Except for those uncaring citizens who aren’t up on the news, or who only watch Fox to reaffirm their crazy adoration of Trump and belief in conspiracies, most of us in the US, even around the world, recognize that Il Duce is a liar, cheat, pervert, and criminal. It doesn’t take his ex-fixer Cohen or Watergate journalist Woodward to tell us that. We have plenty of evidence by now that he should never have been president, that he’s the worst US president ever, and that the rest of the world will consider the US voters idiots if we reelect Narcissus le Grand.

My real fear, though, is that Trump is such a psychotic and paranoid sociopath that he will do anything to remain in power and realize his ambition to be like those other autocratic presidents-for-life like Kim, Putin, and Xi, whom he admires so much. (What does Putin have on Trump? Both Dan Coats and I want to know!). And that might just include destroying the world if this foul-mouthed schoolyard bully can’t have his own way. He thinks he’s surpassed Obama and Bush. Yes, but not in the way he thinks. Barack was super-presidential, smart, and gifted; and Dubya even shines in comparison to Il Duce. Trump’s become the worst of the worse as far as bad presidents go. And his statement about twelve more years might mean he wants to surpass FDR and stay in power forever.

His supporters must be too stupid to realize how dangerous this man is. He doesn’t give a rat’s ass about their problems; he just cares about himself. Everything he was impeached for was a high crime and misdemeanor, and the Good Ole Piranhas in the Senate let him get away with it because they drink his poisoned Kool-Aid. Everything in the Mueller report was impeachable too, but Mueller didn’t have the balls to prosecute, leaving that to Congress, which failed America twice by not getting rid of “the f&^%ing moron” (SecState Tillerson quote, without the &^%). How many cases are pending in the SDNY court now? Trump doesn’t want to lose because he’ll end up in jail!

It’s sad. My litmus test for even talking with people now is whether they are Trump supporters. Trump has succeeded in dividing us, and he’s destroyed the GOP—there are few true conservatives left, just Trump sycophants. I don’t want anything to do with Trump supporters. I know you might want to shoot me, spit on me, boo me, shout me down, spit in my face, like the unthinking wild lemmings you are, but I’ll just walk away. You’re despicable human beings, so I’ll avoid you. In my old day-job, I had to suffer fools gladly; I don’t have to do that anymore. But I fear you’re going to destroy the country I love, and Trump is leading the charge to kill democracy.

Read the rest of this entry »

While you don’t need a writer to be a fan, crosswords seem a natural pastime for authors. Give me a spare half-hour, and I’ll try to breeze through one. I often get through Monday’s NY Times’s crosswords in less than that, using a pen, and take slightly more time with Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s, using a pencil. If I don’t finish one, I just toss it. There’s always another one.

I often receive books of crosswords as gifts. The intention is good—people who know me know I’m a fan. One of these contained crosswords labeled “easy.” They weren’t so easy, though. I checked the author indicated on the cover. Will Smith? Now, both Will and Smith are common first and last names, respectively, but an unsuspecting buyer probably will think of Will Smith, the actor. He could be a fan and a creator of crosswords, as far as I know. Inside the author was not Will Smith. Maybe the author is some fellow from Hong Kong, who speaks and writes English better than I do and really thinks these crosswords are easy? It was hard to tell.

So here’s the punch line: those “easy” crosswords books were published via Amazon’s Create Space, now part of KDP. Amazon is well known for selling just about anything, and its KDP offerings are no exception. I’m always fighting that stigma because my books are often listed among a lot of trash books that are published. Some of these are undoubtedly pirated. Amazon can’t control that, of course. Anyone can publish anything these days.

This is related to the problems with Amazon affiliates in general. Company X can make a terrible, even dangerous product and sell it on Amazon. In the gig economy, the huge retailer offers a way to reach a national, even international audience, for someone who makes boutique soaps in their garage, for example. I don’t have problems with that per se, especially in these days of COVID, but there’s very little quality control. Just consider all the face mask and hand sanitizer offerings there.

