have it, ask them to order it).

In libris libertas!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Ronning and Sandberg, dirs. One thing I strive for in my series of books is consistency. In the five movies in this movie series, there is none. I guess Disney doesn’t care as long as the movie makes money. If you take it as a stand-alone, it’s a mixed bag, with other flaws I will describe.

Depp is his usual mumbling, bumbling self as Jack Sparrow, of course. Bardem is OK as Salazar, although he tends to overact. Rush is much better as Barbossa (obviously the better actor in the trio). And I didn’t care at all for the romantic duo, so I won’t even tell you who they are.

If you think this looks awfully like the previous movies (emphasis on the “awfully”), you’re right. Magic and fantasy take precedence, of course, and the movie plays the usual havoc with history, a characteristic of Hollywood in general and Disney in particular. I’m just tired of the whole series—more tired of it than the Star Wars one. Maybe people go for the driving music (it gave me a headache) and the visuals (often blurred and lost in obscurity).

I guess that production crew of thousands listed in the credits must stay employed. Speaking of the credits, there’s an end piece after the credits that tries to set up another “sequel” (without the consistency, though, it’s hard to call any one movie the sequel to the previous one). If you haven’t reached the two-Excedrin level with the music, which accompanies that long list of credits, wait for the end piece and tell me via email what sequel they’re trying to set up—another ho-hum movie adrift in blockbuster seas?

Wonder Woman. Patty Jenkins, dir. I’m not sure this is the celebration of feminism that reviewers want it to be, but it’s a lot of fun, and it features a kick-ass female who reminds me of some of my own characters. Gal Gadot does a great job as Diana and Chris Pines excels as Steve, the British spy who lands a stolen German plane in the Amazons’ lagoon. Viewers can debate which actor, Gadot or Lynda Carter, is more ravishing, but they’re both ex-beauty queens. I suspect Gadot does a lot of her own stunts; she taught combat during her tour in the Israeli army. Look for more Gadot in future films.

This is an origins story that’s a bit long and convoluted with some obvious questions like: What became of the German battleship? Why did the villain send the heroes to the WWI frontlines instead of killing them outright in London? Why doesn’t Wonder Woman grow old if she grew from a child to a woman? And why did her mother worry about her safety in training as an Amazon warrior knowing her secret past?

Again, the driving, pounding music gave me a headache, but that’s par for the course in these Hollywood action thrillers. Visual effects are fantastic, though.

If you like these movies derived from comic characters (the first for Wonder Woman if you discount her brief appearance in Batman v. Superman—which just about stole the show, I might add), this is a great movie to see.

***

Rembrandt’s Angel. To what lengths would you go to recover a stolen masterpiece? Scotland Yard’s Arts and Antiques Inspector Esther Brookstone goes the extra mile. She and paramour/sidekick Bastiann van Coevorden, an Interpol agent, set out to outwit the dealers of stolen art and recover “An Angel with Titus’ Features,” a Rembrandt painting stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. Their efforts lead to much more, as they uncover an international conspiracy that threatens Europe. During their dangerous adventures, their relationship solidifies and becomes a full-blown romance. Published by Penmore Press, this novel is available in ebook format at Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, B&N, and Apple, and in print through Amazon or your local bookstore (if they don’t have it, ask them to order it). Great summer reading!

In libris libertas! 

Alfred Hitchcock loved to appear in his own movies. (I don’t remember him in any of those old and wonderful TV shows, though.) Other directors have done the same. Sometimes it’s a brief appearance by a famous actor in a movie. These appearances are called cameos. A real person from outside the story is playing a role inside it.

The same can be done in fiction books. I think the first time I put a cameo in one of my own books was with Prince Harry in The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan. I don’t know if all the royals making an appearance in Aristocrats and Assassins qualify as cameos. They didn’t ask to be there, and I was careful to make them look good for legal reasons. I expect Clancy treated Prince Charles well in Clear and Present Danger for the same reason.

