As more and more planets are discovered, some in their star’s E-zone (Earth-like conditions stretched a little, but always with liquid water), it becomes almost a certainty that life exists “out there.”  Earth isn’t the center of the Universe, it might not be all that special, and human beings better start giving any gods they’ve created a little more credit, or create new ones with a more universal outlook.  That said, what about intelligent life?

Fermi’s paradox, summarized succinctly by “Where are they?”, isn’t really a paradox.  If you assume the ETs are subject to our same physical laws—in other words, they’re limited by the speed of light and the immense distance even to nearby stars—they can’t visit us anymore than we can visit them.  Many ET civilizations might have come and gone.  Their people might have wondered if there’s someone “out there,” or they didn’t give an ET rat’s ass—maybe they were so xenophobic they didn’t want to meet anyone else, or their planet was shrouded by thick fog and they didn’t even know anything outside the atmosphere existed.  Intelligent life just might not be that intelligent.

Or, it might be a lot more intelligent and technically more advanced than we are, pushing beyond the limitations of physical laws as we currently understand them.  In my “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” (CCT), I postulate some colonization in near Earth-space via trips lasting hundreds of years, followed by an ET-Human collaboration that figures out to hop around the multiverses, a type of faster-than-light travel that doesn’t make old Einstein turn over in his grave.

Read the rest of this entry »

Slow down and save your breath.  Don’t be a clown and race with Death.

***

The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan.  This novel, which is a bridge between the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” and the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy,” considers the following question: how will the U.S. government in the future handle all those old people with classified secrets in their head?  This is just a Smashwords sale.  The book will be priced at $0.99 until June 1, reduced from $2.99.  The coupon code is MP45S (type that in when you order—be sure and specify the format you want).  Pass the word to your relatives and friends.

In libris libertas….

[I was cleaning off my book shelves and found a hardbound I’m definitely offering up to some school book fair.  They might get a buck for it?]

By the Book.  Pamela Paul, ed.  (New York Times, Henry Holt, 2014).  The long subtitle is “Writers on Literature and the Literary Life, from the NY Times Book Review.”  First objection: most of these people aren’t writers by my definition.  Lena Dunham?  Not exactly a prolific writer.  Neither are Colin Powell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emma Thompson, Sting, Carolyn Kennedy—you get the idea.  For the most part, you have personalities where the Times has sent faux-interview-like questions about literature and the literary life like “What book would you recommend that the president read?”  This is the Times doing its pseudo-intellectual masturbation in grand style.  At $28, it’s a rip-off, unless you’re a one-percenter who thinks it will create some conversation sitting on your coffee table.

Among the 65 people responding, I’ve read books by only 9 of them.  That sounds like I’m an illiterate clod, but remember, most of these people aren’t writers.  Celebrities like Powell, Sting, and Schwarzenegger probably used ghost writers; Bryan Cranston doesn’t even have a book.  The real writers in the group should feel insulted.  Many are academic, or pseudo-academic types like Malcolm Caldwell, who write for other academics; many write non-fiction; and others write “literary fiction” (whatever that is, I don’t read it).

Most real authors here aren’t prolific.  Joyce Carol Oates is a prolific writer, but she recommends that the president read Moby Dick.  What does she want to do?  Bore him to death?  He’ll already be there when he leaves office and doesn’t have McConnell and Ryan to enliven his existence.  Lee Child, who’s become formulaic with his Reacher novels, lauds Cruise’s portrayal of the famous stud.  Huh?

I guess a third of that subtitle is real: these people are talking about reading, so maybe they all have a “literary life.”  The rest is false advertising on the part of the Times.  I got this book for Christmas two years ago—well-intentioned, I suppose, because I am a full-time writer.  I would never have bought it otherwise, though.  You shouldn’t either.  And you can get 7-8 ebooks for the price of this monstrosity.

***

May Day Sale.  It might still be going on.  It’s not clear what the Amazon cut-off time is for a Kindle Countdown Sale.  Mary Jo Melendez has been inviting you to that sale all week.  Her stories, Muddlin’ Through and Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By, were on sale through today, May 6, for $0.99 each; they might still be.  But don’t worry: they’ll just revert to the original $2.99 price, which is still a bargain.  Want more summer reading?  Check out my entire catalog: here’s my Amazon page.  Three more series, twenty more recent books, all save one for $3.99 or less, including my new sci-fi/fantasy novel, Rogue Planet, for $2.99.  What are you waiting for?