And, like it or not, every self-published author participates in that gig economy. Authors can write, publish, and market their books right from their homes. Many sell directly from their website, or process book orders right at home. Again, nothing wrong with that. The days of book signings and book events are gone, or on their last legs with the pandemic. Amazon and every other internet retailer is the better answer. In fact, one of my internet retailers is Smashwords, and they distribute to many other retailers and lending and library services as well.

You can understand why I sometimes feel like that Will Smith who’s not a Will Smith. In fact, dear readers, I could just be a computer program that writes, publishes, and markets books, all automatically, some sort of AI that’s pretending to be human. Or maybe an ET doing everything from my cloaked spaceship in orbit.

Now those are new versions of “nerdy author,” right?

***

Comments are always welcome.

Death on the Danube. Esther Brookstone, ex-MI6 agent in East Berlin in the Cold War and ex-Scotland Yard Inspector in the Art and Antiques Division, is on her honeymoon with Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden. Their idyllic cruise down the Danube is interrupted when a reclusive and mysterious passenger is murdered. Why was the victim alone on that riverboat filled with couples, in a stateroom by himself? And who killed him? Esther and Bastiann were often called Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot by wags at the Yard, and this addition to the series might remind readers of Christie’s Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express, but this mystery/thriller is very much a story set in the twenty-first century. So tour the Danube with Esther and Bastiann…and enjoy the ride! Coming soon.

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

My character Esther Brookstone becomes obsessed with finding things: a missing painting in Rembrandt’s Angel and St. John the Divine’s tomb in Son of Thunder. In the third book of the series, Death on the Danube (coming soon!), she does more traditional sleuthing, helping new hubby, Bastiann van Coevorden, find an assassin. This Miss Marple-like woman and her Hercule Poirot-like husband are on their honeymoon! I’ve become obsessed with telling readers about her adventures (although George Langston, her ex-boss, gets the credit for that, as he takes on the role of Dr. Watson to chronicle the sleuthing pair’s escapades contained in the books). That obsession, storytelling, has gripped me since my first novel, Full Medical (2006).

Although I’m an ex-scientist (you might still see some of my ancient publications if you google me—yes, that’s the same Steven M. Moore!), and those skills allow me to create complex stories without too many errors in logic, I’ve always been more verbal and visual. Any successes I had as a scientist are due to those same skills of organization and visualization of lots of experimental data. I remember my surprise long ago when my SAT verbal score was a bit higher than my mathematical one. Now I realize I shouldn’t have been—I’ve always been obsessed with words, both in reading and writing.

My reading led to writing. I was always reading “ahead of grade,” as elementary teachers call it (I bless them all for putting up with my idiosyncrasies). I soon had acquired enough hubris to believe that I could create stories as interesting and entertaining as the ones I read (mysteries, adventures now known as thrillers, and sci-fi, all at an adult level). I wrote my first novel the summer I turned thirteen—it went into the trash can when I left for college. My current writing style has mostly remained the same, though—minimalist writing. In my reading, I admired and still admire how good storytellers allow readers to participate in the creative process by providing just enough narrative and character description so readers can exercise their own visualization powers. How could I write like that and still maintain my own voice? Practice, practice, practice. I believe I can do it now (there’s always room for improvement), but it’s always been my main goal…or obsession, if you will.

Writing is my obsession now. Part of that is because I didn’t start publishing my stories until 2006. (It would have been earlier, but some agents and acquisition editors spammed me with loads of rejections for a while.) From the very beginning, I wrote stories that would always be “evergreen,” stories as current and entertaining as the day I wrote them. That same late start means that I’ll continue to write them to catch up. I have many stories in me still, and I feel this need to write them. That’s my obsession.

Are other authors obsessed in this way? I sense that some aren’t; they’re just writing stories that satisfy market demands. As sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein said, “…maybe I should study the market and try like hell to tailor something which fits current styles. But…if I am to turn out work of fairly permanent value, my own taste…is what I must follow.” That’s my motto too, which means I should continue to write “evergreen” books that will provide readers with more stories with permanent entertainment value.

