An Irish Tale. Barbara Dowd Wright, author; illustrations, Sokyo (2016). Sometimes you find more at the beach than you bargain for. One of my favorite places on the New Jersey shore is Spring Lake (it gets a cameo in my new novel Death on the Danube). The breakers there are impressive, and I can sit and watch them for hours, as they seem to tell me, “We will be here long after all you humans are gone.” You might think those thoughts are pessimistic, maudlin, or morbid; they’re not. It’s just a frequent come-to-reckoning that I have, stimulated there by watching the crashing waves, producing a realization that we should recognize our place in history and be humble.

Irish history as writ large is part of that reckoning. It arguably made Western civilization possible as Irish monks saved many documents from invaders like the Vikings. That history isn’t as big as this planet or Universe’s, but it’s large enough to be filled with mystery and meaning. I learn more about it as the years go by. In my review of Hegerty’s The Story of Ireland (June 24^th), I mentioned that St. Patrick wasn’t the first to bring Christianity to Ireland. He’s the most famous, though, and became its patron saint. His original name was Maewyn Succat, a Briton who was kidnapped as a young man and became a slave in ancient Ireland. He escaped and returned to Briton, became a priest, and took the name Patrick before he returned to Eire.

There is a bit of magical realism here as Maewyn comes to grips with the pagan beliefs of ancient Ireland. This undoubtedly was necessary for him, one way or another, so why not via a love story? To this day, the Irish believe in a mix of Catholicism and pagan myths and legends, which isn’t uncommon in any conversion process. (Hawaiians have similar beliefs, the missionaries who invaded their lands not being completely successful.)

This little book is a beautifully written historical fiction story about fifth century Ireland. It features Kiara the Healer, a wild Irish pagan woman, and the young slave-shepherd Maewyn, who changed Irish history forever. It’s a little pearl to be found among the many ordinary grains of sand represented by Amazon’s or bookstores’ offerings.

And that takes me back to Spring Lake. We found it at the Irish Centre there. I understand the author sells it from her website, and, although my copy says “limited edition,” it’s also on Amazon in both print and ebook versions. I certainly wouldn’t have read it without Spring Lake, though. Definitely worth the read, and you don’t have to be Irish to enjoy it! I sat back in my easy chair with my two fingers of Jameson and read it in one session. Fascinating!

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Comments are always welcome.

Death on the Danube. At the end of Son of Thunder, #2 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, ex-MI6 agent and ex-Scotland Yard inspector Esther Brookstone and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden finally say their I-do’s. At the beginning of this new novel, #3 in the series, they embark on their honeymoon cruise down the romantic Danube. When a strange passenger who is traveling alone is murdered, Bastiann takes over the investigation because the river was declared international waters in the Treaty of Paris. Who really is this gaunt victim? And who on the list of passengers and crewmembers is the assassin? Mystery, thrills, suspense, and romance await readers who join them in their journey. You can’t take this trip now because of COVID, but you can join them in spirit. Available in ebook and print format at Amazon, and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo and Walmart, etc.) and affiliated library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardner, etc.). Click to see the book trailer.

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

[Note from Steve: I know if you’re reading this, you’re probably a member of the good, decent citizens’ choir that hates Trump. Rest assured that I find the man despicable, a worthless piece of human trash like most fascists. It’s hard to preach to the stupid hordes of Trump’s followers, though; in general, they’re mindless zombies willfully following their evil Voldemort. But you, my readers, can help. If you can hold your nose, please work on people around you who support Trump to convince them that #NeverTrump is the only sane way to vote in the 2020 election. (Maybe you can work on the rest of the Good Ole Piranhas too, the lead zombies in your neighborhood.) You will at least be able to say to your children and grandchildren that you tried to halt America’s spiral down into fascism. I’ve already voted. Have you? By the way, everything in this post is fact. If you can’t deal with facts, stop reading.]

Like a lot of physicists, Einstein was an observer, and he also observed human behavior, perhaps more complicated than the workings of the physical Universe. Here’s perhaps his most famous and pithy remark that any sane person should be able to understand: “Two things are possibly infinite: the Universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” That sums up our current situation quite well: Trump and his mindless followers validate the truth of his statement in spades. It’s not that there are an infinite number of them—they’ve only been a steady minority for a long time, but they are dangerous because they are ruining this country and the world—and each one seems to possess infinite stupidity.