Scott Dyson, one of my beta-readers as well as an up-and-coming author, picked up on the Prince Harry appearance in Golden Years. I didn’t really mention him by name, you see—only a British helicopter pilot with red hair stationed in Afghanistan. Scott catches things like that. That’s why he’s a great beta-reader (he’s a better author).

Inserting myself into a story could be interpreted as an ego trip, but I do it only for fun. On at least two occasions, I became Moore the bookstore owner—in Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By and in Rembrandt’s Angel, my new novel that’s just been released.

The fun I had with these two cameos stems from the following: I love books, I especially love bookstores filled with new and used book, and I’ve always wanted to own a bookstore like that. When I was growing up, there were few bookstores—I’d buy my books at a dime store, cigar store, or stationary store, unless I made the trek to the local junior college’s bookstore (that’s a two-year community college for easterners). Most people didn’t buy books, in fact (myself included for lack of funds); they borrowed them from the public library.

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Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes have written the best book so far about Hillary Clinton’s doomed presidential campaign in 2016. In spite of obvious omissions and questionable opinions, they present their case that HRC faced the perfect storm of incompetent campaign advisers and bad luck. She was a flawed candidate to begin with, of course. Rejoicing in getting what she considered to be the weakest of the GOP candidates, she trounced Trump in the debates and popular vote, but she still lost. For those disappointed Dems who have to face four years of Trump and see the party disarray as they prepare for 2018 and 2020, there are lessons to be learned here.

Here’s a list of reasons why she lost, with MoND signifying “minimally or not discussed” in the book: (1) the arrogance and the entitlement felt by the candidate and her staff (MoND); (2) letting Bill be a loose cannon (e.g. the meeting with SoJ Lynch) and not listening to him when they should have (e.g. ignoring working-class whites, especially in those “rust belt” states, and using analytics instead of old-fashioned polling); (3) being the “establishment candidate” and not being sensitive to voters at each end of the political spectrum fed up with “politics as usual—the Wasserman Schultz dustup was also crucial); (4) the private email server, a particular but telling example of number one; (5) being a candidate from another era unable to confront new political realities (MoND)—if she or Biden are thinking about running in 2020, they’ll lose; (6) winning a primary on the basis of super-delegates and ones from southern states she would lose in the general election (MoND); (7) not unifying the party, and (8) a plethora of historical mistakes from Bill’s administration, to Benghazi, and beyond.

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[This newsletter contains newsy items for readers, writers, and anyone interested in the publishing business. Enjoy!]

Summer reading. Hopefully the weather is improving where you are. Here in NJ we’ve had one heat wave (three days over 90), but otherwise it’s looked a lot like November or March—dreary and cold. I know other places in the U.S. have had it worse. Hopefully things will settle down, and we can all enjoy the good ol’ summertime.

Whether sitting on a beach in the sun or near a nighttime roaring fire by a mountain lake, books are entertainment that don’t require home electricity. OK, you might have to use a charger in your car or boat if you want to read ebooks on your Kindle, but print books don’t even require that and are ideal wherever cars and boats can’t go.

And books can provide you with new and fresh entertainment instead of summer TV reruns or watching those movie DVDs you’ve seen already. And for the kids who will be home from school, get them some children’s or young adults’ books to keep them occupied, not new computer games.

Rembrandt’s Angel. My new novel has been published by Penmore Press and is now generally available in ebook and print book formats. The ebook is available on Amazon as well as Smashwords and all its associated retailers (B&N, Kobo, and Apple, for example). The print book is available at Amazon, B&N, and your local bookstore through Ingram (if they don’t have it, ask for it). Here’s a short summary:

To what lengths would you go to recover a stolen masterpiece? Scotland Yard’s Arts and Antiques Inspector Esther Brookstone goes the extra mile. She and paramour/sidekick Bastiann van Coevorden, an Interpol agent, set out to outwit the dealers of stolen art and recover “An Angel with Titus’ Features,” a Rembrandt painting stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. Their efforts lead to much more, as they uncover an international conspiracy that threatens Europe. During their dangerous adventures, their relationship solidifies and becomes a full-blown romance.