***

Comments are always welcome.

Death on the Danube. Esther Brookstone, ex-MI6 agent in East Berlin in the Cold War and ex-Scotland Yard Inspector in the Art and Antiques Division, is on her honeymoon with Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden. Their idyllic cruise down the Danube is interrupted when a reclusive and mysterious passenger is murdered. Why was the victim alone on that riverboat filled with couples, in a stateroom by himself? And who killed him? Esther and Bastiann were often called Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot by wags at the Yard, and this addition to the series might remind readers of Christie’s Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express, but this mystery/thriller is very much a story set in the twenty-first century. So tour the Danube with Esther and Bastiann…and enjoy the ride! Coming soon.

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

Kentucky, a state with a long tradition of continuing to fight the Civil War into the 21^st century like many southern states, has two laws most people there, or most anywhere else, could imagine clashing: the “Stand Your Ground” law and the “No-Knock Warrants” law. They clashed in a deadly fashion in the case of Breonna Taylor, putting her in a deadly vise and providing a strong indictment against systemic racism and the NRA with its wrong interpretations of the Second Amendment.

I can understand the intention of no-knock warrants. Knocking is the signal for a “perp” to run. Forget the fact that anyone looking out and seeing a SWAT group would probably run for their live too, especially a black person espying a white SWAT. In fact, a black person, guilty or innocent, should run for their life in a southern state. In these red states, it’s usually guilty until proven innocent, especially toward black and brown people by the Trumpers. If ICE agents can be seen in combat gear, same thing.

Of course, the suspected “perp” inside might start firing his gun (easy to own in red states) through the door when he hears the knock. Patience isn’t a virtue among some cops, especially white ones looking for a black man in a red state, so they prefer to neutralize a perceived threat and question the suspect later. They don’t bother to check the address of the person they’re after either. In Breonna’s case, they were sent there to arrest a different black man, and by damn they were going get one! They had the wrong address. Afterward the cops and prosecutors tried to make it out that the one with Breonna was the drug dealer’s accomplice.

“Standing Your Ground” is an absurd law, of course. Those laws, again mostly enacted in red states where the size of one’s gun seems to be a measure of a man’s masculinity (or a woman’s desire to show she’s “man enough”?), meaning that a person who perceives a threat can kill the person supposedly making a threat. All kinds of validation for a racist killing there, as we saw in that parking lot in Florida! Or with Trevon Martin. This is deadly force sanctioned by stupid or racist politicians who happily benefit from the NRA’s deep pockets, politicians willing to accept blood money for their campaigns from the NRA.

Breonna’s boyfriend stood his ground. There was no knock, and the cops didn’t identify themselves. He had no idea who they were…and stood his ground, because in Kentucky he could own a gun and use it exactly that way.

Two stupid laws met that fateful night, catching the poor EMT in a deadly crossfire. Both laws should be repealed. Unforeseen consequences are no excuse when it comes to saving human life, in this case a beautiful person who lived to help others. Reasonable gun laws should be enacted, strong, federal laws so gun owners in red states or anywhere else are forced to use guns responsibly, and so they’re punished when they don’t.

Of course, the NRA doesn’t want this. They bloviate about their Second Amendment rights. Judge Scalia himself proved their credo is bullshit. He consulted a database in Utah trying to buoy up that credo and could hardly find a document from that era supporting individual gun ownership. Except for neo-Nazis and white supremacists, gun owners aren’t part of a militia; the militias are now our National Guard. Personal gun ownership is not guaranteed by the Second Amendment, and never was. No individual besides soldiers in the National Guard really has a right to own a gun! And cops get along with them just fine in Britain.

God help us if we can’t do what’s right and get reasonable gun laws. A failure there will make the coming Civil War between red and blue states all that bloodier. That’s where Trump is taking us, but we can disarm those with the blood lust to save some innocents at least…like Breonna Taylor!

