No, this isn’t a review of that awful Brad Pitt movie Inglorious Bastards (tried to watch it, but, like a bad book, I left it after ten minutes—okay, maybe that is a review?). No, I’m talking about that Trump the Chump Reality Show (more fantasy than reality with its lies and vitriol), led by the snake-oil fascist, Donald Trump AKA Il Duce AKA Vainglorious-Bastard-in-Chief and his homophobic sidekick, Brother Pence. (Of course, they’re not bastards in the true sense of the word; Trump had a father and learned far too much from that sociopath.)

“Vainglorious” perfectly describes Narcissus le Grand and most of his minions, so his is my review of the RNC, where luminaries from the Good Ole Piranhas are practiced their Orwellian doublespeak into the wee hours of the night. Or is it just following Goebbels’s dictum? Say the lies often enough, and people will believe them.

Some people will believe the doublespeak, that’s for sure…those marching morons who make C. M. Kornbluth’s characters in his famous sci-fi novella seem tame. Trump’s followers are so gullible that they’ll follow the “f&^% moron” (SecState Tillerson quote) right over the cliff like lemmings. “Blue-collar billionaire”? Now that’s the epitome of an oxymoron. Narcissus le Grand spews a lot of those too, and has trained homophobic Brother Pence and his family and other minions to spew them, along with the doublespeak and lies.

That brings me to Don Jr. Like papa and granddaddy, he should be in nappies, in a straitjacket, and locked away in a padded cell (the nappies are needed for his big mouth where only you-know-what comes out). He spewed lots of doublespeak during his speech along with that oxymoron “blue-collar billionaire.” If anyone out there thinks the Chump cares about anyone but himself, Giuliani’s probably willing to sell you a bridge in Brooklyn that he thinks he owns (he came out from under his rock too for an evil cameo-he has his ticket to leave the country as soon as the Donald loses).

“Church, school…”? Great timing there, Don Jr. Most everyone will remember your daddy’s evangelical leader and campaign donor in 2016, the most Rev. Jerry Jr. (the juniors were really blathering a lot last week). Is he what you mean by church, Don Jr? Working to create an evangelical, fascist theocracy, are you, led by philanderers like you, Falwell (actually he and his wife are holy swingers too), and your father, nasty men who abuse and use women? I see decency in the Biden camp. I see a bunch of immoral and perverted  creeps in yours. And school? Well, there’s Liberty U, which essentially financed Jerry Jr. and his wife’s sex games. (I wonder if that’s a course there. It would be more entertaining than that “Hate the Pope” course.) Or maybe we should ask your father to teach courses on how to hire someone to take their SATs? He missed out on following Lori Mclaughlin’s example—I’m sure he would have applauded her easier solution to get into UPenn (couldn’t stay at Fordham—it’s run by Jesuits, those demon hordes of the anti-Christ).

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Chadwick Boseman, RIP. While Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, and other great historical figures you played would have established you as a great actor and sensitive man, your Black Panther portrayal inspired many. It also became a symbol for what we need to be in these troubling times: Resistant, resolute, and resilient agents for change. The big C often takes young victims and those in the prime of their lives. It’s always sad when it takes anyone. That other big C in our lives right now will be a thing of the past soon enough, so we must continue with our long battle against cancer…and the inequities in our societies, perhaps the most insidious diseases of them all.

Chadwick, you will be missed.,,but never forgotten!

[Note from Steve: A.B., author of a YA sci-fi mystery series, has been busy working on a new trilogy. He almost has the first book done. I convinced him to take a break and dash off a short story for our readers. This story, like most of his, has an interesting young adult as main character. Enjoy.]

Birth Day

Copyright 2020, A.B. Carolan

He awoke and knew he was surrounded by liquid…wet and slimy stuff that somehow made him feel secure. He was surrounded by walls. He reached out and touched the smooth wall in front of him. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realized there was something beyond the wall. Desperation gripped him. I need to get out!

