#183:  Welcome Brits!  The newsletter “Publishing Poynters” pointed to the following stat:  eBooks are outselling pBooks now at Amazon/UK!  I have noticed an uptick in interest among Brits for my eBooks.  That’s understandable.  Many of my books are international in flavor.  Perhaps I should say, “Welcome international readers!”  Although I’m partial to Jameson’s and other fine Irish whiskeys, I think the whole UK rocks.  In fact, all of Europe rocks.  I have fond memories of my sojourns there.  It’s natural that this propagates through my books, from London’s Trafalgar Square to Barcelona’s Botanic Gardens to Paris’ Rue Rivoli to Brindisi’s port (have fun associating these with my different books).  I know readers love to revisit sites they are fond of too.

That’s why I must apologize for an enormous gaffe that I can’t seem to fix.  I recently entered some of my books in an eBook directory, eBook Heaven, and entered dollars for the prices.  Senior moment?  Whatever.  I know, of course, that prices there are in pounds.  All I had to do was go to Amazon/UK and search for my books.  Since I can’t even remember the prices in dollars, I went to the U.S. Amazon site instead—big gaffe.  (By the way, my website takes the reader to the U.S. Amazon site—Brits and other UK people, French, and others should adjust accordingly.)

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There are many important issues in the never-ending battle between the 99% v. 1%.  One such issue is likely to affect the 1% just as much as the 99%–the environment human beings live in.  Worldwide, many of the 99% live in poverty, experiencing war, famine, and filth without shelter and clean water.  This could be the future of the 1% too—when Gaia suffers, we all suffer.  Gaia, Mother Earth, or whatever you call Her, is currently being violently gang-raped by the 1% for power and profit.  Her silent scream is what I see in the famous Edvard Munch painting.

The 1% and its power brokers, i.e. most conservatives, America’s GOP, and presidential candidate Mitt Romney, are notorious Gaia rapists on America’s most wanted list of environmental criminals who are repeatedly indicted for their sociopathic abuse and lack of concern for Mother Earth.  To be fair, some born-agains, a large constituency of the GOP, have expressed concern about environmental issues.  Even some Republicans revolted against Romney’s leadership and voted for tax breaks for wind farms, a small victory probably aimed at vocally environmental constituents they need to appease in order to be re-elected to a second term.  Nevertheless, the political sycophants to the 1% generally turn a blind eye to Gaia’s rape.

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Religious belief has been a double-edged sword throughout the centuries.  Humanity seems to be mired in perpetual Crusades where one group of believers wants to beat the crap out of another group, and vice versa.  Warring crusaders are bad enough, but it’s even worse when those crusaders are using religion simply to take what others have by force and use the difference in beliefs as an excuse.  SOP:  Declare your enemies to be heretics in order to justify your butchering conquests.  Over the years, this often translates into ethnic hatreds that transcend any of the original reasons to go to war.

Religion as the justification for butchery often transcends religion v. religion, of course.  There is some indication that last Sunday’s attack on a Sikh temple was prompted by a white supremacist mistaking the Sikh religion for Islam, not that that would have justified his attack.  Fanaticism often is associated with people with low IQs—if a guy has a turban, he must be Muslim, right?—or with people who are easily manipulated by others, fanatics or not, who seek personal power and gain from the manipulation.

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A nail in the coffin for the U.S. in the future is the ubiquitous use of offshore bank accounts by the 1%.  It’s not just banking for the rich elites either, as many companies like General Electric incorporate overseas.  The common goal is to avoid paying U.S. taxes.  It’s a similar goal for European companies that want to avoid paying taxes to the E.U. (GE avoids them both).  Whether companies or individuals, the effect is the same: to keep a country’s infrastructure running and the worker bees moderately happy as good and healthy consumers, taxes are paid by the 99%, not the 1%.  While governments struggle to keep their heads above water in these lean times for the 99%, more money is hidden beyond their tax horizons by the 1%.  The problem is not big government—the problem is the rich elites who socialize costs and privatize profits.