Even right here in blue-state NJ, Il Duce flaunted all CID guidelines to meet his stupid donors, at his golf club in Bedminster, no less (no concern for them or the workers there, of course, because Trump is a sociopath; and the lobotomized zombies hugging and kissing on the White House lawn to celebrate the new nominee to SCOTUS, another Nazi-leaning right-wing witch—all this shows that he and they aren’t only stupid, they’re brainless swamp scum. Some idiots still claim the virus is a Dem hoax or believe that it’s basically harmless, even with 200K+ Americans dead—after all, the Supreme Idiot says they shouldn’t fear it (with all the lies spewing out of his mouth, why anyone would believe a word that “f&^% moron” says is beyond me—the quote is from SecState Tillerson, whom Trump fired, as he’s done for any reasonable person in this administration). And then there’s the mindless buffoon seen on our local news who’s working for herd immunity, never mind that that gives millions more Americans a death sentence! (Trump’s “fear” comment is basically in support of herd immunity, too.)

Everywhere I look I see stupid people, and each one’s stupidity does seem infinite! The “herd” right now is comprised of all the lemmings with herb mentality happily following their great cult leader right over the cliff. Narcissus le Grand isn’t Jim Jones, but he might as well be, because the marching morons following him are intent on drinking his poisonous Kool-Aid. You saw a good sample right in front of Walter Reed, cheering their leader on as he rode by, an infantile demonstration of political theater. Trump wanted campaign optics. He got it. People shook their heads at his stupidity and sociopathic disregard of the Secret Service agents’ health, and leaving most medical experts livid. (Forget the president’s medical team. They lie just like the president. The chump’s Sean’s commander-in-chief, after all, although I believe he was picked because he’s loyal to the idiot—“loyalty to the fuehrer uber alles” is Trump’s requirement to hire someone.)

Trump’s political theater—the ride in that SUV, exposing the Secret Service agents; the demasking on the White House balcony and reentering without the mask, exposing everyone inside—these are the actions of a demented person. They show that the ignoramus-in-chief has an incurable mental disease—he’s a pathetically stupid sociopath! And he doesn’t deserve to be the leader of the free world. Instead, he deserves to be in a straitjacket locked up in a padded cell. Yes, @realDonaldTrump is probably the dumbest and most dangerous man on the planet!

He mocks Biden for going to a state school. How stupid is that!? Perhaps, like me and many others, Biden’s family situation was such that he couldn’t afford a private and snobbish Ivy League school. He didn’t have Trump’s money, that’s for sure, or Trump’s amoral behavior that allowed the self-proclaimed billionaire to use Daddy’s money to pay someone to take his SATs so he could go to UPenn (my opinion of that Ivy League school just hit a new low). (And we now know that Trump lied about being a successful businessman too. He’s a putz who’s lost millions! You and I manage our money better than he does because we don’t have Deutsche Bank to save our asses. Or Putin?)

And telling us not to fear the virus? The 200K+ dead in America really appreciate that, Mr. Trump, and what you said is a damn insult to the people who have survived or watched relatives and friends sicken and die because of his mismanagement of the COVID pandemic. FYI, you idiot who wrote off $70K in taxes for managing your three-foldover straw-like hairdo, I don’t fear the virus. I fear you and other idiots who tell me this virus is nothing, at worst like a little flu, or claim we should kill millions to achieve herd immunity. I don’t have your access to state-of-the art COVID treatments. Most people don’t. Many people still can’t get tested. And if you and your Nazi judge Amy kill the ACA, they won’t even be able to see a nurse or doctor!

Read the rest of this entry »

They can drive any author nuts. How can an author tell that someone’s comment to a blog post is spam? First, that someone doesn’t follow the rules. Here are mine (these also appear on my “Join the Conversation” web page):

No post with foul language or pornographic innuendos is accepted. I try to keep this website PG-13. Please help me in this effort.  For example, your marketing posts about porn, sex toys, and ED drugs WILL be eliminated!

I also try to keep this blog commercial free. Help me in this effort. No marketing posts are accepted. Don’t try to disguise them either. My spam filter will recognize the keywords used by marketers; if it doesn’t, I will. In particular, posts about SEO, WordPress plug-ins, and other annoying illusions to general website improvements aren’t accepted. I’m sure there are many creative gurus out there, but I already have trusted consultants.