In libris libertas (just not the Times’s)…      

[Consider this to be part two of last week’s “Forget that Audience.”]

One answer to this question would be some magic formula that guarantees an author s/he’ll have a bestseller.  I’d be the first person standing in line to buy that formula, but I’m also enough of a realist to know that it doesn’t exist!  What do Fifty Shades, The Martian, and Harry Potter have in common?  They surprised the hell out of every agent and editor who thinks they’re privy to that formula, that’s what!  Even Amazon admits that most books don’t sell many copies.  Translation: most books don’t seem to give readers what they want.

Most authors’ books do poorly.  I’m in that club.  I probably should win a prize for being the least successful author.  But, as a reviewer of other authors’ books, I can’t figure out why some authors achieve success and others, like me, walk in a desert that seems to be devoid of readers.  Maybe it’s a saturation problem—too many good books and authors, not enough readers.  Maybe it’s a time problem—there are people who want to read more, but they’re busy with other things.  Of course, those other things might be the latest TV soap opera from Amazon or NetFlix; in other words, people choose to spend their free time elsewhere, not reading.

Read the rest of this entry »

Respect your peers and make new friends.  Shared tears and beers is how love begins.

***

May Day Sale.  It continues this week.  Mary Jo Melendez invites you to a Kindle Countdown Sale.  Her stories, Muddlin’ Through and Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By, will be on sale through May 6, $0.99 each, reduced from $2.99.  That’s a lot of spring and summer reading for only $2.  Want more summer reading?  Check out my catalog: here’s my Amazon page.  Three more series, twenty more recent books, all save one for $3.99 or less, including my new sci-fi/fantasy novel, Rogue Planet, for $2.99.  What are you waiting for?

In libris libertas….

News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #120…

[Double feature today—anyone remember them?  Sometimes two B sci-fi movies in one day?  You have it here—this newsletter and two movie reviews.]

Series.  J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is a pretty good example of how to write one—no egregious cliffhangers, and just a study progression developing a lot of the same characters from book to book and interesting new ones along with a new plot.  What she didn’t change from book to book was the theme of special magician boy fights bad magician.  By the end, I was tired of Harry and liked Hermione, who wasn’t the “chosen one,” a lot more.

The division of that last long Potter book into two movies, though, was an example of a Hollywood gaffe.  Rowling’s prose became overly detailed and more verbose as the series went on, so that last book could have received a Reader’s Digest condensation and be just fine.  Hollywood messed that up.  And now, by releasing Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them, a movie loosely based on Rowling’s 2001 book, they’ve created another gaffe.  Clearly they want more money from this franchise—or, is it Rowling?  Is she going to become the James Patterson of fantasy?

Reading forensics.  Stats about popular genres, readership demographics, ebooks v. paper, and so forth are hard to come by.  Amazon might have a lot of them, but they’re not sharing.  Traditional publishers might too, but same comment.  Here’s one “stat” from the past: the Harry Potter series motivated many kids to return to reading.  I can’t prove that wrong—I’d need the stats—but I can say that I think it’s malarkey.  My observations have led me to conclude that the number of people reading books is going down, down, down.  In other words, Harry Potter was a temporary thing, and kids are flocking to their smart phones and streaming videos instead of reading a good book, more than ever before.

Speed reading.  The last relates to speed reading.  Two jerks in the NY Times said no one can do it (I won’t even give the title of the article).  More malarkey.  What happens is that most people under thirty can’t.  It comes natural to many avid readers.  People with huge active and passive vocabularies can easily train themselves to do it.  I did.  I’ve noticed that my passive vocabulary is diminishing with age, but I’m still a speed reader.  That and touch typing were the two most useful things I learned in high school.  They’re both skills.

You also increase your reading speed with practice.  That’s one reason why most people under thirty can’t do it—they don’t have much practice so they don’t need the skill.  They’re into more graphical entertainment too and lose focus when reading text.  They’ve lost the ability to turn words into scenes in their head and to imagine how characters appear and act—they don’t want to tax their minds too much.  Reading exercises your mind and creates all sorts of good endorphins.  Not a reader?  Why the hell are you reading this blog then?

