After thirty-plus books, some traditionally published but most self-published, I’ve experienced a major part of fiction publishing’s evolution—painful at times but always an adventure. After suffering initially with hundreds of rejections from literary agents, the majority being the sycophants of the major publishing conglomerates (the worst of traditional publishing now called the Big Five), the very people who are basically manuscript filters for acquisition editors so the latter don’t have to work too hard, I used self-publishing’s print-on-demand (POD) route for my first novels. I soon hopped on the ebook bandwagon (I do hate to kill forests!) and now exclusively publish in ebook format.

While I have arrived at this point where I’m one hundred percent in control of my fiction writing (book covers being the obvious exception, as they should be), I feel compelled to list some recent trends I find very disturbing.

Demographics. This is a general worry and that’s perhaps better described as the diminishing numbers of discerning readers. Whether it’s a failure of our educational system—teachers who are more interested in their union’s power (that’s all one candidate for NJ’s governor has to offer!) and their benefits, rather than teaching?—or failures of parents for their lack of time or understanding, or lazy and uncaring youths addicted to computer games and streaming video–generally speaking, the younger you are, the less you read (and write!). This obviously biases the fiction produced in unpredictable and often negative ways and destroys centuries of advances in traditional storytelling, once a highly respected art form. Many of the other points listed below  relate to these demographic changes.

Print vs. ebooks. For example, even from young readers, I often hear, “I just like the feel of a print book, even if it’s just a paperback.” These readers might have valid ecological concerns otherwise, global warming and climate control among them, but they fail to understand that killing forests hurts the environment. Paper waste is a major component in our landfills, for example. Ebooks are eco-friendly and also more cost-effective. (Except for the Big Five’s, because they want to preserve print formats. They make more money from them and don’t give a rat’s ass about the environment!)

AI. While ebooks represent an advance for publishing with some negatives, AI has negative consequences as well. Even now you probably have an AI app on your phone to help you create a document. Even for a young student wanting to write something original (or a supposedly responsible adult?), AI offers a shortcut. I can now ask an AI program to write in the style of Stephen King, or even to write like the long-dead Charles Dickens, and the program can do a damn good job doing it. (My son had a chatbot write in the style of Steven M. Moore. That experiment was a failure, probably because the AI program got confused with the training set: I don’t have just one style. I vary styles even within one genre, and pity the poor AI confronting a mix of first- and third-person storytelling in my mysteries, thrillers, and sci-fi stories!) AI can go a long ways, though, in eliminating the need for human editors who robotically follow a very limited set of rules designed to please an acquistions editor..

Fan fiction fixes. A troubling new twist on how technology can be a negative influence on publishing, whether AI is used or not, is found where readers can modify plots to create something they prefer. For example, one editor of my Son of Thunder complained that I killed off the Turkish police detective. But that was my choice; I’m the author! Why should a reader be allowed to make changes on a whim? Besides the obvious illegality for such actions—they’re at least a violation of copyright!—it’s morally reprehensible! And the “fan fiction” part of “fan fiction fixes” is an insult: If you change an author’s story, you’re not really a fan! You can write a review containing your complaints, but be forewarned that other readers might consider them nitpicking…or worse! (In her defense, by the way, the editor didn’t propose any changes, and I agree that the Turkish detective was a good and noble man.)

I’m guessing that the positive advances in publishing—for example, how easy it is to self-publish now with Draft2Digital (see the free PDF download “Writing Fiction” found in the list on my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page)—will win the war even though losing some battles. Maybe new readers will realize the limitations of computer games and streaming video (viewers’ participation can be unlimited when reading a book if the author does their job properly). Time will tell.

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Free PDF downloads. Besides the short course “Writing Fiction,” you can download short story collections and even two complete novels. See the list on the “Free Stuff and Contests” web page at this website.

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

My previous post about religion in fiction naturally is a segue into the topic of mortality in fiction. In typical thrillers, protagonists usually survive despite many odds against them, but they might be avenging the death of others near and dear to them. And while the main protagonists often live a charmed life because of luck or skills, secondary characters are often become victims. Most mysteries start with the victims, of course; there has to be a crime for the protagonist(s) to solve.