Please refrain from making comments in languages other than English. That’s unfair to readers who don’t know your language and hinders continued discussion if a thread is started. I apologize for any inconvenience this might cause. I know a few languages, but I’m no polyglot. Let’s all use English so everyone can understand the comment thread. (Even though I’m a writer, I won’t hold incorrect spelling or grammar against you—all there are interested in your ideas.) Posts in other languages than English will be eliminated—sorry. Please comment on just the particular post; and please, no generalities about how great this blog is or how you’re going to recommend it to everyone.That wastes everyone’s time, including mine. You can start your post with a simple “I agree” or “I disagree” or something similar (even just a “Hi Steve” tells me you’re not spamming the Universe—I don’t test to see if you’re a robot), but readers (and me!) will want to know why you do either one. Zero information comments will ALWAYS be eliminated. I really don’t need any gratuitous pats on the back other than your reading this blog, but I welcome comments that contribute to the conversation.

Please also note that some comments are held by WordPress software, so if yours doesn’t appear immediately and is acceptable as part of the conversation, I will fix the problem. Also, your first comment on this blog has to be approved by me. From then on, you might sail through, unless WP flashes the red light and calls the cops (with my spam filter) or I catch you breaking one of the above rules. That first approved comment isn’t a low hurdle, though.

Please don’t think you have to agree with me. Discussion threads are generally enlightening, and I respect other people’s opinions. Keep the discussion to the topic in the blog post, though.

Follow these rules if you want to join the conversation. Doing so will make the blog a pleasant experience for every reader.

There are other reasons your comment will be censored too. Recent comments in Chinese or Russian immediately sent up red flags, especially now during the buildup to the US election. In general, if the commenter has a different name from her or his email address, I’m suspicious. And I don’t do proxies anymore—now they’re invariably spam, so they’re verboten.

Be forewarned: I have to approve every new comment! Once you’re a trusted commenter, you’re golden. That’s for my readers’ benefit: They don’t have to go through that “Are you a robot?” nonsense.

Happy commenting! And thank you for your understanding.

***

Comments are always welcome.

Death on the Danube. At the end of Son of Thunder, #2 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, ex-MI6 agent and ex-Scotland Yard inspector Esther Brookstone and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden finally say their I-do’s. At the beginning of this new novel, #3 in the series, they embark on their honeymoon cruise down the romantic Danube. When a strange passenger who is traveling alone is murdered, Bastiann takes over the investigation because the river was declared international waters in the Treaty of Paris. Who really is this gaunt victim? And who on the list of passengers and crewmembers is the assassin? Mystery, thrills, suspense, and romance await readers who join them in their journey. You can’t take this trip now because of COVID, but you can join them in spirit. Available in ebook and print format at Amazon, and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo and Walmart, etc.) and affiliated library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardner, etc.). Click to see the book trailer.

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

Cruises…. It’s human nature: When we can’t have something, we want it. That’s even more understandable now. Many don’t consider riverboat cruises, though. They prefer to cruise on floating cities, eating and partying, take perilous tenders to shore for their tours, and then do it all over again as soon as they can. They might see some sights, visit crowded beaches, and see lush vegetation and some strange animals, but they’re basically locked up 90% of the time in a crowded college dorm within a big city, a dorm full of many rowdies (you’ll meet a lot of Trumpsters, I’m sure), seeing only wide expanses of ocean—nothing peaceful, educational, or enlightening about that.

Riverboat cruises are different, thank God. Instead of a floating city, you’re in a floating village where you have a chance to establish friendships with kindred souls desiring those peaceful, educational, and enlightening experiences “far from the madding crowd.” You do not feel like you’re in Times Square on New Year’s Eve either. You can relax on the top deck of your riverboat, or on the prow or formal lounge, while looking at wonderful vistas on the river’s shore along with quaint, old towns.

Is it any wonder that Esther Brookstone and Bastiann van Coevorden, principal characters in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, decide to spend their honeymoon on a riverboat? They choose to cruise the beautiful Danube from Vishofen, Germany to Budapest, Hungary. (Several pictures sprinkled around this post correspond to that trip.)