It takes money to make money.  OK.  I’m not whining about the stock market.  I’m complaining about BookBub.  Their prices for a thriller just went up.  I checked out sci-fi too—even higher (are there that many more readers of sci-fi than thrillers?).  Moreover, they have no special category for anthologies or short story collections, and I know there aren’t that many readers of them.  Of course, I don’t know what their algorithm is for price gouging—I mean fixing prices.

Like the NY Times’s algorithm for “best seller” and most of Amazon’s for ranking and what not, it’s a big mystery.  I just know that I can’t afford BookBub’s prices.  Yeah, I know, they claim you’ll sell far beyond what you pay (how does that happen for books offered for free?).  That’s why I titled the note this way: with BookBub, it takes money to make money.  Like all PR and marketing, you have to pay up front, and I can’t.  But, like all PR and marketing, they don’t really guarantee results.  Pox on their house!

Sales.  I’ll have a few of them this spring and summer as I prepare to end exclusivity on Amazon and add more books to Smashwords.  Beyond giving me the option to give my ebooks away (I don’t do that) or reducing their prices periodically, Amazon hasn’t done much for me except sit on my books.  Smashwords sells and distributes to other retailers, including Apple, B&N, and Kobo.  So watch for the sales!  One begins today: the whole “Mary Jo Melendez mystery series” (two ebooks) is on sale for $0.99 each, reduced from $2.99.  Celebramos Cinco de Mayo con María José.

My motto.  To provide you with entertaining books at reasonable prices.  All of my ebooks are low-priced.  My two Create Space paper versions are low-priced.  Here’s my Amazon page.

Free books?  Sure.  You can read any ebook in my catalog for free in return for an honest review.  To sweeten the deal, I’ll even through in another ebook of your choice for free—no review obligation, just a thank you for being a reviewer.  Query me at: steve@stevenmmoore.com.

In libris libertas….

[Two good, one bad—not too bad compared to most of the crap coming out of Hollywood.]

Eye in the Sky. Gavid Hood, dir.  Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) has been pursuing a British compatriot turned terrorist for six years.  The colonel is part of a multinational team led by Lieutenant General Frank Benson (Alan Rickman) that uses drones to surgically remove terrorist leaders.  Moviegoers will see this different ways.  Some will say that such strikes aren’t morally correct for any reason.  Others like me will agree with Colonel Powell—if one strike that takes out a terrorist cell prevents the murder of hundreds of innocents at a shopping mall, it’s justified.  In this case, the eye in the sky (the drone) is aided by bird and bug drones that eventually show young radicalized American boys strapping on the suicide vests after the Brit terrorist and her husband plan the attacks.

No spoilers here, but the ending did nothing to change my mind that drone attacks and special ops represent the best ways to fight terrorism.  You might feel otherwise—so be it.  This movie will generate this kind of controversy, to be sure.  The plot is jerky at first as the team is introduced, but then it settles down to a tense bit of storytelling.  Rickman is great (what a loss!); both Mirren and he portray the decision-making stress often associated with counterterrorism command decisions.

The rest of the team does a good job of showing how throwing in incompetent people in the chain of command can be an effective tool for the terrorists.  Angela Northman (Monica Northam) exhibits particular incompetency, probably not reacting positively to Benson’s quiet tongue-lashing at the end of the movie.  The drone pilots’ superior (played by director Hood) is an incompetent who has no problem letting other people do the dirty work.  A British minister’s bout with food poisoning at a trade show featuring armored suits for soldiers provides some levity, but this movie is a serious portrayal of the most serious problem facing Western civilization today: how to fight terrorism when terrorists hide among an innocent civilian population.

