Happy Holidays. Let me take the opportunity to wish you and yours a happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year. Make a few resolutions that are easy to keep: support and use your local public libraries, support your local bookstores, and read a lot of books. Reading is fast becoming a lost art. I appreciate that you and yours are readers and feel especially honored if you read my books.

Where do you buy books? First, many people use public libraries and buy few books. There are online lenders too (Smashwords—see below—has online library affiliates.) Do I have a problem with that? No! It just increases the number of readers and is a lot better than pirating my ebooks.

Second, while your big book-barns are hurting, mom & pops seem to be surviving, offering a personalized service that many readers enjoy. (My favorite bookstores are those old musty ones specializing in used books—I make cameo appearances as an owner of one of those in Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By and Rembrandt’s Angel.)

And then there are all the online retailers who have a huge and often overwhelming inventory. It’s a reader’s world.

Newsletter via email? You can sign up for that. Just send me an email via my contact page with the subject “Subscribe,” and I’ll add you to the list (I’ll never divulge your email to third parties). I won’t deny there will be duplicate information between this newsletter and the email one, but you’ll often get the news first via email. The email newsletter probably won’t contain as much industry news, though, so it will probably be more sporadic. Think about it. You can always unsubscribe.

Coming soon to Smashwords. Carrick Publishing and I’ll soon be adding Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder and Aristocrats and Assassins to Smashwords, continuing the program to add all my ebooks there. We’re emphasizing the popular “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” in the immediate future, but many of my sci-fi books were already there for your perusal.

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I believe Heinlein coined the phrase “future history” when describing his books about Lazarus Long and his descendants (sci-fi aficionados can correct me if I’m wrong). It seems a bit contradictory, but it describes well a huge story arc, a long saga if you will, that moves along through the future and over several books. Asimov’s extended Foundation series is exactly that, but the sci-fi master didn’t offer up many dates—I don’t think Heinlein did either.

I revisited and updated the timeline for my future history recently. I mentioned last week that I’m working on a new YA sci-fi mystery. Because the short story it’s based on (written in 2007) is in the same universe described by the timeline, I had to place the events in the story on it. Let me summarize the timeline (this updates a much earlier post).

In brief, the timeline includes three series, the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy,” and the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.” It also includes these bridge-books: The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan (bridge between the first two series), and Soldiers of God (bridge between the second two series). The novella “From the Mother World” in Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape can be considered an introduction to Sing a Samba Galactica, the YA sci-fi mystery The Secret Lab is concurrent with the first part of Survivors of the Chaos, and the Dr. Carlos stories in Pasodobles and Fantastic Encores! (and the one still archived in “Steve’s Shorts”) lead into Rogue Planet, the last novel (so far) on the timeline.

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[In my blog posts on writing, I’ve encouraged wannabe novelists to choose journalism over an MFA if they believe they need some formal education on how to write (the key word is “formal”—they don’t). Considering this story, though, maybe an MFA is safer?]

Ride-Along

Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore

                “Have you decided on a project yet?”

Danny Reid eyed Bert McAdams over his coffee mug. He didn’t like the burnt-toast flavor of Starbucks coffee, but the store’s location attracted students—several of his fellow journalism students had gathered around the table.

“Working on it,” Danny said, wiping latté froth from his upper lip—that was the only way he could drink the strong stuff. “What about you?”

“The UN is in session, so I’m heading over there to see if I can get a few interviews.”

“You’ll only get second- or third-tier diplomats,” said Connie Kingsley.

Bert winked at her. “I’ve got some leverage. My uncle is a security guard at a consulate and knows a few people.”

“It’s all about who you know,” said Danny with a grimace. “I’m at a loss.”

Connie, her dark brown skin glowing in the late April sun, smiled at him. Their eyes locked for a moment. “You could cover my aunt’s wedding with me. Maybe that will give you some ideas.”

Does that have a double meaning? Danny liked Connie but always figured she was out of his league. Her family was rich. His was poor enough that he wouldn’t even be in school if it weren’t for the low tuition and fees in the CUNY system.

“What about your dad?” said Ben Speyer. He was a sloppy, overweight, but brilliant Jewish kid and probably Danny’s best friend—Danny didn’t have that many white friends growing up in spite of New York’s touted diversity. “The NYPD must have lots of great journalistic stories.”