My new book, Death on the Danube, is the third book in that series. (You can watch a trailer here.) The title alone leads you right into the story: A mysterious stranger is killed, and Bastiann takes charge of the murder investigation. He’s an Interpol agent, and the Danube is international waters. Of course, his new bride, Esther, helps him.

They manage not to skimp on the romance, though. Their riverboat docks at various ports on the Danube, and on the shore tour buses await them, ready to take them on unforgettable side trips to venues full of history going back to times before Columbus. And, along with their fellow passengers, they still manage to feast and party. For the first, they taste dishes from the surrounding countryside, along with local wines; for the second, singers and dancers onboard or at tour sites immerse them in local culture.

I’ve mentioned that Bastiann is an Interpol agent. Esther has an interesting history too. During the Cold War, she was an MI6 spy in East Berlin. Later she became a Scotland Yard inspector working in the Art and Antiques division. Now she’s retired and has her own gallery in London. In the first two novels, Rembrandt’s Angel and Son of Thunder, she first becomes obsessed with recovering a Rembrandt stolen by the Nazis in World War II, and then in finding St. John’s tomb. In this new novel, she just wants to enjoy her honeymoon with Bastiann, but the murder investigation interrupts that.

Maybe you think I’m looking for a job writing ad copy for a riverboat cruise company? No, I just wanted to share my enthusiasm for riverboat cruises in the only way I know how. You can experience one of these wonderful cruises right from your armchair as you read my new novel. Esther and Bastiann will welcome you aboard! Fair warning, though: Esther or Bastiann might come around and interrogate you as a person of interest in the investigation. Good sailing!

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Comments are always welcome!

Death on the Danube. At the end of Son of Thunder, #2 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, ex-MI6 agent and ex-Scotland Yard inspector Esther Brookstone and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden finally say their I-do’s. At the beginning of this new novel, #3 in the series, they embark on their honeymoon cruise down the romantic Danube. When a strange passenger who is traveling alone is murdered, Bastiann takes over the investigation because the river was declared international waters in the Treaty of Paris. Who really is this gaunt victim? And who on the list of passengers and crewmembers is the assassin? Mystery, thrills, suspense, and romance await readers who join them in their journey. You can’t take this trip now because of COVID, but you can join them in spirit. Available in ebook and print format at Amazon, and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo and Walmart, etc.) and affiliated library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardner, etc.). Click to see the book trailer.

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

This question considering Il Duce’s bromance with the evil Russian has been asked many times by many people, and asked most notably by ex-Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats (another person Narcissus le Grand fired, replacing him with a toady who knows absolutely nothing about national security!). It’s a reasonable question with the Putin-led attacks on the 2016, 2018, and 2020 electoral process. Maybe that’s what all that foreign debt is about? (Eric Trump is on record saying that they don’t need to borrow money in the US because they can get all they want from Russia?) In any case, that would give Trump an excuse for treason: Putin’s blackmailing me!

But Trump doesn’t deserve an excuse. He’s committed treason many times over and was nearly impeached for one of those flagrant and treasonous actins. He told George Stephanopoulos that he’ll use anything Putin gives him, which he did in 2018, and is doing so now. He tried to bribe the Ukrainian president and was impeached for it. (He wasn’t convicted because Moscow Mitch and the other Good Ole Piranhas, Trump’s toadies, didn’t allow it to happen, in spite of overwhelming evidence against Trump, but that impeachment still stands for all time! The People’s House has spoken!) He now uses a typical and whining autocratic tactic, saying that he won’t leave the White House even if Biden wins because the election will have been rigged if he loses.. Huh? And isn’t 200,000+ mass murders committed in the mismanagement of the pandemic enough treason perpetrated on the American public for you? That’s a crime against humanity!

