While I read a lot of non-fiction (see some of my recommendations on my “Steve’s Bookshelf” web page), I avoid celebs’ books as if they were a more virulent variant of Covid-19. Of course, they might not even qualify as non-fiction because the excellent ghost writers hired are given the toxic task of putting lipstick on a pig, i.e. serve the PR function of improving the celebs’ images, which often means at least lying by omission.

Of course, these excellent ghost writers give the supposed “authors” of these books free rein to enjoy their narcissism in a more respectable setting than on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. But the question must be asked: Can readers find anything worth reading in celebs’ books beyond a plethora of first-person pronouns? Maybe a better question: Can readers learn anything worthwhile beyond being blatantly narcissistic? Many readers know how to do that already, after all; Facebook is well-populated by them.

I should temper my critique slightly by saying that biographies and autobiographies by celebs could in principle be worthwhile. We can learn from someone who has lived their life well and made a difference because that can motivate a reader to do the same. In this sense, if the celeb is a politico or philanthropist, this can produce a multiplier effect.

Frankly though, celebs’ books wouldn’t even exist if the Big Five couldn’t make money off them. They feed off the celebrity of the “authors,” and use that to appeal to the prurient readers who are fans of such narcissists. The Big Five make a ton of money off those books, and I’m sure that most readers who read them rarely read anything else worthwhile. There are plenty of good books out there, even some published by the Big Five, and they represent a higher quality of reading entertainment.

My reading advice about celebs’ books is the same for all books; it’s a variation on that X-Files theme: Trust no celeb’s book! More than likely it’s trash. It’s also likely to have all the negatives I’ve mentioned above. Your reading time is valuable. Spend it wisely.

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules found on my “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment will go to spam.)

New freebies available. If you need lead-ins to The Klimt Connection, #8 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, there are #6 and #7 in the series. There’s also the new collection The Detectives and the newest revision of my little course “Writing Fiction.” All these free PDF downloasds can be found on my “Free Stuff & Contersts” web page. Happy downloading!

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

Hollywood aka Tinsel Town has always been self-absorbed and disconnected from ordinary life. Two things occurred at the recent Oscar ceremonies that can only reinforce that perception: One, many people were up in arms about Will Smith’s justifiable defense of his wife; and two, the Academy didn’t let Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy speak. Both show how obscenely sick the Academy is, and how sick our society has become, in general.

No one went after Chris Rock’s mockery of Will Smith’s wife, an insulting display from an uncaring comic on a par with ex-President Trump’s mockery of that reporter. Chris should have apologized to Will and his wife; Will had no need to apologize to Chris. Will did the noble thing and defended his wife.

Dissing Zelenskyy was also over the top. Hollywood pretends it’s so damn liberal and so caring about the world’s problems. BS! Actors, directors, producers, screenwriters—they’re mostly self-centered SOBs! At the very least, they live in a parallel dimension, disconnected from the realities of common people. They want to be like ostriches, effectively burying their heads in the sand to avoid the harshness of other people’s plights.

Compare Oscars night with Grammys night. For the latter, no one took sides in the Smith-Rock controversy; it was barely mentioned. (For counter balance, I would have preferred that someone went after Chris Rock, of course, and his style of comedy.) But John Legend and many other performers showed the world that musicians really do care, in contrast to Hollywood. Moreover, Zelenskyy was allowed to speak! The music industry is clearly better than the movie industry. Maybe that’s because musicians, like writers, have a moral spine that those in Hollywood lack? They believe in humanity more and can empathize with people’s suffering.

To these comments, I would add that the Oscars were otherwise dead and irrelevant to people’s lives, whereas the Grammys were alive and relevant in the lyrics and music of the songs. Like books, music needs no visuals—they both reach into the human soul, a lot more than the droll drivel that Hollywood now passes off as film art.

I suggest to everyone reading this post that you boycott movies, listen to music, and read books. You’re life will be much more meaningful if you do. I know mine will.

And this review of all of Hollywood will be my last movie review! It’s one that disses the entire movie industry. I shall never see another movie!

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules on the “Join the Conversation” web page, though. If you don’t, your comment will go into the spam folder.)

The Klimt Connection. This eighth novel in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series takes a close look at the war between democracy and autocracy at the local level as Esther, Bastiann, and friends battle far-right domestic terrorists out to kill migrants and refugees. The HQ for all the action is an MI5 safehouse where the crime-fighting duo must reside because the terrorist bombed their flat. And, of course, art is involved, as a parallel case recalls the horrors of World War II. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (just not on Amazon). Novels #6 and #7 are free PDF downloads (see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page).