Quotes. Did you know George Bernard Shaw is Irish? One of his quotes begins every part of Rembrandt’s Angel. I use quotes infrequently, but this novel has quite a few—OK, I like Shaw. His quotes say a lot about life in general, and some say something pithy about art. Brainy Quotes is a source for quotes if you’re an author but be prepared: you will have to spend some time matching the quotes with your prose. I also used them in The Midas Bomb; one reviewer loved them there.

The Collector. #5 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” is now on sale at Smashwords; use the coupon code indicated when you check out. Esther Brookstone, the main character of Rembrandt’s Angel, makes her first appearance here. She’s been after me to have her very own novel. Now she has it. So do you!

Bundles. They seem to be more common now. A bundle is defined as two or more novels in just one book. I’m considering bundling my two trilogies, the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” and the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.” I’m also planning to make a second edition of Survivors of the Chaos, the first novel in the latter trilogy, so that makes some sense.

Print editions. Most of my books are ebooks, but I have six print versions: Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press), The Midas Bomb (Carrick Publishing), Survivors of the Chaos (Infinity), Soldiers of God (Infinity), and Full Medical (Xlibris). The last two have ebook second editions, so they would be natural candidates for new print editions.

I know many readers prefer print versions. I respect that. I need to work on providing print versions for all my old books. I promise to have both ebook and print versions for all new ones.

Audiobooks… are another question. As commutes become longer and commuters spend more time in traffic jams, audiobooks can offer some entertainment for those long hours at the wheel. But I hesitate to offer them for the following reasons: cost and safety. The cost is significant, both to author and “readers.” I’d have to employ a professional reader who would probably cost more than all the other production costs combined, for example, and readers would have to cough up something like $30 per audiobook. Safety is important because I believe any distraction while you’re driving puts you in danger, although texting while driving is far worse than listening to an audiobook. Let’s all keep the roads safe.

***

In libris libertas…

The state of my birth is becoming a world leader and taking up the slack when Washington (AKA Trump, his minions, and the GOP) fails. San Francisco recently was the site of a meeting involving Canadian and Mexican environmental ministers who discussed maintaining the Paris Accord, among other things, with state leaders. The state’s legal team is getting ready to block any Washington attempt to push back on their tough laws for vehicle emissions. Gov. Jerry Brown (AKA Gov. Moonbeam) is traveling to China to discuss global warming with Chinese officials. And the state is moving toward single-payer healthcare for all—the Cal Senate just approved it.

Calling it “slack” on the part of Washington is a bit too nice, of course. Trump and his cronies are attacking the environment in any way they can. From supporting the coal industry, which has done more to hurt our climate than almost anything else (it’s ironic that even in coal states, they’re moving away from coal in power plants), to emasculating the EPA and rolling back provisions to protect the environment to favor their rich friends in other industries, Washington seems bent on ruining the planet for our children and grandchildren—maybe us too, if they keep up with the onslaught. Remember Trump is the candidate who declared global warming a hoax. Should we put him on that Antarctic ice shelf and see what happens when it breaks off? Maybe the lobby of Trump Tower will be the first to be flooded when the sea level rises by six feet, as predicted.

The U.S. as a whole is the world’s second worse polluter—only China is worse. California doesn’t accept this all-out attack on the environment by Washington. They have led the nation in positive environmental actions and have boldly stepped up their efforts to counter the evil dark lord in the White House and his GOP goblins. Other states—all blue, of course—try to follow along with the state’s defense-of-environment plans. As the most populous state in the union, the food provider for much of the nation, and estimated to be the sixth or seventh most powerful nation in the world if it ever separates from the union, the Golden Bear is a heavyweight. If Washington doesn’t listen, the rest of the world does. California doesn’t need Washington, but the United States does.