However, let’s put the title’s question aside for the moment. While it’s one explanation of the Trump/Putin bromance, if Coats and his spy-minions couldn’t answer it, we still have plenty of evidence from other available information that Trump is a treasonous SOB. Michael Cohen describes the Moscow Trump Tower shenanigans in his book, and these went on during the 2016 campaign! If you believe Cohen (considering his pathetic situation, I have no reason not to) the bromance exists because Trump wants to have what Putin has: Putin owns an entire country, Russia! Trump not only admires Putin, Trump emulates him. They’re both like Mafia capos at the head of gangster mobs whose thugs, the oligarchs in Russia and the Good Ole Piranhas here, want to shake down their countries, raping and pillaging (the first, literally, in Trump’s case, if his treatment of women is any indication). That would also explain why Trump admires the world’s other autocrats as well—Kim, Netanyahu, Duterte, and many other dictators who rape and pillage their countries. He used to have a love affair with China’s Xi too, but now Trump blames the Chinese president-for-life (a title Trump aspires to) for COVID, blaming all the deaths from his mismanagement of the crisis on Xi. Maybe Trump’s followers are stupid enough to believe that (some of these attack Chinese in this country, although that might be more motivated by white-supremacy sentiments, which he supported in that infamous brawl called the first debate), but sane people will not believe it. (Most sane people don’t believe anything Il Duce says anymore. In fact, believing Trump might be a good definition of insanity!)

But what does Trump really admire about Putin et al? They can kill their enemies with impunity! Trump wants that power. So far he only destroys his enemies by ruining their reputations and their ability to make a living, but as capo of the gangster group, Trump Inc., he undoubtedly prefers that easier route, assassination. Putin excels at that. You can bet Trump’s respects to RBG included a whispered, “Thank you for dying, you old hag.” He can’t rise above partisanship and his all-out effort to destroy the country. Even the obnoxious Scalia could do that with RBG.

Read the rest of this entry »

They go from the prestigious Nobel, Pulitzer, and Man Booker prizes to less prestigious and banal ones some local book clubs or author groups hand out (often associated with some event). By and large, they all are recognitions of some author’s hard work in writing a book considered meritorious by some committee of judges—popular voting often wouldn’t provide the same recognition, because it’s often fickle, as Dancing with the Stars and American Idol have shown. (Recall Adam Lambert losing the latter because homophobic evangelicals biased the vote, giving a winner who has done nothing since? Yes, evangelicals damage the country and the world that way too.). The most extreme popular vote is sales numbers, and that really is fickle! But who are those judges?

They can be biased too, of course. They’re often just the good ole guys and gals who award prizes to someone within their same in-group. I can imagine them sagely nodding and saying, “Now it’s so-and-so’s turn to win.” Or one group tries to exclude another. In 2018, a group pressured Man Booker to exclude American authors, for example (they fortunately didn’t succeed). I’ve seen prizes awarded to books that are terrible; I know this because I read them (although sometimes they were so bad, I couldn’t finish).

Those top prizes—Nobel, Pulitzer, and Man Booker, to name a few—are coveted by authors and publishers alike, so you know literary politics plays a role as big publishers campaign for certain books and authors (the adjective “literary” is needed because most politics is controlled by illiterate idiots—DC is infested with them). That’s human nature, and, because of this, for me, they’re always suspect. It’s also hard to prove any shenanigans, because the public knows little about the inner workings of the judging processes. The Nobel committee created a scandal a few years ago, so much so that no prize was given.

But do avid readers actually read prize-winning books, or are the prizes, no matter the level, largely ignored by readership and reduce to ego-trips for the authors? The last Nobel prize novel I read was Garcia Marquez’s Cien Años de Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude); I read it in the original Spanish long before Gabo received the Nobel for it and greatly admired his use of magical realism. (The latter influenced part of my “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy,” although Gabo used it in neither a fantasy nor sci-fi setting—yes, those can also seem very realistic!)

These top prizes are often given to what’s been called “literary fiction” books (as if genre fiction wasn’t literature!), a catch-all category often not found in bookstores that are smart enough to realize that the label is meaningless. (Although it might seem unusual to call To Kill a Mockingbird a legal thriller, that’s what it is, and it’s undoubtedly the best one ever written! Sorry, John Grisham—your books can’t compare.)

My suspicions about how meritorious prizes are covers all levels. Why did Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem receive a Hugo? It’s a terrible sci-fi story and terribly written. It’s something like a political thriller, and I suppose that any story knocking modern China is worthy of some consideration, but the Hugo? Really? (See my 7/28/2017 review in the “Book Reviews” archive of this blog.)

Many low-level prizes are nothing more than money-makers for the organizations “sponsoring” them. These disguise that practice by using the questionable tactic of calling entry fees “reading fees.” When many of these use volunteer judges, their pay being promised prestige, you have to wonder who’s getting those fees. Danger, danger, Will Robinson! Authors should think more than twice about entering such contests.