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#176:  Review.  For those readers who didn’t read my review of Carolyn J. Rose’s Through a Yellow Wood, you should.  It’s the sequel to her Hemlock Lake.  I’ve added her book to the “Steve’s Bookshelf” page on my website.  In my review, I nitpicked the title.  Let me officially apologize to Carolyn here.  Poetry is not my forte.  She informed me that the title is similar to a line from Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”  Frost’s poem considers choices in life and is therefore appropriate for this excellent mystery.

#177:  No attacks from the mommy-porn troops?  I was expecting some for my mini-review of the Fifty Shades trilogy last Wednesday.  Yes, I know, reading tastes are completely subjective, but I’m incapable of understanding the popularity of these three books.  Similar books used to come in plain, brown paper wrappers—hard to do with eBooks, I guess.

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The recent vote on censure against Syria torpedoed by China and Russia only emphasizes how ineffective the U.N. has become.  The last U.S. president to ask the U.N. to get behind him when going to war was Papa Bush (the Gulf War).  For Iraq, Baby Bush even changed a long standing U.S. tradition and launched a preemptive strike without allies’ or U.N. permission.  For Libya, Obama turned to NATO, not the U.N.

What’s happening in Syria is similar to but not the same as what happened in Libya before NATA intervened.  Gadhafi’s record as a brutal dictator had few equals.  Certainly Syria’s present ruler is not yet in his league, although father and son together come close.  Of course, this will all change if Assad makes good on his promise to use WMDs, mostly stockpiled biological and chemical weapons (his fledgling nuclear efforts were taken out by Israel—with help from the CIA?).  So far his threat is only directed towards “foreign invaders.”

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(Carolyn J. Rose, Through a Yellow Wood, ASIN B008HU0RMG)

This mystery is the sequel to the author’s Hemlock Lake.  I also reviewed the latter for Bookpleasures.  You might also want to read that review (you’ll also find it in the category “Book Reviews”).  Sequels are often compared to the first book in a series—this one is longer, just as well written and entertaining, and a bit more profound.  I recommend it.  Moreover, if you didn’t read Hemlock Lake, read them both.  They are great stories from an indie writer who has mastered her craft.

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#15:  Henry Crumpton, The Art of Intelligence.  5+.  It’s not often that I give anything above a 3 in one of my mini-reviews, but here it is!  I saw Crumpton’s interview on CBS’s Sixty Minutes last May 13 and liked his story.  I gave into temptation and bought his new book.  Maybe I shouldn’t say any more than “Wow!”  Like a good spy, Hank often seems apolitical, feeling motivated in one meeting with Dubya where the ex-president thumps him on the back and says, “Go get’em” but nobly trying to work with all the policy makers who come his way.

My interpretation of the Dubya encounter after 9/11 is different than Crumpton’s, by the way.  Dubya and his neo-con friends, Cheney and Rumsfeld, had no idea about what happened or what to do to avenge 9/11.  Readers will remember that the CIA took the blame for the fiasco with the WMDs in Iran.  They also received much of the blame for the lack of intelligence nexus that led to 9/11 (I place most of that on the FBI).

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#171:  Inexpensive summer reading?  For Kindle users, check out my entire catalog on Amazon.  For Nook and other non-Kindle users, remember that Full Medical is on sale in Smashwords’ Summer/Winter promotion at 50% off.  You will need a coupon and your code is SSW50.  Better yet, buy the entire “Clones and Mutants Series” (Full Medical + Evil Agenda) for hours of entertainment and excitement—another type of roller coaster, perhaps.  For young adults and adults young at heart, try The Secret Lab—also a bargain at $0.99, either on Amazon or Smashwords.  For hardcore lovers of trade paperbacks, you will find those on Amazon too.  Happy summer!

#172:  Good plot, good acting, and good music.  Moonrise Kingdom is a quiet but intense little movie even when the action picks up.  Two young kids learn how to love, but this is not like a young adult novel.  Well, maybe, because the adults are the flawed personalities here.  Bill Murray and Bruce Willis shine as they take their acting to another level.  I have two regrets:  I would have liked to see a book where the character studies in the movie were made more profound as one can only do on the printed page; I would have also liked it to be a bit less predictable.