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

When I used to do book events (Covid has temporarily ended them), people would often ask, “Where should I start? What’s your best book?” Because I have several in my oeuvre and write in several genres—let’s call them mysteries, thrillers, and sci-fi, or their combinations—these are difficult questions to answer. When I hand someone my business card (I always carry a few with me), I often receive similar questions. So what are my answers?

First, I feel a bit like proud parents with several children must feel. Each kid is different, we love them all, and we try to have no favorites. At any particular time, one child might require more attention than the others, or remind us of pleasant but different memories. But really, after nurturing a kid for some time, how can we choose?

Second, there are too many criteria. Is it the first book that produced so much personal euphoria when it was published? (For me, that was in 2006, quite a while ago!) Is it the most meaningful book? Is it the one that nearly wrote itself? Or the one I struggled with and gave a sigh of relief when the novel-wiring marathon ended?

Third, I have no breakout books, so my choice could hardly be the book that made me the most money! It also can’t be the one where I got the most critical acclaim—I don’t have one of those either. (Critics rarely consider anything but Big Five books!) Good reviews, sure, but no famous book critic has lauded one of my books. And frankly, neither a breakout book or a critically acclaimed one would influence how I determine my best book. And I’m the author, so my opinion counts most!

Maybe binge-readers out there would prefer I name my favorite series? That’s also hard to do. I have a few of those too, and they’re all so different. I’m fond of the “Clones and Mutants” series but maybe only because Full Medical, the first book in the series, was also my first published book. I’m also fond of the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco” series with its novels a mix of emphasis between thriller and mystery stories and interesting characters, but maybe that’s because the first novel of that series, The Midas Bomb, seemed to write itself (as did most of the books in that series!).

Maybe my best book is the most serious one? That’s an easy choice. Not only is Son of Thunder a metaphysical tour de force, it’s The Da Vinci Code done right, i.e. without Dan Brown’s appeal to hoaxes and Catholic conspiracy theories (okay, in my book, there are a few theories—that’s why that mystery/thrilled can be called historical fiction) but they’re based on fact). Of course, the last book in the series (so far), The Klimt Connection, is politically meaningful, so maybe that’s a tossup (see the ad below).

So…my answer has to be: I don’t know which one of my books you’ll like best! Readers likes and dislikes are all over the board. All I can say is the Steven M. Moore who’s just finished one novel-writing marathon is a bit different than the one who ran the previous ones. And that’s a good thing too: One has to grow with their children!

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules on the “Join the Conversation” web page, though. If you don’t, your comment will go into the spam folder.)

The Klimt Connection. This eighth novel in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series takes a close look at the war between democracy and autocracy at the local level as Esther, Bastiann, and friends battle far-right domestic terrorists out to kill migrants and refugees. The HQ for all the action is an MI5 safehouse where the crime-fighting duo must reside because the terrorist bombed their flat. And, of course, art is involved, as a parallel case recalls the horrors of World War II. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (just not on Amazon). Novels #6 and #7 are free PDF downloads (see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page).

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

I don’t dwell on either food or drink in my stories, but I can have some fun with them. In a sense, they both come under the writing category “settings” because what people dine on and imbibe is characteristic of the general area where the story takes place.

But is tikka masala or baklava characteristic of London? Yes, first because my character Esther Brookstone loves both, and second because London is a cosmopolitan city—Indian food is prevalent (London’s Brick Lane is famous) because India was part of Britain’s colonial past; and Britain, despite Brexit, is still part of Europe, so European cuisine is well represented (baklava is widespread in eastern Mediterranean countries and specifically in Greece).

Many big cities are cosmopolitan—I had my first curry in Boston and my first baklava in Bogota, Colombia—that’s the nature of large cities. When I write about dining in these cities, I worry about yielding to cliches; it’s natural to do that following the adage “When in Rome…” and motivated by the desire to provide local color. Readers presume the best pulled pork might be found in Savannah, the best clam chowder in Boston, and the best dim sung in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

Those typical, regional and ethnic dishes also allow an author to play against stereotype as well. A character invites someone out for a fancy dinner and says about the target restaurant, “I’ve found that X serves Y as good as any you can find in Z!” In fact, that might just impress the invitee even more because the inviter has found X.