***

Comments are always welcome.

Death on the Danube. Esther Brookstone, ex-MI6 agent in East Berlin in the Cold War and ex-Scotland Yard Inspector in the Art and Antiques Division, is on her honeymoon with Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden. Their idyllic cruise down the Danube is interrupted when a reclusive and mysterious passenger is murdered. Why was the victim alone on that riverboat filled with couples, in a stateroom by himself? And who killed him? Esther and Bastiann were often called Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot by wags at the Yard, and this addition to the series might remind readers of Christie’s Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express, but this mystery/thriller is very much a story set in the twenty-first century. So tour the Danube with Esther and Bastiann…and enjoy the ride! Coming soon!

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

Carlos, this day when you perished at the hands of radical Muslim fanatics will never be forgotten. We miss you!

Bookend commercials and a day’s bookend storms…bad; Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bookends”…good. Bookends for books are on the endangered species list. The reason? Ebooks.

Many older readers and others prefer print. Like me, they like to browse in bookstores, libraries, and online; the first two are usually for print books. But, unlike me, they don’t take advantage of the convenience of ebooks: they’ve saved my sagging bookshelves. Bookends are needed to put some order into bookshelves, but they’re not needed for ebooks. Avid readers can load up their e-readers, not their shelves, so there’s no need for bookends.

During the COVID pandemic, I’ve been binge-reading, even entire series (many of them British-style mysteries). Imagine if I had print versions for all of them. Every room in my house would be needed to house them. And that’s not just a recent phenomenon. Even at my old day-job, I’d average a book every two weeks. Now it’s four or five per week, but the principle is still the same: print is impractical.

Besides, I can’t afford print. Many excellent ebooks are reasonably priced at $2.99 or $3.99; print versions are at least $10 in general. So I can buy a five-book series in ebook format for $20; the same series in print format would be $50 at least. (Big Five ebooks are a lot more expensive, but I rarely buy Big Five fiction anymore.) I’m no longer going to Burger King or McDonald’s; in the days of COVID. I prefer food for the mind, and an ebook costs about the same as a fast food meal.

Preference for ebooks had flattened before COVID, but I suspect, when all the dust settles, we will see that the pandemic has not only increased readership in general, but it has led to a surge in ebook sales numbers (why risk going to a bookstore or library when you can order an ebook online?). But preferences change slowly, and they will continue even after COVID. It’s hard to predict how things will shake out. Older readers tend not to be into e-anything, so they prefer print more than ebook versions; younger people tend not to be readers at all, and are more into streaming video and computer games. Any COVID-boost to readership might be ephemeral, but if books have any staying power, it’s more likely it will occur because of ebooks.

So I will continue to read and write ebooks, preferring them over print. Now if I could just protect them from being pirated, I would be a happy camper.

***

Comments are always welcome.

“Esther Brookstone Art Detective.” This series, at times very much in the style of British mysteries, might be binge-worthy too. Esther begins her adventures as a Scotland Yard inspector with an MI6 background as an ex-spy during the Cold War. Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden enters as her paramour. The wags at the Yard have nicknamed them Miss Marple and Hecule Poirot, but those adventures are very 21^st century, with mystery, suspense, and thriller elements. In the first two novels, Rembrandt’s Angel and Son of Thunder, poor Bastiann has to deal with Esther’s obsessions. In the first, she’s obsessed with recovering a painting stolen by the Nazis in World War II. In the second, she’s obsessed with finding St. John’s tomb using written directions left by the Renaissance painter Botticelli. In the third, Death on the Danube (soon to be published), Esther and Bastiann’s honeymoon is interrupted by a murder on their riverboat. Available wherever quality books are sold.