The novel Mind Games is a classic mystery/thriller in that sense, although it is set in the far future. A.B. Carolan starts with an heinous murder of a man’s adopted daughter, and she swears revenge. The ensuing action is more thriller than mystery, and many readers would just say that the story is just good sci-fi, which was my Irish colleague Carolan’s intention, of course [wink, wink]. I use this as an example to show that even young-adult literature can deal with mortality!

In general, victims can become a problem if readers become too attached to them (although in a mystery, that might be what the author wants because it justifies the revenge motive). An editor of Son of Thunder lamented when a Turkish detective who aided Esther Brookstone…well, read the book. Similarly, a reviewer was upset while reading Aristocrats and Assassins when a friend of Castilblanco’s wife…again, read the book. An attachment to certain characters often occurs, even villains.

I even toyed with the idea of killing off main character Ashley Scott in The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan, just to be radically different. After all, she doesn’t appear in any more novels on that long fictional timeline extending beyond the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco” series, although her novel can be considered a bridge book to the “Clones and Mutants” trilogy. (There are now a few other stories and series in between!) Yet one can argue that principal characters like Ashley Scott and even Esther Brookstone deserve to retire gracefully, living on in relative peace.

But fiction must seem real, and our mortality is part of our human reality. Good fiction must avoid the “lived happily ever” syndrome of childhood’s fairy tales. Shakespeare knew to include mortality in his dramas, most notably in Hamlet, which is a play that considers mortality in almost every scene. Mortality is also a big theme in Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities, where it’s closely tied to religion.

Fiction authors can add significant meaning to their tales by including mortality as a theme. One can argue that both the morality and religious themes are what separates profound fiction from fluff.

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The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan. DHS agent Ashley Scott witnesses a murder in a riverside park. She and an investigative reporter become involved in the case…and a lot more. This mystery/thriller considers the answer to the following question: What will a future US government do to keep old agents who know a lot of secrets from revealing them when they slip into dementia and Alzheimer’s? You might not like the answer! Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (even on Amazon).

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

With the somewhat limited pomp and circumstances despite his wishes, the Catholic Church and many thousands of admirers and curiosity seekers, Catholics or not, said their goodbyes to a decent man who’ll surely be remembered as one of history’s most memorable popes, the Argentine Jesuit Pope Francis, although some well-known politicians who probably believed he stole their time in the spotlight will be naysayers. Many probably thought of their own mortality and what it means live moral lives.

Because good fiction must reflect reality, one is led to ask: What role should religion play in fiction? Obviously, good vs. evil is a common theme in fiction whether explicitly religious or not. Many readers will enjoy a story containing a clever villain, if only for the challenge he presents for the protagonists. Few stories without the eternal battle between good and evil will resonate, in fact. But including specific references to religion? Why not? If those references add to the storyline, they might be indispensable!

For example, in my sci-fi  thriller Soldiers of God, various religions come into play as well as the unconsummated love between an FBI agent and a Catholic priest. In the sci-fi thriller Muddlin’ Through from the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries,”, the protagonist’s religious upbringing plays a big role. And in Son of Thunder, the plot actually revolves around the life story of St. John the Divine, although it’s an “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” mystery/thriller. (By the way, Esther’s paramour and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden maintains a close relationship with Father Jean, a Jesuit priest, and often consults with him. I admire Jesuits and celebrated the election of Pope Francis. They’re wise fellows who aren’t just politicians dressed in priestly garb.) All these example of religion in my prose are essential elements.

The stories we tell in fiction are best when commenting on the human condition. Authors shouldn’t be afraid to include religious and spiritual themes appropriate to their stories. They can add depth and meaning to a plot.

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Son of Thunder. As in Rembrandt’s Angel, Esther Brookstone, now retired from Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Division, becomes obsessed yet again, this time to prove that the Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli never traveled to what’s present-day Turkey. She’s proven wrong, very wrong, and solving this mystery leads her to the tomb of St. John the Divine. Available in ebook and trade paperback versions from Penmore Press or your favorite book dealer. (Two complete novels in this nine-book series are free PDF downloads; see the list on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page.)

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

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…if you’ve been looking to peruse my sagacious words about reading, writing, and publishing fiction here: Due to circumstances beyond my control, I had to take a few weeks off (more than a month, to be more specific). I hope to return soon to posting my usual acerbic, pithy, and hopefully entertaining and informative articles.