Of course, beverages can play a similar role. I probably go overboard with teatime in my British-style mysteries (the “Esther Brookstone” novels have become more British as the series progresses), but teatime is still very much a part of British (and Irish!) life. And frankly, the real reason is that I like tea almost as much as I like coffee! (My fav tea is Earl Grey. And, living in Colombia 10+ years addicted me to the world’s best coffee.)

So…use the Goldilocks Principle: Just enough about food and drink, not too much, not too little…and have some fun with both!

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules on the “Join the Conversation” web page. Failure to do so sends your comment to the spam folder.)

The Klimt Connection. Did you miss this “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series addition, Book Eight in the series? It’s available wherever quality ebooks are sold (but not on Amazon). Better yet: Have a binge-read! Novels #6 and #7 are free PDF downloads. See the list on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page where you will find other free fiction as well.

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

Authors have a variety of tools and using them throughout a story can make it more interesting. I’m better at dialogue than body language, but maybe that’s because I think the first is more effective than the second. But the second can be effective in a mystery, though, because it might contradict the first…and that’s one positive for using a variety of tools.

A good detective, for example, learns to read body language, especially in interrogations, because there are tells there that contradict a suspect’s words. I’m certain that most readers don’t have that ability; I certainly don’t. So, even if I describe some body language in a story, assuming I do it correctly, I have to ask myself  whether a reader will recognize “what’s being said” without me explaining. That goes against my general minimalist writing philosophy, where I like to give the reader just enough information so they can participate in the creative process. Moreover, it interrupts the flow of the fiction.

I suppose the use of body language can be considered an example of “show, don’t tell,” but “don’t tell” is referring more to excess narrative. Using body language is generally short narrative, but its overuse could be excessive and boring.

In the abstract, dialogue is better than body language, and, whether “writing experts” like it or not, that’s how human beings communicate. Your pet uses body language because it’s not human. Maybe some animals’ innate languages (chimps, dolphins, etc.) are mostly a mix of sounds and body language, but dialogue is more important for us simply because we are human. Writers are human; so are readers.

Perhaps what’s more important are the words used to describe body language and dialogue, direct or indirect. I’ve seen -ly adverbs overused for both, for example. The flow in the prose determines the quality of both body language and dialogue. If the use of either one hinders that flow, that’s not good. Even within a flashback or backstory segment, the flow must move forward. Flow isn’t a tool; it’s a process that’s supported by an author’s toolbox and much more important than any single tool.

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules on the “Join the Conversation” web page. Failure to do so sends your comment to the spam folder.)

The Klimt Connection. Did you miss this “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series addition, Book Eight in the series? It’s available wherever quality ebooks are sold (but not on Amazon). Better yet: Have a binge-read! Novels #6 and #7 are free PDF downloads. See the list on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page where you will find other free fiction as well.

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

Draft2Digital (D2D) is the best way to self-publish because a lot can be DIY and they distribute your ebooks for you. I’ve done five ebooks with them now (the last, The Klimt Connection, Book Eight in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, was published March 18, maybe with the added motivation from two red ales on draft to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day?). I learn a bit each time I use D2D, so I’d like to pass on some advice I’ve developed while doing this.

First, let me state that I saw no references to the D2D-Smashwords merger when I published The Klimt Connection. I expected to see something, but the whole process was the same, and it’s easy. About Smashwords, nada, rien, zilch. (I suspect they’re still in beta-testing. They’ve been beta-testing a print option forever (so don’t use D2D if you want print!).

How smoothly the process goes depends a lot on how well you prepare and what choices you make, though. So…let me offer some free advice:

Cover. Yeah, I know, it’s the last thing authors usually think about. (I doubt the Big Five publishing conglomerates think enough about covers—some of the worst covers I’ve seen recently, not much more than PowerPoint slides, are on their books.) I’ve found it’s best to get into the writing a bit and take breathers once and a while to think about a cover. Even if you purchase a ready-made, inexpensive, but unique cover (bookcoverdesigner.com is a good source), getting a good cover takes some thought. That can be stimulated by sorting through samples. There are many prices to choose from, but don’t assume a higher price implies a better cover, because frankly many covers are over-priced (it’s a buyers’ market!). An ebook cover is just one .jpeg file from a graphics artist hungry to make some extra bucks, after all. The artist will put your title, subtitle (if any), and author’s name in suitable fonts and suitable colors for the background. Take the final result and store it in the same folder as your manuscript (MS).