He pushed on that front wall. It gave a little. The other three had hoses and other things hanging from them, so he knew that front one was the wall to attack. He wriggled his legs and sensed the strength in them. He avoided the confusion of hoses and apparatus and leaned against the back wall. He brought his knees to his chest and then kicked with both legs. The water splashed out, carrying him, and he landed on something solid.

He struggled to breathe. He gulped, but there wasn’t any oxygenated water to fill his gills. But then they shut down and his lungs took over. It was a strange and new sensation. Water was a friend, but so was the air.

He looked up and behind him and saw the top of the tall tank that had held him captive. There was a sign that said “Epsilon 27.” He marveled at that. Words. Well, one word and one number, so numbers too. He could read words and numbers! Even more marvelous: He knew they were words and numbers. His life up to that time had been pure, passive existence. Air, words, and numbers! A new world!

He didn’t know what the word or number meant at first. But then memories that had been dormant flooded into his conscious mind. I am Epsilon 27! And my job is to join my fellows and go after those who have turned Earth into a steamy water world! Those thoughts built his resolve.

We’re coming for you!

***

Comments are always welcome!

“Esther Brookstone Art Detective.” While you’re sitting on the edge of your recliner eagerly waiting for me to announce Death on the Danube, #3 in this series, don’t forget there’s a lot of entertaining reading to be found in the first two books, Rembrandt’s Angel and Son of Thunder, very different stories tied together by Esther’s obsession with finding the truth. In the first book, the Scotland Yard inspector obsesses with recovering a painting stolen by the Nazis; in the second, she obsesses with finding the tomb of St. John the Divine. Her paramour, Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden, struggles to keep her on an even keel. Available wherever quality books are sold, including at the publisher Penmore Press.

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

Writers should always strive to strike a balance in their prose. That’s another way of saying they should follow the Goldilocks Principle: Not too much, not too little, but just enough of narrative, background, characterization, and dialogue. The last seems to be a problem for some, though.

A reader of my very first novel Full Medical (2006) said she loved the dialogue. I have to confess that I don’t pay much attention to it; I just tell my story, and dialogue is part of that telling. After all, I’m more an avid reader than a writer, so I’ve experienced a lot of good storytelling techniques in my reading over the years. What’s more, that experience allows me to analyze the differences objectively—what works and doesn’t work.

First, dialogue must help tell the story. An author must move the story forward, above all (that “flow” I discussed last week), and dialogue should help the writer do that effectively if done right. Readers might see something like the following in my prose: After the usual greetings, Sam said, “I heard that….” In other words, focus should be on meaningful conversation, not banal greetings. The latter occurs in ordinary life when two people meet after a while, but something like: “How are you, Sam?” “I’m fine, Jerry. What about you?” “I guess okay. What’s new with you?” The reader is probably already bored, and if the author writes pages and pages of that, the reader will find another book.

Second, break it up. While the author shouldn’t be mimicking ordinary speech, people don’t usually give a long oration without interruption either. There’s body language, internal dialogue (what the speaker is really thinking), even tech and other breaks (cellphones ringing, a person consulting their laptop, hugs and kisses…whatever.) While droning on and on might be a character’s habit, long stretches of one character speaking can be as deadly as long stretches of narrative. (If you like that sort of thing, read Atlas Shrugged, probably the most boring book in the English language, and not only for dialogue.)

Third, be careful with dialogue tags. Consider: …he answered angrily and …she whispered sneakily. These are verboten. The –ly adverbs are questionable to begin with—clenched fists and lowered voices will better clue the reader in. As a minimalist writer, I’d minimize the use of words like answered and whispered too, preferring a simple said. That makes for lean prose and helps speed readers too (I’m one). Dialogue tags should only be used to ID the speaker. That’s not even necessary if you’re tick-tocking between male and female (or ET and human!).