Of course, if you really need your mental high obtained from reading this blog, perhaps you can find a worthy substitute by reading one of my many books or downloading some of my free fiction available on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page at my author’s website https://stevenmmoore.com.

Otherwise, bear with me. I promise to return soon, never fear. The pen is mightier than most anything!

If you’re a sci-fi fan, you’ll know Isaac Asimov’s answer to this question, although he might prefer the word “robots” to “androids.” In his “Robots Trilogy” (really part of the lengthy expansion of his Foundation series), he actually featured an eclectic mix, and I believe he actually called R. Daneel Olivaw an android. What he never considered as far as I know is AI (“Artificial Intelligence”).

Of course, androids and robots require artificial intelligence, sometimes not all that sophisticated, like when a robot does surgery or assembles cars. It doesn’t go the other way, though: AI doesn’t require robots or androids. HAL was just a lot of microchips and software programming (and could still be quite evil in 2001!).

Quality AI could be much more “useful” than robots or androids. Androids could satisfy human beings’ desires to have slaves (or willing sex partners?), but spending a lot of effort on copying the human body seems like a waste of time, especially because there are jobs where the human form isn’t too practical. (That surgical robot arm is an example where only a precise hand is required.)

AI can be a lot more useful because it can provide information and do it rapidly. Current AI is primitive in this sense—not much more than a super search engine that finds stuff and gloms it together (hopefully into something useful, but don’t count on it). In that sense, the AIs in my fictional starships that traverse the alternate realities of the multiverse are much more necessary than the androids and robots even though the human villains in Mind Games want to give then psi powers. Wouldn’t an AI with psi powers be more dangerous? (A bit of criticism never hurts, right, AB Carolan? [Wink, wink.])

Given the era when Asimov wrote his famous robot novels, we couldn’t have expected him to even conjure up a HAL, let alone an AI with psi powers. With AI such a fad now, though, isn’t it time to create such a super-villain. TBD!

Even though I’m an ex-scientist who writes sci-fi sometimes, just like many others, I’m not that keen on using AI. Current AI is primitive, like I said, and it must be trained. What might make a good sci-fi character, though, is one that trains itself. In Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, that scientist turned sci-fi author created such a character, not a villain like Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 1.0 or like the one in my novel The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan.

Maybe it’s better to avoid that Frankenstein complex. What do you think?

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Mind Games. In AB Carolan’s third sci-fi mystery, Della Dos Toros finds her foster-father murdered and vows to avenge him. In her search for his killer, she discovers a vast conspiracy that could tear apart the government body of near-Earth worlds. Robots and androids with psi powers like Della’s? What could go wrong?

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

Most of my works have end notes where I discuss some of the reasons I had for creating the stories beyond any prefaces, acknowledge those who helped me reach out to readers who might enjoy them, and expand on disclaimers beyond my copyright notices that state I’m not necessarily in agreement with what characters in those stories opine. These aren’t idle words, although I suspect few readers bother reading these end notes.

In that bleak, dark, and strange world of the Big Five publishing conglomerates, a reader is more likely to see end notes for non-fiction works than for fiction works. James Patterson probably should acknowledge his co-authors more, for example, because I suspect they do most of the writing now in that assembly-line process used by Patterson Inc. Other Big Five formulaic mares or stallions might want to explain why their Gone-Something or Fifty-Shades-of-Something aren’t just take-offs on the first original titles in an attempt to sell more books by confusing readers. Or why some little brat can be a better magician than an adult with years of experience?

In brief, I believe fiction authors should include end notes. The authors’ readers might not read them much, but some of us (me, for example) like to know a few things about the writers’ motivations and themes used in their stories. And no author, not even me, who has discovered self-publishing is better than any contract from a traditional publisher or not, is an island. No author writes in a vacuum these days; they’re influenced by so many different things if their fiction has any relevance at all.

Yes, I know, some readers don’t look for relevance. Addicts of silly romances and farfetched fantasies don’t want a story that makes them think. Nothing wrong with that—people have the right to get the entertainment they want—but I have to wonder why they’re even bothering to read when they can get tons of formulaic fluff from streaming video and video game fantasies. Even reading a silly romance or farfetched fantasy might make them think a bit: There’s occasionally a bit of meat on the bones of a Nicholas Sparks or J. K. Rowling story that might make that happen.