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

“Heathcliff Lennox Mysteries.” Karen Baugh Menuhin, author. I continue to report on my binge-reading (I’m binge-writing too, and the manuscripts are piling up—more on that elsewhere in these pages). Most mystery series I’ve OD’d on are more or less modern-day, although the books are often “evergreen” (2019 or earlier, but as fresh and entertaining as the day they were written). Others, whether evergreen or not, are purposely set in earlier times—early 20^th or 19^th century (T. E. Kinsey’s “Lady Hardcastle Mysteries” and Carole Lawrence’s “Edinburgh Crime Mysteries” are fine examples).

Here the author has written five entertaining and authentic period stories (probably more to come?)—the last was just published, so not exactly evergreen. There’s humor, and there’s murder. The first book reminded me of Hiaasen and Moliere, and subsequent novels haven’t changed that opinion (the farce at the beginning of Death in Damascus is classic). The time is the early 1920s after the Great War, but the settings vary from merry olde England to Dmasccus and Scotland, and from mansions and castles to Syrian bazaars. The Damascus story is farcical; the one that takes place on a Scottish laird’s island is the spookiest. All are concerned with murder most fowl.

The stories are told in first person by the main character, Major Heathcliff Lennox. Readers will discover events and clues along with him. He doesn’t like his name Heathcliff, though; he prefers Major Lennox, or just Lennox. He’s a bit of an ingenuous gadfly, a dapper James Bond-like character who’s shy around the ladies! After sleuthing around to prove he’s innocent of murdering his uncle’s girlfriend in the first book, he fancies himself a detective. Swift, the Scotland Yard DCI, who pursues Lennox relentlessly in that first book to put him in the hangman’s noose, teams up with him in subsequent novels. Which one is Holmes and which one is Watson? Swift, a reformed socialist after marrying the laird’s daughter, adheres to police protocol, even after he retires from the Yard. Lennox is more intuitive. Together they get the job done.

These books aren’t cozies. Far from it. Some are dark, peering beneath the veneer of civilization at the darkness in women and men’s souls, and this makes the humor dark as well (and necessary to lighten things up a bit). The portrayal of class friction in 1920’s Britain is also serious if readers move beyond the humor found among the servants to the rich, all with their own problems and often perceptive takes on the foibles of their masters.

No, these books are solid mysteries that provided me with hours of quality entertainment. And yes, the author’s father-in-law is my beloved Yehudi, who continues to provide me hours of fantastic musical entertainment to accompany my reading. And yes, the mention of Jameson Irish whiskey in some books seems like an acknowledgement of that other essential component of my reading: Major Lennox, plus Yehudi’s music and Jameson whiskey—that’s the perfect trio for binge-reading!

***

Comments are always welcome!

“Esther Brookstone Art Detective.” This series, at times very much in the style of British mysteries, might be binge-worthy too. Esther begins her adventures as a Scotland Yard inspector with an MI6 background as an ex-spy during the Cold War. Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden enters as her paramour. The wags at the Yard have nicknamed them Miss Marple and Hecule Poirot, but those adventures are very 21^st century, with mystery, suspense, and thriller elements. In the first two novels, Rembrandt’s Angel and Son of Thunder, poor Bastiann has to deal with Esther’s obsessions. In the first, she’s obsessed with recovering a painting stolen by the Nazis in World War II. In the second, she’s obsessed with finding St. John’s tomb using written directions left by the Renaissance painter Botticelli. In the third, Death on the Danube (soon to be published), Esther and Bastiann’s honeymoon is interrupted by a murder on their riverboat. Available wherever quality books are sold.

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

I know I’ve probably made some readers of this blog furious with me after reading some of my recent op-eds. Maybe some are even boycotting my books. Others, though, might like that the author who wrote them has enough courage to discuss social issues, both in his books and in those op-eds? I’ll never refrain from speaking my mind just because gurus tell me that I must do so if I want to sell more books. To hell with that!

Authors are often scared of taking a stand on social issues. If they’re traditionally published, their publishers will tell them to shut up too. (And yet they still publish Ayn Rand and Michael Crichton?) If they’re self-published, other authors and marketing people might also advise, “Don’t offend anyone.”