If you have difficulty with dialogue, it’s useful to go back over the dialogue in your prose for these items. Don’t believe writing gurus if they tell you that you check it out by reading it aloud. It shouldn’t sound like everyday speech; it should distil ordinary speech (see above). Above all, make sure it doesn’t dam up the flow of your story. Think of the following question: Is my dialogue here an essential part of the story? Does it move it forward? Dialogue is an essential part of modern storytelling, but some writers have to work at it. If that’s you, do so…for the benefit of your readers.

***

Comments are always welcome!

“Esther Brookstone Art Detective.” While you’re sitting on the edge of your recliner eagerly waiting for me to announce Death on the Danube, #3 in this series, don’t forget there’s a lot of entertaining reading to be found in the first two books, Rembrandt’s Angel and Son of Thunder, very different stories tied together by Esther’s obsession with finding the truth. In the first book, the Scotland Yard inspector obsesses with recovering a painting stolen by the Nazis; in the second, she obsesses with finding the tomb of St. John the Divine. Her paramour, Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden, struggles to keep her on an even keel. Available wherever quality books are sold, including at the publisher Penmore Press.

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

DeJoy, Il Duce’s campaign donor and sneaky fascist, is having fun doing Narcissus le Grand’s bidding to destroy the USPS as a way of suppressing voting in 2020. [Note added in press: He’s backtracking on Post Office removal of sorting machines and cutting overtime and other things, even before Speaker Pelosi holds his feet to the fire. That’s not enough, of course.] You see, most Good Ole Piranhas know they don’t have enough votes if everyone votes (some mail-in states like Utah see 80% turnout), so they have to make sure that all the tired and poor who vote democratic either don’t vote or go to the polls and catch COVID-19—the latter will at least guarantee they’re dead by 2024, making it easier for their planned fascist takeover of America.

Seem harsh? Maybe, but I intend it to be harsh, because all the evidence we have so far points in that direction:

First, let’s dispel the myth and show Il Duce (he of the imperious scowl) is a liar when he says mail-in voting leads to fraud. While I’ll admit that Trump and his wife, who use mail-in votes (they are unwelcome in NYC, so they registered in Florida), have already been shown to be complete frauds, even their votes will count. Oregon, Utah, and other states have used mail-in voting for years, and Colorado, more purple than blue, just approved it. These efforts have been successful with negligible voter fraud and larger voter turnout in most cases. And some states now think it’s not correct that voters should have to risk dying from COVID to vote.

To beat a dead horse, i.e. that mail-in voting leads to fraud, the Trump administration has sued NJ’s Governor Murphy, who wisely decide to offer mail-in voting for everyone and is mailing out the ballots to do so. Of course, that will play out in Federal courts, and it still might be going on well after the election, even with Trump’s packing of the courts. How far the Good Ole Piranhas have come: They used to trumpet state’s rights, be for small government, and minimizing the national debt. They used to work against despots and authoritarian practices. No more. Poor Abe must be turning over in his grave.

Most red states don’t care about COVID, never have, never will, and, as a consequence, don’t care what happens at the ballot box either, as long as their Q-anon candidates and other fascist personalities get elected and re-elected. (Gerrymandering is another fascist tactic they use, but you already knew that.) In fact, they make sure that fewer ballot boxes are available for minorities, who, for many reasons, give the finger to the Republican party and vote for Democrats, with few exceptions like toadies Ben Carson and Clarence Thomas . Minimizing voting by mail is just another wonderful fascist tool for the red states.

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Spring is gone. One of many things I loved about Colombia when I lived there was that the climate was just a function of altitude. It could get down to freezing at 8000 feet (Bogotá, the capital—not Bogota, NJ), sweltering heat on the coast (e.g. Cartegena—Colombia has both an Atlantic and Pacific shore), and eternal springtime in coffee country (e.g. Medellín) Here in the Northeast, we have four weeks of nice weather if we’re lucky—two in spring and two in fall. We can take it, though; we’re strong…as long as we don’t have a hurricane (we almost had one with Isaias). We proved that with COVID. And, after all, weather always gives us something to talk about. Writers, though, have to avoid that: “It was a dark and stormy night…” and similar clichés are verboten.