Danny’s father ran a precinct. Danny had only visited it a few times. He wasn’t close to his father because an early marriage had ended in a bitter divorce with his mother getting custody. “Mom wouldn’t like that.”

“You don’t have to hug or kiss the old man,” said Bert. “Just watch, observe, and write about it. That’s our term paper assignment in a nutshell.”

Danny thought for a moment. “Maybe. It’s about all I have right now.” He winked at Connie. “Besides a wedding. I hope you catch the bouquet.”

She smiled.

***

“Absolutely not!” Captain Carl Reid had been surprised to see his son’s face in the tiny screen on his phone. What he had proposed was even more surprising. “Our patrols can be dangerous. I might not be in your life that much—that’s your choice as much as your mother’s—but I still want to protect you.”

“I’m twenty-one. Three years ago I voted in the primaries and I just had my first legal drinks. I’m not interested in being a cop, but I want to be a journalist. Maybe a journalist specializing in crime stories.”

“Yeah, those guys get it all wrong most of the time. And you only voted in the primaries, not the general election.”

“My man didn’t win the nomination.”

“I still voted for the old woman. You slackers who didn’t vote are now stuck with the new guy.”

“It wouldn’t have made any difference in New York State, Dad.”

Carl sighed. They’d had that conversation many times. Some cops thought the new guy was good for law enforcement. Carl had his reservations.

“Back to your project. Can’t you choose something different, something safer?”

“Nothing will happen, Dad. You told Mom that many times when you were on patrol.”

“It usually doesn’t. But then you could have a nutcase who thinks killing cops is a great high and his civic duty. You never know when something will happen. Domestic disputes, weirdos high on some drug, bank robberies—it can happen anywhere in the five boroughs, you know.”

“Consider it job security,” said Danny.

“You mocking me?” said Carl.

“No, sir, I’m talking about my future job security. There’s plenty to write about.”
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It’s no secret that I often express admiration for the multiparty system found in many European countries. Many people see this as chaos, and it does seem to make democracy more chaotic as it provides homes for a wide spectrum of opinions but also forces politicos to seek compromise in order to find a majority. But could such a system work in the U.S.? In my last op-ed post I lamented that the progressive movement was dying. Could we at least progress to the point of having a true progressive alternative?

First, let’s end a myth: In the U.S., neither major parties’ voters are speaking with one voice! Each party contains a wide spectrum of voters. Historically one can say that the center of those spectra is slightly left of center for the Dems and slightly right for the GOP (the fringes of both are outliers). Also both parties tend to move toward the extreme ends of those spectra for primary season and back toward the center to govern. But the Dems have their conservatives and the GOP has its progressives, although these might be issue-dependent (Catholic Dems who are pro-life and anti-LGBT, and born-again Republicans who are environmentally conscious, for example). Let’s call this our unique American brand of political chaos, and the first nail in the coffin for the two-party system.

Our system is chaotic precisely because the two parties can’t possibly make all those registered Dems and Republicans happy. Keeping them all bottled up in a group in which they’re often uncomfortable can only lead to stress and not participating in political discourse, so they participate only on election days, if at all. Many Dems didn’t bother to vote for HRC for a variety of reasons, even in those “battleground states” (a recent NY Times analysis of voting in Milwaukee was telling—are you listening, Dems, or still just blaming others for dropping the ball?), or voted for her opponent, because they felt their party’s establishment had betrayed and abandoned them. The GOP fielded a non-establishment candidate, so many more “traditional Republicans” (also feeling betrayed and abandoned!) voted for HRC (Bush senior and junior the two most notable examples). In the end, the chaos all settled and out of the ashes rose Mr. Trump, the victor and unlikely phoenix.

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Our daily news sources, newspapers and TV, are now so craven, so unvigilant on behalf of the American people, so uninformative, that only in books do we learn what’s really going on.—Kurt Vonnegut

***

Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder. #3 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” this mystery/suspense/thriller novel has more twists and turns than a carnival pretzel. Chen is accused of murder, so naturally Castilblanco tries to help her. But there is a lot more to the murder than meets the eye. Readers will have a great time unraveling it all with these NYPD homicide detectives and will be kept guessing right up to the climax. Soon available in all ebook formats.

In libris libertas!

[Wow! December 1 already! If you’re in the market for stocking-stuffers and/or gifts for your reading friends (and yourself), don’t forget books. Print is a wee bit too big for the stocking, but an Amazon gift card for ebook purchases fits nicely there. Reading is the most exciting and educational entertainment you can do. No computer game or movie lets you get inside the minds of characters–that’s mind-blowing!]