About the music:  My first taste of classical music was Orff’s Carmina Burana.  As with literature, I developed an appetite for the unusual early on.  I can’t remember when I first discovered Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, but it wasn’t long after Orff’s masterpiece.  In keeping with my rebellious nature, I didn’t hear Britten’s better known Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra until much later in high school.  Moonrise Kingdom uses both Britten pieces in a clever fashion.  The singing of the Victorian naval hymn “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” from Noye’s Fludde occurs as the hurricane floods the tiny New England island where the story takes place.  Perfect!  Maestro Britten must be smiling.

#173:  LOL, OMG.  Are people reading more?  If I remember correctly (computer woes have numbed my brain—see #174), Fifty Shades will be the first eBook to hit 1,000,000 in sales on Amazon.  (I believe someone else has sold more than 1,000,000 books, but he or she had several books.)  Are people taking better care of themselves?  The eBook about the OMG diet has taken off and earned its British author a juicy publishing deal.

In fact, both the answers to the questions above are “No!”  People who read perhaps are reading more—inexpensive eBooks and eReaders have made reading easier—but people who download Fifty Shades or buy it in trade paperback format are not reading.  They’re giving into their S&M curiosity, a pornographic voyeurism in non-visual format.  In addition, the OMG diet is a fad and definitely not recommended to improve your health.

Of course, the morning ice bath in the OMB diet might help you cool down after a sizzling night of turning the pages of Fifty Shades.  Or, maybe the latter should be on the list of non-fiction bestsellers as a how-to book?  In that case, the morning ice bath might definitely be required.

#174:  For writers and readers with blogs:  Are you using WordPress?  I recently upgraded to 3.4.1 and the editors “More” button stopped working.  Returning to the previous version seems counter-productive because the upgrades are more in the line of security patches.  However, the WP forums are mute about this problem.  If you have any info about this, drop me an e-mail, please.  Otherwise, readers of my posts will continue to see the full page.  I like the “More” button on other blogs because it allows me to read a bit before deciding to read the whole post.  I assume my blog readers feel the same way.  If so, I apologize—but maybe you’ll find some rewards in those unusually pithy endings?

#175:  Boycott of the new Tom Cruise movie?  Will you join me in this?  After umpteen novels about the iconic Jack Reacher, I’ve developed a mind’s-eye image of Lee Childs’ protagonist, even with Lee’s sparse prose.  I’m surprised Mr. Childs went along with it (maybe he had no choice?), but Tom Cruise is about as far from my image of Jack Reacher as any male could be.  What’s he going to do?  Wear foot-high elevator shoes and shoulder pads and mess up that pretty face?  I doubt it.  This is one movie that I definitely won’t see!  If you feel the same way, join my boycott.

By the way, I call the boycott “Steve Moore’s Anti-Cruise Missile.”  I never thought Tom could act.  Minority Report, a favorite Phillip K. Dick story of mine, was ruined by his acting.  Jamie Foxx stole the show in another movie.  I went to War of the Worlds and he and the screaming kid ruined that for me too.  I didn’t go to any of the Mission Impossible movies, but just their trailers confirmed his lack of acting ability.  Hollywood casting people have exhibited their stupidity by featuring him in too many thrillers.  But casting him as Jack Reacher?  C’mon people!

In libris libertas….     

Trekkies know that there were two starship Enterprises, the first named after the aircraft carrier and the second after the first.  I claim there are three.  In a few days, the true first starship Enterprise will end its life as a museum on the decks of the old aircraft carrier Intrepid berthed in New York City’s harbor.

The demise of NASA’s shuttle program ranks as one of the most asinine decisions the government has ever made in its mismanagement of science funding.  Another, of course, was the cancellation of the SSC (short for “Superconducting Super Collider”).  The first killed America’s capability to put an astronaut in space, thus all but ending an all too brief era of space exploration.  The second ended U.S. dominance in experimental particle physics.  The Higgs particle, if it exists, won’t be discovered by American scientists, at least not by those working in this country.

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