Saving the environment is a no-brainer. This means that Washington is now brainless and California is an Einstein. Even China is getting on board, while Trump backed out of the Paris Accord, incurring the wrath of the rest of the world. It’s hypocritical for states with so much at stake—tourism to national parks in many red states, for example—to become anti-environment. Most big game hunters are NRA members who are hypocritical too—wild animals are part of the environment. Aquifers are being damaged all over the country, but you can bet the anti-environment zombies will be the first to complain when their water turns bad. I can go on and on, but the truth is being insensible to what we’re doing to the environment and the flora and fauna of the world is idiocy. No. Anyone who does this is immoral and evil. There’s a reason that the Pope has an encyclical on the environment. He gave a copy to Trump; will he ever read it? He certainly took no heed of the Pope’s advice when he made his decision to withdraw from the Paris Accord. And his comment about Pittsburg v. Paris is the height of stupidity—Pittsburg went overwhelmingly for Clinton in 2016.

California has been leading environmental protection efforts for a long time. They did so out of necessity. If other American cities and states and countries in the world wait until necessity spurs them to action, it will be too late. If others don’t care, Earth will eventually end up like Mars. We all share this planet. Let’s be good tenants by keeping it clean and healthy. And letting the naysayers remain in power at the ballot box will make us accomplices of the thugs who would destroy the environment. Vote green today, not GOP-red. And work to get California rules to protect the environment adopted in your state.

***

Rembrandt’s Angel. To what lengths would you go to recover a stolen masterpiece? Scotland Yard’s Arts and Antiques Inspector Esther Brookstone goes the extra mile. She and paramour/sidekick Bastiann van Coevorden, an Interpol agent, set out to outwit the dealers of stolen art and recover “An Angel with Titus’ Features,” a Rembrandt painting stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. Their efforts lead to much more, as they uncover an international conspiracy that threatens Europe. During their dangerous adventures, their relationship solidifies and becomes a full-blown romance. Published by Penmore Press, this novel is available in ebook format at Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, B&N, and Apple, and in print through Amazon or your local bookstore (if they don’t have it, ask them to order it). Great summer reading!

And so it goes…

An artist and activist are the same thing.—Ai Weiwei

***

The Collector. In #5 of the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” the detectives set out to solve the murder of a Manhattan art dealer. After twists and turns, they discover that the crime leads to something perverse financed by stolen artworks from the Gardner Museum in Boston as collateral. This intriguing and profoundly disturbing mystery/thriller/suspense novel is the crime-fighting duo’s toughest case so far. It also introduces Scotland Yard Arts and Antiques Inspector Esther Brookstone, the protagonist of my new book Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press). The ebook The Collector is on sale now at Smashwords in all ebook formats; use coupon code SV28G. My new book Rembrandt’s Angel is available in ebook format on Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, B&N, and Apple and print format on Amazon, B&N, or at your local bookstore via Ingram (if they don’t have it, ask them to order it).

In libris libertas!

Alien: Covenant. Ridley Scott, Dir. What! Another prequel to that great sci-fi movie Alien? This one “fits” in between Prometheus and that first movie. Whereas the first move featured a bunch of gruff, seasoned interstellar miners who didn’t pay much attention to Ripley—they all worked for an evil corporation—this tale is about a colony ship carrying hundreds of colonists in cryosleep and thousands of frozen human embryos. I liked that old mining ship better. And here there’s no evil corporation. (Funny how sci-fi movies have the theme of an evil corporation. I guess the screenwriters didn’t want to duplicate the first movie or bring to mind Avatar.)

The crew here also seems to be badly unprepared for the voyage too—screamers not knowing what to do in an emergency, a religious fruitcake (nothing is made of this in the movie, though, so why was it included?) who inherits the job of captain, and a protagonist who’s a bit teary all the way (with her lack of fortitude, she can’t begin to compare with Ripley, except for one scene towards the end that plagiarizes the second movie). Covenant is the starship’s name and is basically run by Mother. AI, supercomputer? No one knows. Mother is a bit stupid, though, because she isn’t able to distinguish between the two androids. Sure they look alike—both played by Fassbender in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide roles—but Mother shouldn’t be bothered by physical look-alikes because she only “sees” their inner electronics. Fassbender’s probably the best actor here, by the way, but that’s not saying much.