When I thought about writing my first YA novel, The Secret Lab, I perused many YA novels and read many words of advice, sometimes contradictory, about how to write one. Now that I’m in the midst of writing another, I’m reconsidering what I learned or didn’t learn, factoring in some observed behavior from readers, past and potential reviewers, recent books, and our changing times.

First, let’s consider the traditional definition of YA (young adult) literature. These books were designed for tweens and teens 12-18 with plots, characters, and settings appropriate for that age group as well as their parents who wanted to shelter those kids from questionable content that might damage young minds. Yeah, that definition is intentionally snarky; moreover, it’s completely wrong now, if it ever was right. You might say the first books of the Harry Potter series are YA fantasy and satisfy that definition, but the last aren’t YA at all, just dark fantasy. In our present cultural morass where kids have to deal with sexual identity and bullying and worry about perverts and school shootings, kids, starting with the millennials, have had to and do grow up fast and face challenges previous generations didn’t have to worry about until they were in the workforce. Parents might still want to protect their children, but their children might be exposed to many things they can’t even imagine. How else can you explain two girls trying to sacrifice a friend in order to please some internet fictional character?

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[I just found another early short story…and it contains a poem! I won’t say when the story was written, but it has current relevance. It can be classified as shorts that are almost a speedo…but get rid of that image right now! Enjoy…]

A Singing Sadness

Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore

                Mila Park walked slowly to the lectern. She preferred to be out on a dig, but her sponsors thought this find was important. As the South American Combine prepared for war with the North African Union, tensions everywhere on Earth were high. At the cocktail hour, some Combine and Union scientists had been exchanging angry words. How peaceful it is on an archaeological site light-years away!

“The title of my lecture is boring. ‘Insights on the Archaeological Excavations in the 82 Eridani System’ is simply the title of a recent paper I wrote. I’ll now give it a subtitle: ‘How a Civilization Can Destroy Itself.’” There were some stirrings in the audience. Several conference attendees looked at each other. “The finds offer a lesson for humanity in these troubled times.”

She put up her first slide. There were several gasps from the audience now. “What you see is a temple littered with skeletons. We didn’t have to dig much to find them, of course, but the entrance to the temple was covered by rubble. A nuclear warhead hit only half a kilometer away. Most of the city’s inhabitants on the surface were vaporized, of course, but we believe that those in the temple died from starvation or radiation poisoning—it’s hard to tell which ailment would get them first because we don’t yet know enough about their physiology.”

She took a sip of water and put up another slide. “Here you see one of the many documents we found inside the temple. As you may already know, these were a sensitive people who left great works of art—paintings and sculptures and beautiful architecture—but they also had a literary tradition. It is sad that this search for beauty couldn’t stop the descent into the madness of self-annihilation. The many documents in the temple provided much more than a Rosetta stone for our time. The ideograms are complicated, so a massive effort using a lot of computer power was needed to translate them. But once we translated them, we developed a pretty good idea about this people’s culture and what went wrong.”

She began a long summary of their findings, including the history of greedy groups vying for control of the planet. “Are there any questions?”

“Could you go back to that first document?” said a woman in the first row. “I know nothing about their language, but it looks awfully short. What is it?”

“A poem by one of that people’s greatest poets. It’s hard to translate poetry well, but here’s what she says:

My soul awakens.

All about me the stars,

Like signposts up ahead,

Marching into the distant past

And even more distant future…

I see them strangely.

And yet the Universe is me

And I am one with it;

And my soul feels the thunder of a thousand suns

While I am the seeker and finder.

Could it be otherwise?

Not until a singing sadness

Erases it all

And I and my Universe are no more.

That’s it.”

Mila saw the tears glistening on the woman’s cheeks. The rest of the audience was silent.

“It says enough,” said the woman.

In the following weeks, a popular singer/songwriter used the poem as lyrics for a song that blew up the pop music charts around the world.  Peace talks began between the South American Combine and the North African Union.

***

Aristocrats and Assassins. Detective Castilblanco and his wife go on vacation. They both see a wee bit too much of Europe, including a few royals who are kidnapped. Written before the Paris, Brussels, and Nice attacks, I don’t think anyone would say now that this is impossible. Maybe European security agencies should consider it a warning?