I’ve already offended a lot of people, I suspect, since I started publishing my stories in 2006—climate-change deniers; NRA members; extremists in both parties, especially faux conservatives who are Trump supporters (do they even read? Il Duce doesn’t); and so forth. Do I care? No! If those people don’t want to read what I write, so be it. They might be missing out on some good stories, but it’s a free country, right? (Trump might change that, especially if he does the Putin- or Xi-trick and takes twelve more years, but by then I’ll be in a place where I can convince St. Peter to send him straight to you-know-where when he tries to get in through the pearly gates.)

Given my offenses, I’m not surprised I receive some negative book reviews. In today’s toxic publishing environment, that’s par for the course in general. I was surprised by a recent review of my new novel A Time Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse, though. While I thank the reviewer for the time spent reading and reviewing the book, the snarky little aside insinuating feminists will boycott the book left me shaking my head. I just don’t understand this comment. I champion strong, smart women in many of my stories. One reason I wrote the main character the way I did was because I think the “women can’t do math” and “women aren’t good at science” crowd make countries lose a lot of good mathematicians and scientists, even medical personnel. STEM in the US if for both girls and boys! That my main character also has learned some self-defense tricks is intended to be an indictment against a society that often does too little to control abuse of and violence on women. Lamentably the reviewer missed these two nuances!

Readers who bury their heads in the sand at the very least miss the whole point of books. (If Trump has read 1984, he certainly didn’t understand it…or learned nothing from it, because what he and his minions spew is doublespeak.) Have the anti-cultural appropriation people read To Kill a Mockingbird? How could Harper Lee, a white woman and Southern to boot, dare write about black America? I bet no CEO of a polluting corporation has read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring either. How dare she criticize Corporate America without being a member of that community!

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“Defund the police!” Let’s analyze this statement. There are a lot of people who see a few rotten apples and think the whole barrel is bad—they hate all the police. They feed off stereotypes. The same thinking that leads to KKK-type tropes about blacks and Hispanics being thieves, rapists, and murderers (out current president uses those and repeats them over and over again), that same thinking the other side employs to see cops—“pigs” as they call them—as Nazi Stormtroopers doing the bidding of autocratic personalities like Trump.

Cases like George Floyd and Jacob Blake’s don’t help, of course. Those few bad cops are indeed murdering, racist fascists who must be brought to justice. But those cases, as horrible as they are, don’t mean all cops are bad. And I’m sure the good cops, often bastions of their communities across the land, find those actions as deplorable as we do. And one must remember that there’s evidence for right-wing anarchists starting the looting and violence (e.g. white kid with long gun in Kenosha); that certainly belies Trump and homophobic Brother Pence’s law-and-order message!

In a previous op-ed post, I spoke of the “marching morons.” It’s moronic behavior to believe all cops are bad, and having fewer cops will not make people safer. Quite the contrary. NYC is showing this now: moronic mayor De Blasio cut $1 billion from the NYPD and cancelled a special unit whose mission was to get guns off the street. The result: More violence, and a lot of it associated with more guns!

Having fewer cops might have made East Germans safer from the Stasi; that will not be the case in the US. (Narcissus le Grand wants to turn us into East Germany and create his own Stasi, of course. Hopefully he doesn’t succeed.)

My fellow Americans at left-of-center like me, might counter with: “Well, De Blasio is going to use that $1 billion for social programs, isn’t he?” Ha! He’s also ready to sell you that bridge in Brooklyn too. (Or is it Giuliani? Mayors sometimes tend to think the own the city.) Maybe $1 billion for social programs sounds good to AOC and her rabid followers on the extreme left, but it’s bad policy to steal it from the NYPD. That will only exacerbate the clear and present danger in NYC streets that is making people move away from the city as much as COVID does. My response to all those screaming to defund the police (the following is also a trope, I’ll admit, but one that’s positive): What are you going to do when you have to confront a mugger, rapist, or murderer? Call a social worker?