Manuscript prep. Your MS must be tailored to D2D’s formatting engine. This isn’t hard to do, but your MS file won’t look like anything you might release as a free PDF either (which I do a lot). Don’t use page breaks; use four or five carriage returns instead. Don’t use tabs; set your overall indenting to automatic on the first line of a paragraph, and kill that indenting only for chapter headings and so forth, centering the latter after the four or five page returns, if appropriate (chapter breaks but not section breaks). You don’t need a title page or copyright page—the formatting software can do that for you—but you can also include your own instead. Same for front and end material. I pay special attention to the latter—mine’s complicated, and I try to make all my ebooks look similar. (I only let D2D do the title page, if that. After all, the title’s on the cover.)

Begin the formatting process. First, upload your cover, then upload your MS.

D2D formats your ebook. That begins with the previous uploads. You’ll see a preview appear in the D2D preview window. Now you have some choices to make. I just choose their standard ebook formatting. That’s fine for me, and I suspect some of the fancy options can cause problems because I won’t like the look. (A book is a book, so why all that genre-specific crap?) There are some options you might consider, though: Do you want a title page? Copyright page? Clickable table of contents? In The Klimt Connection, I ignored the title page, put in my own copyright page, and ignored the contents page.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve often mentioned that I’ve never had writer’s block. I’m a full-time writer, so there’s always something that I want to write! That’s not writer’s block. (Choosing what to write is another matter.)

I believe I’ve also mentioned that in the last few years, I’ve been having more problems remembering the precise word—I know it exists, and it comes to me on my content-editing passes. That’s not writer’s block either.

But is lack of motivation writer’s block? I suppose it is if an author can’t write anything, but the lack of motivation hits me with respect to books I’d planned to write, usually the next book in a series. For example, you have two free PDFs for the sixth and seventh book in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. (Defanging the Red Dragon and Intolerance are in the list found on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page.) They exist because I was ambivalent about continuing the series. (I published #8, The Klimt Connection, on March 18 with D2D—inspired in part by the two red ales I quaffed on St. Paddy’s Day?)  I was motivated to write all three of those novels, and I did so in four months! Motivation is important.

My problem with extending a series isn’t completely due to the fact that the so-called “book marketing experts” don’t want to promote, or don’t even know how to promote, a series. That’s but one way to kill my motivation.

You’ll remember that I had problems with the second book in “The Last Humans” series, the first with the publisher of the first book, Black Opal Books, and then with Amazon for the second book. (That was the final nail in Amazon’s coffin for me. No recent books of mine appear on Amazon!) A. B. Carolan and I had plans to continue “The Denisovan Trilogy” (only the first book is out, and not on Amazon), but a lukewarm reception of the first novel, Origins, has dampened our enthusiasm. I also had plans to turn More than Human: The Mensa Contagion into two separate novels (that would require some expansion, mostly in the part about the Mars colony) and then write a third, but again a luke-warm reception of that book dampened my enthusiasm.

Of course, motivation can be lacking for a specific project simply because I find other projects more appealing! I was clearly motivated to write the last three “Esther Brookstone” novels that can be considered a sub-trilogy of political thrillers (with relevance to current politics at that!). The free PDFs for #6 and #7 were easy to produce,. and the D2D ebook was too (more about that on Friday), so most of my time was spent on finishing the manuscripts. (Maybe doing the latter was more obsession than motivation? Same difference, of course.)

I recognize that I’m lucky. Nothing in what I’ve experienced and described above can be considered writer’s block, but I believe that authors will have similar experiences as their careers progress. In a sense, it’s not about sitting down and doing the writing, it’s about satisfying a yen to get some specific thing written. My advice? It’s the same I have for life in general: Just roll with the punches and do the best you can with what you love to do.

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules on my “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment will go to spam.)

The Klimt Connection. Book Eight in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series finds Esther and husband hustled away to an MI5 safehouse after their flat in London is bombed. They cope, along with others who are threatened by the bomber and his accomplices, and the hunt for the domestic terrorists is UK- and EU-wide. It leads to the discovery of a nationwide conspiracy, all financed by the far right and designed to purge the UK of perceived invaders, migrants and refugees who are accused of wanting to “replace” the white majority. This novel is now available at all quality ebook retailers and lending services (but not on Amazon). You will enjoy this book about Esther’s new adventures.