In other words, I suspect that a lot of fiction writers don’t include end notes because their motivation for writing their stories is just to make money selling pablum. Very few treat controversial subjects or themes for that reason, especially among Big Five authors. That’s sad but also evidence for how low literature has sunk into that cesspool of irrelevance.

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The “ABC Sci-Fi Mysteries for Young Adults.” Young adult literature can often avoid being fluff and contain profound themes. AB Carolan’s first three novels take place in my usual sci-fi universe, but even the third, Mind Games, a novel that’s a bit more fantastic for considering ESP, androids, and robots, has enough serious themes to hold the interest of young adults and adults who are young-at-heart alike. The fourth, Origins, doesn’t take place in my usual sci-fi universe, but it treats the disintegration of society now occurring as well as being a lesson on human evolution!

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

Let’s consider the current political situation: Donald Jackass Trump and his whole horde of fascists from the executive, legislative, and judicial branches are bent on destroying American democracy! Maybe drastic measures are required? To help answer that question, let’s see what measures some screenwriters and fiction authors have considered appropriate.

For example, the incredibly original and unpredictable Tom Clancy might be able to offer a solution! The circumstances in Debt of Honor are different, but I’d like to remind everyone that what happens there is appealing, considering the takeover of our country by American fascists, especially in light of the Fascist Party of America’s letting Trump and his minions to literally get away with murder (pardoning those far-right snakes who maimed and killed cops on January 6, 2021, is only one of the orange devil’s sins). In effect, justice would finally be served even if fascist SCOTUS judges still considered Narcissus le Grand America’s king.

What happened in Debt of Honor? A pilot stole a jumbo jet, a 747, and crashed it into the Capitol during a joint session of Congress, taking out a whole slew of inept politicians. A new beginning, I’d call it. I can’t remember the Hollywood version—maybe I never saw it!—but Hollywood producers and screenwriters often destroy good plots and create stereotypical heroes and villains in a way that often annoys me and many others. I do remember Clancy’s book and maybe audience reactions to the movie, so maybe I did see the latter but focused on audience reaction more?

I tend to do that. I’m a fiction writer, so I observe situations and people, even if they’re acting stupid (like the fools at a Trump rally!). I compare audience reactions too. For example, the rest of the Alien franchise couldn’t begin to compare with the shock caused by the first movie’s scene when the alien popped out of that guy’s chest. (Something like America’s wannabe Il Duce and J. Done-Nothing Vance berating and insulting our brave and courageous Zelenskyy.) The audience’s gasp was quite audible over the soundtrack. (I’m sure similar gasps were heard all over the US and Europe as they watched Trump and Vance’s performance.)

More memorable for me, though, were two other movies when the audience actually stood up and cheered: Clancy’s Debt of Honor, and when the aliens destroyed most government buildings in Washington DC—I think that film was called Mars Attacks and featured Jack Nicholson recreating his Cuckoo Nest role (what Trump has turned Washington DC into, by the way!) and playing the US president. (The real one, who’s also hilarious at times, is a vicious fascist pig in comparison.)

I’ll focus on the Clancy story, though. To paraphrase one of his quotes that run across the top of this website, old Tom once said that fiction has to seem real. I’m not sure that scene with the jumbo jet was all that realistic, in the novel or on the silver screen, but the audience reactions I remember in the movie theater were interesting, to say the least. Now I’m thinking the audience’s cheers would be even louder: Maybe we need that jumbo jet!

Everywhere I look, I see incompetence in government. Sure, the Fascist Party of America (FPA) and their fuehrer, Donald Jackass Trump, are pretending to “straighten out the country.” What BS! They’re only creating chaos, destruction, and human suffering! And the Dems are so flummoxed by their complete mismanagement of their 2024 campaign efforts that they’re acting like deer in headlights. Federal judges are trying to stop the FPA and aid the hapless Dems, but they’ll soon run afoul of the fascist SCOTUS or be impeached by an FPA-controlled Congress.

In other words, all three branches of the US government are dominated by incompetent hacks now, intent on siding with Moscow, and that’s putting it nicely. A jumbo jet crashing into the Capitol during a joint session (gee, one’s occurring tonight, right?) could just be what our country needs: A clean sweep and a new start! Of course, there’s no Jack Ryan to save the day but the idea is appealing…and why all those movie audiences and most likely readers of Clancy’s book cheered!