All that said, I’ve seen fellow authors, whose books I greatly admire, win prizes. Many of these are good friends, and I applaud them. An old professor of mine, N. Scott Momaday, won a Pulitzer and truly deserved it—he’s a great writer. I never met Gabo when I lived in Colombia, but he and Pablo Neruda are my favorite Latino writers (poet in the case of Neruda)—both Pablo and Gabo won the Nobel. I don’t need formal judges, volunteers or otherwise, to tell me what books are worth reading. I really don’t care if a book wins a prize or not when I’m selecting books to read. Book prizes are like Emmys and Academy Awards: useless for determining my entertainment choices. In fact, many determine what I do NOT want to read.

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Comments are always welcome.

Death on the Danube. At the end of Son of Thunder, #2 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, ex-MI6 agent and ex-Scotland Yard inspector Esther Brookstone and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden finally say their I-do’s. At the beginning of this new novel, #3 in the series, they embark on their honeymoon cruise down the romantic Danube. When a strange passenger who is traveling alone is murdered, Bastiann takes over the investigation because the river was declared international waters in the Treaty of Paris. Who really is this gaunt victim? And who on the list of passengers and crewmembers is the assassin? Mystery, thrills, suspense, and romance await readers who join them in their journey. You can’t take this trip now because of COVID, but you can join them in spirit. Available in ebook and print format at Amazon, and all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo and Walmart, etc.) and affiliated library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardner, etc.). See the Readers’ Favorite 5-star review here.

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

Disloyal. Michael Coen, author (Skyhorse Publishing, 2020). Of all the tell-alls about Trump aka Il Duce aka Narcissus le Grand aka that “f&%$ing moron” (SecState Tillerson quote), this one was the most enjoyable to read so far. (I’m sure there’ll be more if he gets another term–God help us!) I don’t know if a ghost-writer was used (the author claims he wrote it using pen and legal pads in his cell), but it’s well-written, a memoir more like a novel portraying the dark, psychotic mind of the most dangerous man on Earth. The difference with a novel? This is all reality, or, if you insist, a portrait of the fantasy world mentally ill Trump lives in. It’s very entertaining. I’m reluctant to confess that. But it also reconfirmed all the bad things I know about the orange-haired devil…and more. Perhaps as part of Il Duce’s faux “patriotism course” where he wants to brainwash grade school children, we should also include this book as required reading in all high school civics courses as lessons for what a responsible electorate should NOT do. If Trump’s presidency doesn’t destroy this country, I’ll be surprised.

“Oh,” you might say, especially if you’re one of Trump’s fanatic followers, “Cohen is just a disgruntled Trump ex-employee.” I’m sure Moscow Mitch, Loco Lindsey, Jimmy “Jones” Jordan, and other Trump toadies are all saying that. They think rational voters will swallow their damn poisoned Kool-Aid. To them and every other naysayer, I counter that with, “Read the book if you can stop bloviating long enough.” From a “f&^%ing moron” to soldiers being “suckers” and “losers,” even while killing thousands of US citizens with his mishandling of the COVID pandemic, Trump’s actions are plain for any rational person to see. With this book, you’ll discover that what you see is just the tip of the iceberg. There aren’t enough awful adjectives to describe this despicable excuse of a human being.

Cohen belongs in jail too, of course. His mea culpa here is a great service to the US, though, because of the coming elections. He allows us to enter the fanatic, feverish mind of Trump, and that mind is a psychotic morass of darkness and evil. That’s what’s so scary—a Hitler for the 21^st century. Those mental health experts weren’t wrong. He belongs in a straitjacket and a padded cell…for the rest of his life!

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“Rage, rage, against the dying of the light….” I rage against Trump and his evil army, and I’m depressed that the light of democracy in this country is dying. Many days I think we now need another Civil War! (I’d much prefer, of course, that Trumpsters would come to their senses and realize their hero is a snake-oil salesman.) As the history of 1930’s Germany is currently repeated in our land, how can one not rage against the evil, hypocritical, bigoted, racist Trump and his followers who now make up the Good Ole Piranhas hordes? This mood of mine alternates between that rage and a terrible depression that Despicable Mel (Trump) and his fanatic Minions (Trumpsters) will succeed in destroying America and the rest of the world.