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

The Klimt Connection, Book Eight in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, is now published. If not already available at all of Draft2Digital’s affiliated quality ebook retailers, it soon will be (I don’t include Amazon in that list, by the way). It will also be available at their affiliated lending services.

This is no “April Fools” post! You will be able to read about more of Esther’s unusual adventures. I had many distractions while writing this novel, though. First, let me offer you a summary:

After a bomb destroys their flat, Esther Brookstone, ex-MI6 spy and ex-Scotland Yard Inspector in the Art and Antiques Division, and Bastiann van Coevorden, her husband, ex-Interpol agent, and current MI5 consultant, are forced to stay in an MI5 safehouse along with others who are threatened by the bomber and his accomplices. The hunt for the domestic terrorists is UK- and EU-wide and leads to the discovery of a nationwide conspiracy, all financed by the far right and designed to purge the UK of perceived invaders, migrants and refugees who are accused of wanting to “replace” the white majority.

While writing this novel, I experienced several distractions:

Covid. Yeah, that pandemic has been going on a while; it looks like it will continue with new variants arising. It hasn’t affected either my reading or writing—I have a lot more free time to do both—but what it does do is continuously tick me off when so many morons refuse to be considerate of others by not masking and not vaccinating. Those morons just don’t understand democracy.

January 6 commission. A clearer picture is being developed to replace the blurry one, and that process is showing how vast and perfidious the attempt to overthrow democracy in America really was, both at the domestic and foreign levels. That process had solidified my hatred of fascists.

Putin’s evil war against Ukraine. If domestic terrorists in America solidified my hatred for fascists, Putin’s atrocities reminded me that the war against fascism is worldwide. We are all Ukrainians in that sense, battling on the various fronts of a world war democracy must wage against autocracy. Slava Ukrayna!

It’s probably obvious that all of these distractions were also motivations. The Klimt Connection is really about democracy’s war against fascism. Anti-vaxxing isn’t freedom of expression, it’s about morons following fascist conspiracy theories, people who are willing to murder their fellow human beings. The Oath Keepers and Proud Boys aren’t freedom fighters, they’re fascists out to destroy American democracy. And clearly the Ukrainian war is all about a fascist monster, Vladimir Putin, committing genocide against a freedom-loving, innocent population.

Is The Klimt Connection my most political novel? Maybe. It’s certainly a complex one because the war of democracy versus fascism is fought on so many fronts. If fascists can read (how well they’re educated is always doubtful!), they probably won’t like this new novel. Tough. I didn’t write it for them. I wrote it for all the rest of us who believe that democratic ideals and institutions are worth fighting for. Maybe it’s my War and Peace, albeit much shorter, but I thought that talking about that existential war in fiction was worth it. ‘Nough said.

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules on my “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment will go to spam.)

The Klimt Connection. Book Eight in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series finds Esther and husband hustled to an MI5 safehouse after their flat in London is bombed. They cope, along with others who are threatened by the bomber and his accomplices, and the hunt for the domestic terrorists is UK- and EU-wide. It leads to the discovery of a nationwide conspiracy, all financed by the far right and designed to purge the UK of perceived invaders, migrants and refugees who are accused of wanting to “replace” the white majority. This novel is now available at all quality ebook retailers and lending services (but not on Amazon). You will enjoy Esther’s additional adventures.

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

One thing I learned during the Covid pandemic (beyond staying alive!) was how important book series are! Forget about streaming video and computer games! The only TV series I watched were on PBS’s Masterpiece Theater, most recently Around the World in Eighty Days (highly recommended, by the way). I spent most of my time binge-reading book series and maintained my sanity in the process. (They helped me stay alive!)

It’s amazing how many good series there are. Most of them are “evergreen” in the sense that they’re as good as when the author wrote them. I’m well into a new one (new for me), and I know I can find many others. You can find lists of many British-style mystery series, for example, in my own collections, Sleuthing, British-Style (three of them, the last two free PDF downloads, and the first on Amazon), I keep adding to that list with every collection).

Series exist in many genres (I hate that word “genre,” but it’s a bit useful here). Sometime in the future I’ll binge-read all the Harry Potter books, one right after another. Um, that might be a bit masochistic because that series is a lesson in padding out a manuscript with a lot of superfluous verbosity. Maybe I’ll just do that with A. B. Carolan’s “ABC Sci-Fi Mysteries” instead, because A.B.’s young adult heroes are a lot more believable than Harry and his friends!