So spring is gone. Our resident woodchuck Hazel’s two children are out and about and the young cardinal fledglings have left the nest, although they still seem to be hanging around for a while. We think the bird flocks coming through are already heading south. Maybe they know something we don’t know about the coming fall and winter?

But any season is a good season for reading. Here’s some more ideas to entertain you in that way:

Anthologies. I don’t know about you, but some days my attention span is rather restricted. I like to read some fiction every day, though, just to maintain a balance, especially with election season now in full swing. My solution? I turn to short fiction.

Anthologies offer a wide variety of little bites of fiction that allow a quick read. Unfortunately, they’re not published much anymore. I can recommend two, though. The first comes from inimitable editor Donna Carrick and is titled World Enough and Crime. The second is from the Wolfpack Authors and bears the title Howling at the Moon. Okay, yours truly donated a short story to each one, but there’s still a lot of variety. Enjoy.

Collections. A collection is an anthology where all the short fiction is by one author. You’ll find three of mine on Amazon, although Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape offers the most variety. Pasodobles Two and Three are free downloads—see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page at this website (there are many other free downloads listed there too, all in PDF format).

Looking for a light-hearted sci-fi rom-com? You know me—I rarely write humorous novels. Oh, they often contain humorous elements—Detective Rolando Castilblanco’s humorous and cynical quips are sprinkled through an entire seven-book series—and you can find humor in many other novels, because humor is part of being human. Many of my short stories are also all tongue-in-cheek.

But I like to challenge myself from time to time. A Time-Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse is the result, and it’s hot off the press. It’s not a slapstick and fantasy-filled road trip like a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or a sappy romance like The Time Traveler’s Wife; it’s a typical Moore-shaken cocktail of hard sci-fi, adventures and misadventures, comedy, and yes, romance. It’s also time travel done right, without paradoxes, and a much farther ride than Douglas Adams or Audrey Niffenegger could have ever imagined. Here’s the blurb:

Enrico Fermi wasn’t the last physicist who was both an experimental and theoretical genius, but Professor Gail Hoff will never receive the Nobel Prize. She wants to travel through time but discovers she can only go forward. She goes time-traveling through several universes of the multiverse, never to return to her little lab outside Philly. Jeff Langley, her jack-of-all-trades electronics wizard, accompanies her. Their escapades, both amorous and adventurous, make this sci-fi rom-com a far-out road-trip story filled with dystopian and post-apocalyptic situations, first encounter, robots and androids—all that and more await the reader who rides along.

This sci-fi rom-com is available everywhere quality ebooks are sold, including Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Thomas, Gardners, etc.).

Smashwords sales. I have many more novels to entertain you. I often call them “evergreen books,” novels that are as fresh and entertaining as the day I finished the manuscripts. Every month, one or more of these is on sale at Smashwords.

You can have access to those sales by subscribing to my email newsletter; use the contact page at this website to do so. This month Soldiers of God is on sale. Here an FBI agent and a priest battle religious fanatics and discover a conspiracy orchestrated by a shadowy character with a dangerous agenda.

Don’t have a Smashwords account? You can create one for free, and you’ll have easy access to many quality ebooks in all formats, not just Amazon’s mobi (Kindle) format, including others in my oeuvre.

Of course all my books are reasonably priced. Check them out on the “Books & Short Stories” web page at this website.

Future novels. Readers who regularly read this newsletter and blog will probably remember that the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective Series” (Rembrandt’s Angel and Son of Thunder) and The Last Humans have sequels waiting off-stage. Unfortunately, I’ve had to cut ties with Penmore Press and Black Opal Books respectively (only partly due to COVID, and I still have a lot of friends there).

I can’t abandon these manuscripts, though, so Death on the Danube (Esther Brookstone series #3) and The Last Humans: A New Dawn will be published as soon as I can manage it. Until then, here’s a secret: My Irish collaborator A.B. Carolan tells me he almost has a new novel ready, another sci-fi mystery for young adults and adults who are young at heart; it will be the first in a trilogy he’s sketched out.