I rage when I see the crowds of Trump fanatics, those “marching morons” without masks or any social consciences, cheering for their leader, the “f&^%ing moron” (SecState Tillerson quote). I often hope they all die from COVID—he won’t, of course, because he keeps away from the idiots and gets tested every day, something no one in America can do because of him. (Why is the pandemic battle a political issue?) But I’m also depressed, thinking these mindless zombies will kill me, my family, and friends, and anyone else who doesn’t play along with them, fanatic hordes of despicable human beings. Until that happens, I don’t want any of them near me. Unless you see the error of your ways, stay away! You are diseased if you’re a Trumpster (better name than “Trumper” because it rhymes with “dumpster”). You’re diseased both mentally and physically, carrying a terrible virus in your mind as well as in your body.

Is the GOP the party of Lincoln? No way! Lincoln is looking down on them now, shaking his head, terribly annoyed with these poor excuses of human beings. The current Good Ole Piranhas no longer have the right to claim his ancestry. (Most of them would have fought with the CSA.) Lincoln wasn’t a racist, bigoted, and faux Christian like Trump and his followers. He had a SCOTUS nomination to make, with less time than now in replacing RBG, but he waited until the next term. He was a reasonable man and understood that the electorate should have its say, an argument the Good Ole Piranhas made in 2016 about Justice Garland. Lincoln wasn’t a racist or a bigot. And he was willing to fight a Civil War in an attempt to stamp out those who believe that crap. But the man who killed Lincoln was the first Trumpster…and true ancestor of the GOP! It’s gone downhill ever since.

Biden is right! This election is about saving the soul of America. Don’t look for the Good Ole Piranhas to save it. They’re zombies without souls, having sold them to the Devil named Trump. We already have Gardner, Graham, Grassley, and McConnell’s number—hypocrites,  all of them. They might just lose their electoral contests, but they don’t give a rat’s ass. They’ll screw American liberty any way they can. And Romney clearly votes for anyone who wants to turn the country into a religious theocracy. Only Collins and Murkowski have had the courage to go against Trump’s toadies in the Senate when it comes to SCOTUS nomination timing. And so we’ll see healthcare, abortion, and immigrant rights, and many other human rights fall in the shitstorm created by the Good Ole Piranhas, Trump’s imperial snarl appearing within the smoke and flames, saying, “Now I am Death, the destroyer of worlds.”.

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Self-published authors want to know how to price their books. Traditionally published authors usually don’t determine their book’s price, to their consternation, because those publishers often shaft them in that process. So let’s take a step back and just analyze what an ebook or print book should cost a reader, irrespective of how it’s published.

For ebooks, prices are changing. There’s plenty of supply, but there’s also more demand because, in this time of pandemic, ebooks are the safest ones to buy. For fiction, I’d put a new 60-kword ebook at $3.99; $2.99 or less for older. 80 kwords and above? Anybody’s guess, but $4.99 at least, but certainly less than $7. After all, $1 bets on five NFL games costs $5. Guess which entertainment has more lasting value. By the way, those $0.99 and $1.99 prices are bad choices. Unless you’re doing a sale, readers are likely to think the book has poor quality. And authors always strive to make quality books, right?

Print books are oranges compared two ebook apples, i.e. they’re a different species. I’m tempted not to do them anymore. I didn’t for A Time Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse. I did for Death on the Danube. Why the difference? Because the first two books in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series had print versions, while Time Traveler’s Guide was a stand-alone.

Yes, I know, those marketing gurus I railed against yesterday say that ebooks have plateaued and print remains strong. More BS, and wishful thinking from the Big Five publishing conglomerates. COVID has made many experts eat their words! Yes, the Big Five artificially elevate their ebook prices to make their print versions seem the better buy, but a print version should cost more than an ebook because it takes more money to produce a print version! And readers should pay more for the print version, considering global warming (if you can’t figure that one out, you’re part of the problem).

Enough readers still live in the 19^th century and like print better, but they shouldn’t have to pay the exorbitant prices traditional publishers charge either. I suppose some authors get some kind of ego boost seeing their books in print. From the author’s point of view, though, they’re only useful for those ego boosts and book events (the latter might come back, after all, if we ever get through this pandemic). Still, self-published authors shouldn’t follow traditional publishers’ lead in pricing their print versions. I recommend pricing them at the minimum price allowed by Create Space, or whatever printing service you use. Amazon has an easy formula to use, but you need the number of pages. You’ll know that, of course, once the print book is formatted. Set your print book at that minimum allowable price and everyone will be happy. You might actually make a bit more money too (the old numbers game). Just be aware that you’ll usually sell more ebooks!