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Anti-fascism in my stories. That’s been a theme since my very first novel Full Medical, accompanied by the theme of terrorism (the latter is just an extreme form of the former, of course). Trump is both a fascist and terrorist, of course. In my fiction, those who fight for democracy and freedom usually win. (In the real world, that’s always in doubt with autocratic personalities like Putin, Xi, and Trump around.) Pick a story—Legacy of Evil, for example—and get some satisfaction that the good guys can win. You might even get some ideas about how to help them win in the real world? We certainly need to do that, even though the US has abdicated its role as the leader of the free world with Trump in charge.

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

The so-called “gurus,” those people who claim to know what authors should do to achieve success in publishing, often stress the importance of endorsements and reviews. They’re full of you know what!

I’ve written enough reviews and also received enough for my own books that I can state that they’re basically worthless. Think about it: Do you read a book because some stranger, reviewer X, says it’s a good read? Hell no! You might attempt to read a book if you receive a “review” (often viva vos) from a good friend, someone whose opinions you trust and value; but you’re deluding yourself if you only plow through a book because that stranger says it’s the thing to do, that “everyone else” is also reading it. (By the way, X has nothing to do with slimy and swampy Elon Muskrat! He hasn’t yet been able to take it over yet as a generic symbol for something or someone…yet.)

Don’t get me wrong: I’d rather read a good book than watch most anything on TV. I still love books and hate most other forms of entertainment a little more with each day that passes. I get enjoyment from writing my own stories too—that’s the joy of creation. I know I can tell a powerful story, one that a casual reader of fantasy and romance (J. K. Rowling and Nicholas Sparks’ mass-produced trivia comes to mind) might hate (to each his own, I say).

But I’ll never expect readers to read one of my books because some reader they don’t know from Adam or Eve says it’s the greatest thing they’ll ever read; and, as a reader, I don’t care what a damn critic or reviewer says about a book that grabs my attention either, although I might wonder what their BS means.

Authors starting out sell their souls in their efforts to get a number of “good reviews.” (Some PR and marketing sites even demand a certain number as an additional pound of flesh beyond the their exorbitant fees!) That’s all BS too! It’s as stupid as getting publicity from Oprah (when she was actually pretending to work instead of pandering to Meghan Markle), or getting on the NY Times’s bestseller list. (Who the hell even cares about their damn formula? They’re not Coca-Cola, after all. The Times is a an NYC publisher, so they’re part of that NYC publishing mafia. Forget about all of them and the critics they hire who have never written a damn thing that’s worthwhile!) All an author should do is tell the best damn story they can…and then write the next one! (I’ve done that a few times!)

Simon and Schuster, one of those bloated NYC publishers trying to force people to read their formulaic fiction, recently ended their requirement of “book blurbs”—by the way, they don’t think of them as just summaries of books (how most people define them!), but as endorsements of an author and his book made by other authors who presumably have more “name recognition.” The use of these endorsements has always been just more evidence for a “book mafia.” The latter is comprised of that group of publishers, editors, and the Big Fives’ (mostly NYC publishers) old mares and stallions, who are all comfy in their cushy stables, everyone enjoying the many reciprocal pats on the back as they control the competition and slow down any threatening newcomers who are trying to break into fiction’s elite ranks. I used to ask myself: What does a Baldacci or Deaver get from endorsing another author’s book they probably never read? The answer’s obvious: An endorsement for their own next book! I’m not sure if an endorsement increases the likelihood of traditional book publishing’s demise—it’s already in its death throes—but its incestuous nature certainly can’t help.

Needless to say, I’ve never paid any attention to either reviews or endorsements as either a writer or a reader. I’ve always known enough from a “peek inside” and the book’s blurb (my meaning is “summary”), or the ebook costs so little that I’m willing to take a gamble, that I can decide whether it’s worth buying and reading. (The cost is an indication of quality too—authors like James Patterson exploit other authors and therefore their readers by maintaining an elaborate assembly line that makes Henry Ford look like an amateur entrepreneur.) That filtering benefits me because I can avoid wasting my time reading  a lot of “popular authors” whose plots and prose have become boring, formulaic, and uninteresting trivial rubbish (sometimes that describes their very first book!). So be it. If someone asks if I’ve read so-and-so’s title Y, I often can proudly say no! It also means that I can maintain a high moral standard for my own stories that’s not influenced by greed or pandering to certain sectors of the public that I find despicable.