And that’s all my news that’s fit to print…for now.

***

Comments are always welcome.

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

It might be hard to believe, but I’m more of a reader than a writer; and, as I read, I often admire other authors’ prose, especially when it flows like a current in the ocean or in a river that can’t be denied. Sometimes I imagine that some great voice is reading it to me—a James Earl Jones, say—with inflections and pauses interlaced with those words from a great story. I suppose that’s a justification for audio books, but my imagination is sufficient.

“Flow” is the key word here. Some authors have trouble with dialogue, for example, because it interrupts the flow of the narrative. Yet dialogue must flow too, weaving in and out of the narrative, or vice versa, creating storytelling that carries the reader forward.

I know it when I read it. Writing it doesn’t require a Nobel prize winner, although Garcia Marquez was a master at it; or a Pulitzer prize winner like N. Scott Momaday. I’ve seen it in works by writers you’ve never heard of, and in genres where you’d maybe not expect it—comedy, crime, fantasy, science fiction…you name it.

I strive to maintain an inevitable flow in my own prose. Sometimes modern prose style gets in the way. Novels today tend to have short sections and short chapters, especially in thrillers, and the breaks between them are sometimes like reefs in the literary ocean, or a boulder in the river, where waves and rapids crash. But that sometimes is effective too. My father, the painter of landscapes, knew that waves crashing are just part of the flow.

Part of maintaining the flow is choosing the right words. As I get older, this becomes more difficult. As I write a novel, I know there’s a mot juste—it’s on the tip of my tongue, because storytelling is a vocal tradition—but I often have to leave an X and move on. But that same flow will often tell me what X is, or it provides something even better.

Most writers probably struggle this way to maintain the desired flow. It’s an important part of content editing, and we shouldn’t minimize its importance. And readers will be happier when a writer doesn’t. Every reader wants to be carried away in their reading. If they’re not, they might just look for another book!

***

Comments are always welcome.

A Time-Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse. “You flashed a lunar citizen’s eyes with a powerful laser beam. It made him fall.” He tossed exhibit A and caught it. “Looks like an old-fashioned laser pointer to me. My great-grandfather told me about them. No reputable scientist or politician was without one….”

This sci-fi rom-com is available wherever quality ebooks are sold.

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

Sci-fi novellas can be just as meaningful and probing as novels (most of mine can be found in the list on the “Free Stuff and Contests” web page at his website). One of the best is a classic by C. M. Kornbluth, “The Marching Morons.” This was long before Trump even inherited his millions; in fact, he might have still been in diapers! (For all the crap he spreads, he probably should still be.) Kornbluth’s humorous albeit dystopian story first appeared in Galaxy in 1951 (back when ‘zines weren’t some editors’ little fiefdoms—or maybe they’ve always been that way?). It’s reappeared in collections ever since, which is why it’s a classic. The theme is simple: In the future, stupid people outnumber smart ones, and some of the latter feel compelled to take care of the former, although those smart ones should have just let good old Darwinian evolution take its course.

We’re living in a real dystopia now caused by really stupid people, and that’s not funny. In fact, it’s frightening. Human beings aren’t subjected to the pruning action of Darwinian evolution anymore. The stupid gene is becoming dominant. Dumb animals die. Stupid humans survive because, even if they rail against Obamacare and modern medical technology, they still reap its benefits. Until now with COVID-19. They’ve set out to kill themselves and take a lot of smart innocents with them. Kornbluth’s marching morons weren’t necessarily evil, just stupid. Our real-life marching morons, with Trump at the lead, are evil warriors in the Devil’s army.