People are already finding out that De Blasio’s move was moronic and oh so wrong (opportunistic at its best, proof of stupid thinking from an inept man unable to foresee the consequences of his dangerous actions at the worse). It will be proven wrong all across the land where city councils and county commissioners believe that defunding the police and sheriff’s departments is a solution to systemic racism in these organizations—systemic because the good cops often aren’t willing to confront the bad ones, and not because there are too many cops!

Good, solid policing is necessary. There are gangs, drug dealers, and terrorists; there are muggers, rapists, and murderers. That’s a fact of life, and not just in our big cities. We’re already hearing from many people (and many are minorities who bear the brunt of the violence): Where are the cops? My answer is simple: Defund policing means fewer cops, not only because of budget cuts but because those who want to serve and help their communities are demotivated.

Read the rest of this entry »

Parents only have to come up with names a few times, and they often fail miserably. Writers have to do it a lot more; they subsequently have many more times to fail and they often do. Characters’ names are important; they can make a story seem more or less real.

I was lucky my parents didn’t name me Leonard. It invariably would be shortened to Lonnie or Lon, and I was bullied with “Lawn Mower” enough as a kid—why encourage it? I have a rather common last name as it is that maybe indicates I’m at least part Irish (the O’ being dropped somewhere along the line), but my Dad’s favorite boxer, Archie Moore, was a strong and handsome black champion long before Ali, who wasn’t Arab.

The above maybe belies my belief that characters’ names are important, and real names can even be hilarious. In one of CNN’s news segments on COVID-19 a few months ago (eons for this pandemic—I never watch Fox’s fake news, by the way), they interviewed a Dr. Bright, a nice enough and smart fellow. I have to confess the name was a distraction as I asked myself, did become a doctor because of his surname? Of course, he didn’t choose it, but that was my knee-jerk reaction. And it’s anecdotal proof that characters’ names can influence readers’ perceptions.

Authors, however, choose their characters’ names. It’s not an easy task, especially for US authors whose characters belong to our wonderfully diverse melting pot. A wrong choice can trouble readers; it could also bring down the wrath of the anti-cultural appropriation crowd upon the writer. I worry more about the first than the second, of course. But no one wants to use names tantamount to Dick, Jane, and Spot—i.e. stereotypes like Jones and Smith…or Moore!

Here’s what I do: I start a story and pick names for characters as I go. Often I get to the point where the name for a character just doesn’t seem and think of a better name. I do a find-and-change the first name to the second throughout the file…and presto. I’ve renamed that character. (Sorry, you have to do first names separately from surnames because often only one of them is used. And often, with nicknames, you even need another pass: You might want to change Vladimir to Volodya. I’m thinking of my arch-villain Vladimir Kalinin AKA Volodya plus many aliases. Names for villains are very critical.)

In a sense, authors have thousands of children, their characters. They must take as much care in naming them as the proud parents of a newborn. But they have to take into account a character’s era, culture, and circumstances. Naomi Wong might be used for a Chinese-American, for example, but it won’t work in Taiwan. Horace might work for a man from the 1800s (I apologize for the obscure literary pun), but the last Horace I knew was a hamster. And so forth.

Choose your characters’ names carefully. You readers will thank you.

***

Comments are always welcome.

Rogue Planet. Considering how too many want to see the US become a fascist theocracy like Iran, only evangelical (the pope’s the anti-Christ, don’t you know), I thought some readers might be bold enough to see what a sci-fi world like that might look like. Along with Soldiers of God, some of you might have concluded even before now that I don’t like evil theocracies of any flavor. Well, you’re right. Here one man leads the charge against one to save his planet. Will he succeed? Or will he lose his head like the other so-called heretics? Set in the same sci-fi universe as the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy,” this is hard sci-fi with a Game-of-Thrones flair (there are no dragons). Available wherever quality books are sold.

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