To those who counter these sentiments by saying that writing is a business, I can reply that writing is an art, and to be true to my art, I must ignore that business aspect as much as I possibly can. Pandering to what few readers are left is a waste of time; pandering to the Big Five’s mafia is prostituting my artistic soul. I’ll do neither one!

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“Writing Fiction.” If you’re an author, especially one who’s starting out, I’ve summarized some of the things I’ve learned along my writing journey. If you can believe it, I started before ebooks even existed! Now that’s all I publish (via Draft2Digital/Smashwords), mostly because of what I described above. I often update this sometimes acerbic and often controversial DIY manual, but I originally offered it as a more believable and useful self-help treatise than King’s On Writing that now has only historical value (if that!). Like all my writing, take it or leave it. And, like a lot of my recent writing, it’s a free PDF download. (See the entire list of free downloads on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page.)

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

Progressive protests start with a few concerned and responsible citizens deciding they’ve had enough. I can’t claim to be the first (the EU has been going after Google for a while), but I’ve hated Google for a long time. I finally did something about it.

Long before their kissing Ronald McDonald Trump’s fat McD’s butt and changing their map names (Denali to Mt. McKinley and Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America), Google’s browser Chrome was annoying me a lot. I’d already stopped using Facebook and X; Zuckerberg had proven himself to be a kiss-ass fascist oligarch backing Narcissus le Grand; and that slimy Elon Muskrat, who has no creds as a serious leader or even an elected office and is a complete fascist, lost my support the moment he walked into the X HQ with his kitchen sink. (The Muskrat probably had it lying around one of his penthouses, having replaced it with a gold one, because he’s emulating his fuehrer’s love for gold that represents their fascist greed and desires for power.)

Most progressives more than likely grimaced when they saw those fascist oligarchs sitting there as special invitees to the Donald Jackass Trump’s inaugurations events, the Muskrat not hiding his obsequious attitude with his ubiquitous Hitlerian salutes. And right there among those fascist oligarchs were the owners of Google whose names, like Voldemort, I’ll avoid saying so their evil will not fall upon you!

So, my personal vendetta against Google is because I know these American versions of Russian oligarchs much better than Putin’s. All of them—that Big Bot Bezos, that slimy Muskrat, the arrogant Sugar-Mountain Zuckerberg, etc., these “made men” in the jackass’s mafia—negatively affect my life and yours (if you’re an American) a lot more than Putin’s. But Google’s SOBs were also affecting me, a writer, every day of my writing life.

Their trackers followed me everywhere I went on the internet. Every search produced pages of unwanted ads, allowing Google’s oligarchs to become even richer by selling everyone’s information and ad space in searches to unscrupulous company CEOs just as abusive and greedy as Google’s masters, as if I’d ever buy anything from the bastards!

How did I strike back? There’s not much an author can do, I’ll admit, but I severed all ties with Google! I use DuckDuckGo now. I never used Gmail for my own fiction writing. (AB Carolan needed an address to register his stories with the Big Bezos Bot’s Amazon, which is generally a waste of time. Since I also hate the latter oligarch, readers can now write to AB by using the “Contact Page” at this website. [wink, wink])

As an FYI and added benefit, DuckDuckGo beats the crap our of Chrome! It has new features I’ll use a lot as an author. (For example, I can make both a “printable version” or a “PDF version”  of a web article, ones that are actually readable. Chrome still depends on MS Edge to do the latter, which often produces a damn mess. What? Is Bill Gates part of this evil oligarchy?)

I haven’t begun to explore all the other options available in DuckDuckGo’s dropdown menu and elsewhere, but it’s straightforward search results without Chrome’s annoying ads by themselves is worth the change! (For example, as an author, I might search for old KGB agent Putin’s favorite Russian poisons. Before, I fully expected that I’d receive offers to buy some samples at least for a few days from suppliers in Moscow if I used Google’s Chrome!) If you’re an author who just wants dependable and factual information without pages of annoying and useless ads, don’t use Chrome!