Trumpism provided the first signs that the stupid gene was becoming dominant, even before COVID. The moron in the White House is the David Koresh for the cult of stupidity, a narcissistic dummkoph with zero leadership qualities who won’t mind killing all his followers. “I don’t believe the numbers.” “Kids are immune.” “Hydroxychloroquine is the cure.” “Drink some disinfectant.” Trump and his followers’ beliefs and conspiracy theories make it easy to see how stupid they all are, unscientific Neanderthals who are much worse than the stupid people in Kornbluth’s story because they’re evil. And they’re doing a lot of damage; the facts and stats don’t lie.

Of course, Trumpism doesn’t have a monopoly on stupidity. COVID has uncovered large numbers of people possessing the stupid gene, people usually managing to hide in the general population because Darwinian evolution no longer weeds out that gene. The US is by far and many times over the worst of all industrialized nations in controlling the pandemic, and the primary reason is stupidity. This is an indictment against all the stupid people who have let the virus get out of control. The logic one must generally apply is: Every Trumper is stupid and propagates the virus, but sadly not every person who propagates it is a Trumper. Yet it is Trumpism that has made wearing a mask into a political statement.

Even if a vaccine is approved, there are also stupid people who won’t get the shot. They’re not all anti-vaccine fanatics either, but they’re all stupid. They’re the ones who won’t wear face masks, put partying in large crowds over safety concerns, and go to COVID parties. Some, especially Trumpers, even crow that COVID is all a liberal plot, or the Deep State’s, whatever the hell that is. They don’t really think about it too much; they just echo what they hear on Fox News and radio broadcasts from conspiracy nuts. There’s no telling, though, how many more idiots the virus will uncover. It does a good job of that.

Whether the current pandemic of stupidity is nurture or nature at work (probably both, because the stupidity gene seems to be dominant), we need to stop its progress in order to save the world. Let’s get breedin’, smart folks! Time to make a lot of babies so we can avoid thundering herds of marching morons that leave the four horsemen of the apocalypse in their dust as they go over the COVID precipice.

I’m not serious about the need for a baby boom of smart people, of course. The planet already has enough people. We just need to control the stupid people and not let them have any political or commercial power, something akin to what happens in Kornbluth’s novella. The problem is too many people are as stupid as Trump, which is being alarmingly stupid. Should I expect an insulting tweet from the Tweeter-in-Chief attacking me and this article? Never. He’s “a f&^%ing moron” (SecState Tillerson quote) who never reads! (Not even his intelligence briefings, a name lost on him, the man who paid someone to take his SATs.) Most of his followers don’t read either. Fortunately less than 50% of the US population is affected by the stupid gene, but that percentage is growing. “Danger, Will Robinson!” said the robot. Anyone who’s smart should pay attention to that wily machine, not just Will. Protect the world from the stupid gene with your vote this November! That’s the short order cure for this pandemic of stupidity.

***

Comments are always welcome!

A Time-Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse. We were still sipping the champagne and going over the experimental data when I jumped back from my bench. A shimmering in the air coalesced into the trophy that appeared a foot above the bench and fell onto it.

“Did someone in the past send it back?” I said after calling her over.

This sci-fi rom-com is now available wherever quality ebooks are sold.

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

Until I went to Colombia to live for a while (a majority of my life in academia, in fact), I thought soap operas were an American institution (they’re called telenovelas there and elsewhere in Latin America). I’m not a fan. I can’t imagine being a writer for one either. That would be my vision of hell. Most of them are a never-ending story, and their plots are stereotypical, trite, and plodding.

Truth be told, I haven’s watched many of them. In Colombia, they even occurred in the evenings, maybe like Dallas or Knot’s Landing—yeah, I know some names, and about Larrry Hagman’s dream, which seemed to have everyone talking—but you could say that most of our sitcoms are really soap operas too. I run into General Hospital (I think that’s what it’s called) before I hop over from ABC to CNN’s Jake Tapper, but that’s only because the remote’s still on ABC after watching the first half hour of GMA (there’s nothing more interesting on GMA after that—they’ve even got poor George doing pop bits).