If you’re traditionally published, your publisher can screw you with a high price for print and an ebook price almost as high. Those prices can lead to poor sales numbers. And then the publisher is liable to blame it all on you, especially when bookstores start returning the unsold books. (That’s why Big Five publishers are endangered species, except for their non-fiction tell-alls and celeb books. I don’t read many Big Five books now, and a lot of authors avoid them.)

Will correct, reasonable pricing help sell books? Nope, it’s just one necessary condition. There are no sufficient conditions authors or publishers can control. Everyone’s playing the lottery, and readers are rolling the dice.

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Comments are always welcome.

Death on the Danube. Esther Brookstone and Bastiann van Coevorden are on their honeymoon cruise floating down the Danube when a mysterious passenger is murdered. Because the Danube is international waters, Interpol agent Bastiann takes over the murder investigation. This third book in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series lets the reader follow more unique adventures of this crime-fighting duo full of mystery, suspense, and thrills. Come take a romantic cruise with the two sleuths. Available in all ebook formats and print (the print version is coming).

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

Molly Malone was a fish monger who marketed her cockles and mussels through streets wide and narrow, but should authors become book mongers? Molly was probably a lot better at selling her wares than authors are at selling their books. We’re good at writing. Most of us hate the rest and aren’t that motivated to do it. That leads to marketing gurus taking advantage of us.

Various gurus make a lot of money doing just that. (I could name names so authors could avoid them, but that wouldn’t be nice, would it? Write me if you need a list.). They’d answer, “Yes, you have to market your books, and we’re the ones who alone have the secrets about how to do it successfully.” BS. They all want your money upfront, and most of their secret methods are outdated and fail. They weasel out of those failures by blaming the authors, of course.

I market intensely when I launch a new book. I contract that out, and the lady who helps me is efficient and delivers, all business and making no promises. I appreciate her honesty. Her packages are also reasonably priced. I’ve worked with her for years, and she’s helped with both my traditionally and self-published books. In the wild seas of book marketing, she’s my rock that keeps me above the threatening waves.

Frankly, the dice are loaded against me and most authors, and no marketing guru can change that. The fundamental problem is that there are now too many books and too many authors that readers are overwhelmed by the offerings. They have no effective way to separate the wheat from the chaff, and there’s a lot of the latter. I know from experience. I’m an avid reader, and I’m constantly bombarded with offers of reading material, so much so that I’m overwhelmed and start looking for ways to tune out all the noise. I suspect every avid reader faces this dilemma.

As an author, I wave the white flag. What’s helped me conclude all those marketing gurus are basically worthless is they don’t believe in their own methods. If they did, they’d offer some kind of royalties-sharing plan—let’s sell books together and make money as we do. Consider a self-published book where I get 60 to 70% royalties. I’d give them 20% for a year. That should be time enough for them to prove the efficacy of their methods. Like the old snake-oil salesmen, they’re not interested in that—they want their money upfront!

Traditional publishers could make the same offer. Oh, yes, they usually take 80% or more of the royalties already, saying their investment in upfront costs (editing, formatting, and cover art) makes that reasonable. But I shouldn’t have to give them any more then to get marketing help, right? After all, if a book doesn’t sell, they lose more than I do! They could go to those same marketing gurus and make the offer of royalties sharing using their 80%. They don’t. They expect the author to do it. In fact, they send out recommendations for authors to try…using the authors’ money, of course.

So what’s an author to do? I’ve adopted a new policy. I don’t like to be bombarded as a reader, so I refuse to bombard other readers with “Read my book!” messages. I’m using a more novel tactic (pardon the pun); I’ll focus on all my books, but without bombarding readers. (The exception is that book-launch marketing, of course.) This is mostly done with blurbs at the end of these blog posts and showing cover art here and there. This limited effort comes from the belief that my writing books in different genres—mystery, thriller, and sci-fi novels—and all these are “evergreen,” will appeal to a wide demographic of readers. (“Evergreen” means the book is as current and fresh as the day I wrote it.)

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