In libris libertas!

First, let’s end a misconception: not all progressives are liberal, and not all liberals are progressive. The last election offers evidence for the latter: HRC’s “liberal message” was “more of the same” and was directed more to certain sectors of our society instead of to all. Too many voters didn’t like this “liberal message,” most of them coming from the sectors HRC neglected. More women voted for Trump than HRC too, so that “first woman president” pseudo-progressive message didn’t resonate that much either. (That first woman president will come when a woman lacking Clinton’s obvious flaws and baggage is nominated.) But fundamentally Clinton’s message wasn’t progressive.

A progressive message has to be one that’s inclusive and works to improve the lives of the majority of Americans, not just the few sectors HRC appealed to. Despite Harry Reid’s shenanigans in the Nevada primary, HRC appealed to a lot fewer union members than her husband, Al Gore, and Barack Obama did.  Those so-called liberals, fanatic HRC supporters, ignored the warning signs on the roads through the primaries and the months preceding the general election. HRC found many of her convention delegates in the South where they didn’t matter in the general election (even unpredictable Florida went for Trump, and the starry-eyed attempt to win Arizona, Georgia, and Texas, perhaps spurred on by liberal media giants like the New York Times, was a complete failure), while Bernie Sanders, with a long history of supporting unions (again making Nevada in the primaries an anomaly created by the nefarious Reid) showed that HRC’s assumptions about the rust belt were foolish.

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So many of these heartless PPs [psychopathic personalities] now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick. They have taken charge. They have taken charge of communications and the schools, so we might as well be Poland under occupation.—Kurt Vonnegut

***

Aristocrats and Assassins. Detective Castilblanco and his wife go on vacation. They both see a wee bit too much of Europe, including a few royals who are kidnapped. Written before the Paris, Brussels, and Nice attacks, I don’t think anyone would say now that this is impossible. Maybe European security agencies should consider it a warning?

In libris libertas!

Loving. Jeff Nichols, writer/dir. While this true story is a better romance than anything schlockmeister Sparks writes, it’s much more. It’s a slow, intense suspense story that’s better than almost any fiction you can find! Although I knew the ending, that “spoiler alert” didn’t spoil any of my interest and enjoyment.

Let’s face it: this story of a white man married to a black woman and their long fight to make that legitimate in a state still having an egregious anti-miscegenation law on its books, a relic of segregation in this country, laid the foundation for the fight in favor of same-sex marriage and other battles about personal rights in this country. That moves this film far above anything Hollywood usually releases. Of course, in the Age of Trumpism, it probably won’t do well, but one can hope. (The assignment of the film to theaters known for artsy flicks won’t help—not many of those around anymore!)

The Lovings, brilliantly played by little-known actors Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, possessed a simple genius, especially the black woman, and a polite stubbornness that allowed them to do battle in a legal system stacked against them. They had some help, of course, from an ACLU legal team (not a frivolous choice by them in this case) and the media. Others less strong than the Lovings would have thrown in the towel and lived elsewhere, but they had a special nexus with the land and their (mostly) colorblind setting of family and friends (interestingly, not only bigoted whites were telling them they were doing wrong!). For the actors who portrayed the couple, I hope to see some Oscar nominations at least. Their portrayal of the tense years leading up to the SCOTUS decision in their favor cannot be improved.

The Commonwealth of Virginia, a bastion of the slaving South in 1860, thought it could still deny people the right to marry whom they choose 100 years after the Civil War. They were wrong. We see yet another cornerstone of segregated America crumble here and another step taken toward realizing a colorblind America and world, MLK’s dream (the current election is a setback, of course).  Younger generations might not understand these struggles, but they were progressive advances important for America.

So the story is much more than the simple story of Mr. and Mrs. Loving. You should see this movie for many reasons—how romance and love can steel a couple for important battles, for a different take on race relations, and for important history brought to life by two talented actors. Probably the Lovings’ story basically wrote the screenplay, but Nichols’s direction turned it into a powerful statement—sometimes an understated drama can speak more powerfully than any strident historical biopic.

***

Action on the southern border! No, it’s not Trump beginning the construction of The Wall. It’s Chen and Castilblanco fighting terrorists, a cartel, and neo-Nazi militias. In Angels Need Not Apply, the deadly duo from the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” go undercover to fight crime as part of a national task force. This novel is available in all ebook formats.

In libris libertas!