I don’t write this to blather on about something I know little about, TV soap operas, so why are they in this blog post? Because I hate soap operas that pretend to be books! What follows is from the perspective of an avid reader, but it affects my writing as well.

Other authors’ sins in writing books that are soap operas come in two forms, both occurring more with the ebook revolution: serialization of a novel and book series. You’ll see the first just by looking at the equivalent number of pages. Some authors think it’s a clever way to maximize their royalties by parceling out a few chapters of a novel at a time. Even Hugh Howey did this with Wool. I didn’t buy his soap-opera episodes until he put it all together in the final novel. Unfortunately, you can still see the seams, which almost ruined the novel for me—it still looks like soap opera scripts stitched together.

One obvious way to detect the second is to use the “Peek Inside” feature on that same book page that has the page count, and go to the end of the ebook. If you see something like “See how Pauline reacts to this new peril in the next book in this series,” don’t buy the book even if it has a novel’s page count—it’s really just one episode from a soap opera. It’s okay for an author to add the first few chapters of the next book at the end. It’s not okay to leave Pauline hanging on a cliff. (Um, maybe that’s why it’s called a “cliffhanger”?) Each book in a series, except for some of the same characters, should stand alone. The author can provide little tidbits from previous books to reward fans, but the story should be a complete one.

How does this affect my writing? Simple: I avoid both sins mentioned above. I avoid serialization completely. Once I serialized a novel, but as blog posts—Evil Agenda eventually became #2 in the “Clones & Mutants Trilogy”—but I rewrote the whole novel instead of just stitching things together; I defy you to detect the seams. (And the serialization is in the dead archives on my laptop, not my blog.) I’ve never repeated that experiment. It was a painful experience and hurt like the Dickens. (Pun for avid readers?)

I was surprised when a reviewer failed to write a review of Son of Thunder only because he hadn’t realized it was #2 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective Series.” I suppose I could have told him that #1 and #2 are very different books; what’s more, they can be read independently. (The same will happen for #3 and subsequent books.) That’s easy enough to achieve in a mystery series: each book only considers one or two of the detectives’ cases (the “hook” is often about the detectives finishing up a case, but not the one from the previous novel). Thriller and sci-fi series are a bit more difficult, but quite doable. Or perhaps that reviewer didn’t like those little tidbits related to previous books that I leave for fans following the series? Or he might not be a fan of series, period. (I once had a reviewer say I should give a course on how to write a book in a series, so some reviewers are a bit more open-minded, but it’s all subjective.)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve binged on some series. None of them were soap operas. Good authors know how to reward fans with tidbits while still satisfying readers who jump into a series in the middle for a theme that attracts them, or who simply want to avoid committing to an entire series. It’s not that hard to write books in a series that are independent. Or maybe it is, and authors should worry about it more?

***

Comments are always welcome!

A Time-Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse. In my other life in academia, I had the pleasure of meeting Hartle, Feynman, Mandelbrot, Salam, Wheeler, Dirac, Lederman, Feynman, Mandelbrot, and Enrico Fermi’s last student—some in courses, others in scientific meetings, and all characters, but none like physicist Gail Hoff. Enrico Fermi wasn’t the last physicist who was both an experimental and theoretical genius, but Professor Hoff will never receive the Nobel Prize. She goes time-traveling through several universes of the multiverse on a wacky road trip far beyond any in A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or The Time-Traveler’s Wife, never to return to her little lab in a small college outside Philly. Jeff Langley, her jack-of-all-trades electronics wizard, accompanies her. Their escapades, both amorous and adventurous, make this sci-fi rom-com a far-out sightseeing journey filled with dystopian and post-apocalyptic settings, first encounter, robots and androids—all that and more await the reader who rides along. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold.