Bottom line: this is a mixed bag, and I’m getting a bit tired of this whole franchise. The good: The fantastic visuals and eerie music. The bad: All the acting. The ugly: Ridley’s obsession with the idea that humans were created by aliens. While the latter is a common theme (I liked the short sci-fi story where we’re all descended from space vermin, “rats” fleeing a doomed starship—does anyone remember the title?), and was carried to the extreme in Arthur C. Clarke’s last Rama book, it always begs the question of who created those creative aliens. Zeno’s Paradox doesn’t apply here, and I can’t even place it in the Darwin evolution v. creationist debate’s spectrum (aliens aren’t gods), but if you care, you can ask Scott.

***

The Collector. In #5 of the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” the detectives set out to solve the murder of a Manhattan art dealer. After twists and turns, they discover that the crime leads to something perverse financed by stolen artworks from the Gardner Museum in Boston as collateral. This intriguing and profoundly disturbing mystery/thriller/suspense novel is the crime-fighting duo’s toughest case so far. It also introduces Scotland Yard Arts and Antiques Inspector Esther Brookstone, the protagonist of my new book Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press). The ebook The Collector is on sale now at Smashwords in all ebook formats; use coupon code SV28G. My new novel Rembrandt’s Angel is available in ebook format on Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, B&N, and Apple and will be available in print format on Amazon or at your local bookstore via Ingram (if they don’t have it, ask them to order it).

In libris libertas!

[Sometimes my characters seem all too real. After I finished the book, I had a discussion with Scotland Yard’s Arts and Antiques Inspector Esther Brookstone, the protagonist of my new book Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press). We’d just sat down in the living room of her flat near the grand piano with her 3D-printer copy of a Bernini bust to enjoy cheese, crackers, and a glass of shiraz.]

Steve: I’m so pleased you let me visit with you here at your flat in London. It has a simple elegance that makes one feel right at home.

Esther: I find it comfortable too. I suppose you want to discuss my last case?

Steve: No, I want to discuss you. How is your relationship with the Interpol agent going?

Esther: Swimmingly. I still don’t know if I’ll make him husband number four, but we enjoy each other’s company.

Steve: I understand it’s a bit more than that. Did your adventures together trying to recover the painting “An Angel with Titus’ Features” bring you closer?

Esther: Of course. Why wouldn’t they? I became obsessed with that masterpiece and put us in all kinds of danger. People often draw closer in such circumstances, and I’d known Bastriann van Coevorden for a while.

Steve: Tell me about those adventures.

Esther: It all started simply. I noticed my old school chum received an invitation to an auction of the painting.

Steve: I heard it differently. Didn’t you find out that it was an auction farther into the case?

Esther: Yes. Details.

Steve: What was the worst aspect of your psychological and physical battles with the neo-Nazis?

Esther: Do you mean beyond thinking we were going to die?

Steve: That too.

Esther: The worst physical ordeal was being locked up in that basement at the Norwegian chalet and thinking we were going to be killed. That was after I disrupted the bidding process.

Steve: And the worst mental anguish?

Esther: The rage and frustration I felt that those blokes had that painting and were about to sell it to someone who would enjoy possessing a masterpiece that no one else could see.

Steve: Is stopping the latter your primary motivation for your work?

Esther: Usually for the big cases. If I were a rich old lady, I’d buy stolen paintings and put them in museums so everyone could admire them. After arresting the art thieves, of course. Or I’d return them to their rightful owners if I could determine who they were.

Steve: That’s noble of you. It’s hard for me to imagine that to be enough motivation to bring your last case to a somewhat satisfying end, though.

Esther: There’s a quote from that great Irish writer George Bernard Shaw that explains my attitude: “You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.”

Steve: I’ll drink to that.

Esther: Maybe we should change to Irish whiskey then.

***

To see more about saucy Esther Brookstone, see Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press), which is now available as an ebook on Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Apple and as a print book on Amazon or at your local bookstore through Ingram (ask for it if they don’t have it). Don’t miss it. It’s great summer reading.

In libris libertas!