Batman v. Superman.  Zack Snyder, dir.  As a fellow who grew up reading comics, I have to put my purist prejudices aside when I go see movies based on DC or Marvel comics.  Most are genuinely awful extravaganzas featuring bad acting, high-powered special effects, and a bowel-wrenching musical score.  The two protagonists in this one, Ben Affleck (Batman) and Henry Cavill (Superman), are good examples of the typical bad acting.  Matt Damon completely eclipsed Affleck in Good Will Hunting and Affleck did an acceptable job in Argo, old Ben’s best movies to date, but that’s not much of a curriculum vitae.  Cavill just can’t act, period.  In fact, Jesse Eisenberg, as Lex Luthor, stole the show completely, adding a new dimension to this demented genius.  And did we really need Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to prance around with her magic rope in lieu of acting?

Read the rest of this entry »

Visitors to my website might have noted that I don’t advertise anything beyond my books here.  It’s an author’s website, after all, not The Huffington Post or Forbes.  You won’t see pop-up ads.  In fact, I hope to remove those annoying “Buy Now” buttons in a future upgrade to the website.  The interested reader will be able to click on the cover and go to the Amazon book page, I hope.  Otherwise, I’ll change “Buy Now” to “Amazon Page” or something less annoying than “Buy Now.”

As the number of real visits (not just random hits) to the website has increased, so has the number of people asking to advertise on the site.  Some of these requests are tempting because (1) the services or products sound like something I could endorse, (2) visitors to the site might be interested in them, and (3) it might bring me some badly needed funds so I can produce the next book.  My business model has always been a version of “crowd funding” (today’s parlance—I’ve been using it since day one): reinvest royalties accrued from past books into producing the next one, with hopefully enough left over to pay for website maintenance and upgrades.

But I’ve resisted the temptation of going the ad route.  I’ve always been nice about declining offers, saying something like, “Your product (or service) sounds interesting, but it’s against my policy to accept advertisements.”  Maybe that’s stupid, but that’s my policy.  Nevertheless, as I cruised around my usual social media sites last weekend, I asked myself, “Steve, what kind of ads would you accept if you did?”  The short answer is: not many.  But then I wouldn’t have a blog post, would I, if I left it at that?

Read the rest of this entry »

“Know your audience” is an adage that might work for Hillary Clinton when deciding to charge $33,000 per plate at a Hollywood A-listers’ campaign financing dinner (just more one-percenters in Hillary’s camp, but even Clooney said $33K was obscene), but it’s not a tactic that’s any use to a storyteller pushing her or his stories.  Here’s much better advice for writers: just tell the story you’re itching to tell and do it well.  While following either piece of advice doesn’t guarantee that Field of Dreams moment—“Build it and they will come”—trying to predict readers’ tastes or writing to a specific group of readers is next to impossible.  Readers rule, and they will always surprise you.

The incredible success of the Harry Potter series (I see Rowling returned to her wizarding ways—her detective stories flopped until she used her real name), the Fifty Shades series, Gone Girl, The Martian, and so forth were unpredictable.  Anyone who says otherwise must be smoking something pretty strong or had a recent lobotomy.  Hell, even Clancy’s incredible run was unpredictable.  That’s why traditional publishing’s agents and editors are probably wasting their efforts—they can’t choose the next big book success, so they’re moving more and more to “proven talents” AKA sure bets in their stable of old stallions and mares ready for the glue factory.

Many of the series and books just named aren’t even that well written, so maybe my “do it well” tag on my better piece of advice isn’t necessary.  If you win the lottery, you don’t even have to write well.  In any case, no author, agent, or publisher can really pretend to know and/or predict “the audience” for a book.  Two examples:  One of my readers, almost a beta-reader for most of my books, in the sense he usually reads them hot off the press and comments back to me—I’m still trying to get him to write a review—doesn’t like sci-fi much, so I predicted that he wouldn’t like my new novel Rogue Planet.  I sent him a copy anyway.  To my surprise, he liked it.  He seemed to identify with the story and characters.  That was a pleasant surprise, but I could never have predicted it.  Quite the contrary.

Read the rest of this entry »

A Buddhist monk approaches a hotdog stand and says, “Make me one with everything.”  (Apologies to my Detective Castilblanco, who became a Buddhist.)

***

May Day Sale.  Mary Jo Melendez invites you to a Kindle Countdown Sale.  Her stories, Muddlin’ Through and Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By, will be on sale from April 29 through May 6, $0.99 each, reduced from $2.99.  That’s a lot of spring and summer reading for only $2.