But that’s the key for readers: The best series are well-established or finished because you can binge-read them, one right after another. But for authors, there’s a problem with series: Most of the so-called “book marketing experts” out there either don’t know how to promote a series, or won’t, because they want to charge for each book’s promotion! Is there a conspiracy going on? I suspect the real reason is the first, but they have no desire to remedy the problem because of the second.

So what can authors do to promote their series? The only thing I can suggest now is to make a personal appeal to readers. Although those book marketing experts don’t often say it, I will: The best marketing tool is often word-of-mouth. So I’ll make this plea to readers of this blog: Please binge-read series (I have several myself—see below), and then tell your relatives and friends about those you like. Do this for as many as you can, please. As avid readers, you know other readers. Please help authors fight the book marketing experts who won’t promote a series!

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules listed on the “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment goes into the spam folder!)

My series. I have a few. I’ll just list them here. You can find out more about them by perusing the “Books & Short Stories” web page. Welcome to binge-reading of series! Here’s the list:

“Detectives Chen & Castilblanco”—eight novels*

“Esther Brookstone Art Detective”—eight novels*

“Clones & Mutants”—a trilogy

“The Chaos Chronicles”—a trilogy**

“Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries”—a trilogy

“The Last Humans”—two novels

“ABC Sci-Fi Mysteries”—four novels***

*”Chen & Castilblanco” #8 and “Esther Brookstone” #6 are one and the same, because that novel is a crossover between two series

**Available in one ebook bundle

***A series for young adults and adults who are young-at-heart—the first three are set in my usual sci-fi universe, the fourth begins “The Denisovan Trilogy,” and all are by A. B. Carolan

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

In these days of pandemic (yes, it’s still going on, with 1000+ Americans still dying every day and another surge in Europe occurring, an omen for one here), I’m not doing any book events. So I was thinking about questions interviews or readers have never asked me. Just for fun, here’s a list along with my answers:

Is Moore your real surname? I understand the question. Many authors use pseudonyms. But Steven M. Moore is on my birth certificate (the middle initial is written out there, but I keep that secret). There are many Moores around, from a famous heavyweight champion (Archie Moore, my father’s favorite boxer) to a famous actor (Dudley Moore) and many others. That surname is almost as common as Smith, especially if you add the Irish original, O’Moore.

Why do you only self-publish? I’ve tried traditional publishing with Penmore Press (the first two “Esther Brookstone” novels) and Black Opal Books (the first novel in “The Last Humans” series). As you probably conclude by the fact that I didn’t continue with those two publishers, there were potholes in that traditional-publishing road. When I started putting my fiction out there, I tried the traditional route forced on every writer at the time by the now Big Five publishing conglomerates, a term that indicates a major problem in publishing today: Even a small press, if successful, often disappears into the maws of these T-Rexes of book publishing. I won’t play the game by their onerous rules.

Why do you write in multiple genres? Amazon and even legitimate booksellers continue to insist on traditional genre classification schemes dictated by the Big Five, so I’m forced to use them for marketing purposes even though they’re nothing more than key words. Mystery, thriller, or sci-fi, or even crime, suspense, or romance are just words that can describe qualities of my stories. Readers can classify them any way they like; I don’t care much about that. I just tell the damn story and leave its classification to others. Hopefully the descriptor “entertaining” dominates those classifications.

Do you ever have writer’s block? As I get older, the “blocks” appear more in knowing there’s a perfect word for a given situation, but I can’t remember it at the moment. I put an X there, hoping that in the content editing process, I’ll remember what X should be. Otherwise, I’ve never experienced any block of any kind, and I don’t expect I ever will. When I pass on, I suspect it will be with another story idea in my mind!

Of course, I could answer more questions than these. (You might find some of yours answered on the preceding web pages.) Hopefully live book events will return so that readers can ask them in person!

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules found on the “:Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment goes into the spam bin.)

Defanging the Red Dragon and Intolerance. Hey readers, want free novels? You have two to choose from here, #6 and #7 from the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. (See the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page.) I’ll be publishing #8, The Klimt Connection, very soon, but maybe you have some catching up to do? Of course, the first five novels are available in ebook format wherever quality ebooks are sold, and the first three novels also have print versions. Lots of Esther’s adventures to choose from!

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