So, bye-bye greedy Google! I’ve been loyal to you since you were an internet infant in nappies. Now you don’t deserve that loyalty because you’ve become an evil adult supporting corporate fascism and terrorism in America, I want nothing to do with you! I hope everyone joins me to choose more honest and less evil internet service providers so that Google goes the way of the dinosaurs! Or straight to hell where they belong with Donald Jackass Trump!

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Fascism and terrorism. Fascism is a human affliction with symptoms of simple greed and a thirst for power, a mind-destroying illness many psychotic and sociopathic individuals suffer from. Terrorism is its deadliest and most extreme form. Although we are seeing too much of the former in the US and all over the world now (see above), the latter is increasing as well (attacks made by crazed people using cars as weapons, for example). I’ve been fighting the battle against both in my prose from my very first novel, Full Medical, to my last (for now), Fear the Asian Evil, and in most tales in between those two, even those tales geared to young adults (who also need to learn how to fight these deadly social diseases!). All these stories are honest portrayals of the damage fascism and terrorism can do to freedom and peace in the world. Brave people in these stories struggle and fight the good fight, so let them inspire you! (Fascists and terrorists, many of them controlling our own government and companies now, will not enjoy these stories, of course. Their ignorance will return to haunt them because they will pay the price sooner than later!)

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

I’ve written several trilogies. The “Inspector Steve Morgan” trilogy is the most recent; it’s basically a continuation of the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, and “Revenge at Last,” a novella in the free PDF download of the same name, almost made Morgan’s trilogy into a series (and still might, depending on my energy reserves). Three other trilogies,, “The Last Humans,” “The Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries,” and “Clones and Mutants,” are quite different. One difference is that they have strong female protagonists (the last one, several).

I considered “The Last Humans” trilogy in a previous article; it’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi. Another difference then can be found in the type of sci-fi. Mary Jo’s adventures are more thrillers than mysteries; and most of the sci-fi is found in the MECHs, cyborg warriors representing tech that China, Russia, and the US all want to steal and are willing to employ evil agents to do just that. Mary Jo prevents that from happening in three different novels. (Mary Jo is an alias for Maria Jose, by the way) “The Clones and Mutants” trilogy is also a sci-fi thriller where new biological advances replace the robotic ones of the cyborgs.

The sci-fi is all different in these three trilogies, but the general lesson is always the same: There are evil people whose greed and desire for power are willing to make good people suffer to obtain it; so, if no one steps up to stop those villains, they will succeed. That important lesson is one we should all learn in real life during these troubling times when an evil and wannabe fascist dictator has grabbed power in our country and is making many of its good citizens suffer. We need more virtuous heroes and fewer evil fascist villains.

What Penny Castro (protagonist of “The Last Humans” trilogy), Mary Jo Melendez, and the clones and one mutant show in these three trilogies is that ordinary humans can step up and overcome terrible odds to defeat the forces of evil. This of course is a major message in a lot of fiction. My “ordinary humans” are also smart women who are mostly Latinas, and that belies the macho beliefs of ignorant American fascists like our DoD secretary that women can’t fight for what’s right and the far-right opinions in our country that “others” who aren’t extreme far-right WASP zealots like them don’t belong in America.

Of course, this is fiction, storytelling that should entertain anyone who’s not a fascist MAGA supporter. Guess what? I’ve known plenty of women who have exactly the positive characteristics of my fictional heroes. My characters have flaws like everyone does, of course—they’re very human, unlike many zombies in the MAGA hordes, but they also have courage and skills. That’s more than the DoD secretary or any other member of our wannabe fascist dictator’s administration has. If there is a God, He’ll be on these women’s side, not the side of the fascist devils led by the Orange Devil. Fiction must seem real, and fiction about heroes can become real if the real heroes in our society receive our support.

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“The Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries.” In the first novel, Muddlin’ Through, Mary Jo is framed and must struggle to prove she’s innocent. In the second novel, Silicon Slummin’ and Just Gettin’ By, Russia and the US are all after the MECHs (“Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Humans”) and she’s pursued by a stalker. In the third, Goin’ the Extra Mile, China goes after the MECHs. Readers will wonder how this all ends. All three novels are available wherever quality ebooks are sold (even on Amazon). These are all “evergreen books,” stories as exciting and prophetic as the day I finished the manuscripts.

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