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

Once upon a time I was in academia and R&D, but about the only thing I do well now is write. I’ve never had any pretensions while doing so. I know anything I write won’t be considered the “great American novel” by critics, but I think I’ve spun some good yarns that have entertained a few people. I’m also an avid reader (okay, I do that well too), so I know what good storytelling is, and I have plenty of books and authors to inspire my own storytelling (strange as it might seem to many people, few of the latter are in the Big Five stables of formulaic old mares and stallions). Of course, my reading life doesn’t entertain anyone but myself. In that respect, I’m like that silent majority of people who eschew streaming video and computer games to read a good book. For ROI (return on investment, not Louis XVI, who didn’t lose his head in a good book) on entertainment investments, you can’t beat books.

So…let me help you, readers of this blog, fill your hours of reading entertainment. (You can tell anyone else about this cultural aid too.) I offer free reading material. Not full novels yet (although recently I’ve been sorely tempted—long story), but short fiction. This material is found in the following trio:

Steve’s Shorts. This blog archive contains mostly short stories and a few serialized novellas—sci-fi, mystery, and thriller stories. They’re stories I’m proud of, but they just didn’t make it to novel length. (Although some have led to novels.) I don’t offer up my short fiction to ‘zine editors anymore, online or otherwise—that’s as much work as I do for full novels, and for little gain in audience or royalties (usually pennies per word). These stories are free and good introductions to my writing for readers everywhere.

ABC Shorts. My Irish collaborator writes short fiction too. Perhaps you know him better for the “ABC Sci-Fi Mysteries,” novels written for young adults and those adults who are young at heart. His short stories usually feature a young adult too, one in some kind of trouble. Like his novels, the short fiction isn’t something you want to read to your five-year-old at bed time, but your tween or teen would probably get a kick out of them—and maybe you as well.

Free PDF downloads. There’s a lot of short fiction here—short stories, novellas, sometimes in collections, although the novellas are often free-standing. Both A.B. and I participate (wink, wink). These PDFs are also free and once you download one, you can copy and distribute it to family and friends as long as the copyright is respected. To see the entire list, visit the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page at this website. I often update this list. For example, I recently added Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape, Volume Three; it’s a collection of short fiction (much of it first appearing in “Steve’s Shorts” or “ABC Shorts”) like its predecessor (Volume One is for sale on Amazon).

Email newsletter. Other than those free PDFs, I don’t offer anything for free. You see, all my ebooks are reasonably priced, as are most of my print versions (books from the two small-press publishers are an exception, but I don’t control either their print or ebook prices). However, to loyal followers who subscribe to my email newsletter, there are monthly ebook sales. You can subscribe to that newsletter using the contact page at this website. If you’re not a Smashwords customer, you should join. It’s free, and you’ll have thousands of ebooks to choose from, not just mine.

To summarize…. If I were a cook, I’d be offering some free recipes; if I were a musician, I’d be offering some free online concerts. I’m not much of anything anymore except for being a fiction writer, so I can only offer you free fiction and limited sales. I hope it helps you fill your entertainment hours. Some ad-man came up with the phrase “Read a Movie!” What he neglected to say is that good stories allow you to create your own mental picture and enter exciting worlds far better than any movie—you’re the creator; the author is just your guide.

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Comments are always welcome.

A Time-Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse. In my other life in academia, I had the pleasure of meeting Hartle, Feynman, Mandelbrot, Salam, Wheeler, Dirac, Lederman, Feynman, Mandelbrot, and Enrico Fermi’s last student—some in courses, others in scientific meetings, and all characters, but none like physicist Gail Hoff. Enrico Fermi wasn’t the last physicist who was both an experimental and theoretical genius, but Professor Hoff will never receive the Nobel Prize. She goes time-traveling through several universes of the multiverse on a wacky road trip far beyond any in A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or The Time-Traveler’s Wife, never to return to her little lab in a small college outside Philly. Jeff Langley, her jack-of-all-trades electronics wizard, accompanies her. Their escapades, both amorous and adventurous, make this sci-fi rom-com a far-out sightseeing journey filled with dystopian and post-apocalyptic settings, first encounter, robots and androids—all that and more await the reader who rides along. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold.

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