This giant retailer has expanded so far beyond books that now books are only a small part of Bezo’s business. The company can no longer be considered a friend of readers and writers as a consequence.

Let’s start by listing some recent sins: they offer only one format for ebooks—theirs, of course. While they compensate for that by offering the Kindle app, available for most devices, readers with older ereaders can’t be too happy with the situation because the app isn’t universal.

In fact, Amazon has destroyed the competition as far as ereaders go. They’re putting a lot of print-on-demand companies out of business too with their Create Space print-book publishing option. Bookstores almost universally refuse to stock Create Space books for a multitude of reasons; that affects readers who might like to read an author’s book in a print version, and it obviously diminishes an author’s distribution options.

The borrowing option with Prime is potentially a source of income for authors, but they’d make more selling the entire ebook; even when a reader reads the full book, it’s a way for Amazon to pay writers fewer royalties. Another negative for authors is that to offer a book at a sale price on Amazon, the book must only be available on Amazon! That is detrimental for an author’s marketing options.

There are other pros and cons. One positive point is that Amazon is the largest retailer in the world. Unfortunately books are only a small part of that retail business now. And people can often find better deals at a mom&pop bookstore or even a B&N book barn, as well as other online book retailers like Smashwords. The latter retailer offers almost every ebook format, including Amazon’s .mobi. It also has affiliates, both retailers and book lenders. It allows authors a variety of marketing options, including special sales on ebooks. And it allows an author to set a lower price for public library purchasers. Best of all, it’s all about books, just like any bookstore in your neighborhood. Amazon fails to compete in most of these venues. In fact, in shuns them with despicable snobbery.

For once I agree with Douglas Preston. He’s rather famous for his on-going feud with indie authors, Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath, in particular, and his blatant rants in support of Big Five publishing conglomerates—forget those small presses, of course. But in his recent (Thursday, October 12) op-ed in the NY Times, “Publishing’s Unfair Gray Market,” his title is a wee bit misstated and certainly unexplained. “White market” refers to legit booksellers and distributors who do NOT scam the reading public; “black market” presumably refers to book piracy (see my previous article about that subject). “Gray market” refers to the ambivalent—perhaps legit but most certainly unethical.

Some of what Preston describes has been going on a long time, but a lot of what he says focuses on Amazon. The retailer has sneakily changed its book merchandising policy to match their policies for other products it sells, where third party vendors can actually compete with Amazon and sell used and returned items as new. Their review process has always treated books as products like shoes and hairdryers (I received one negative review from a person who mainly reviews women’s apparel!). Now they’ve gone too far. And you wonder why my books are no longer exclusive to Amazon and I only offer sales on Smashwords? Any author who’s exclusive to Amazon is shooting her- or himself in the foot!

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Indie Author Day, October 14. If you attended one of these events near you, or any other local book fair, for that matter (‘tis the season), thank you. Whether reader or writer, these events carry on an important tradition—books are part of being human.

At the event in Montclair, I enjoyed chatting with readers, many of them Montclair Public Library supporters, who wandered through talking to the participating authors. I enjoyed chatting with other authors too. Such experiences file off some of my rough edges of introverted author, probably not unusual when everyone is interested in the same things—books, in this case.

“Indie” is a very ambiguous term when applied to authors. Very few indies in the room were 100% DIY (not recommended—if you’re a writer, you probably aren’t a cover artist, for example). Traditional publishing was represented by authors who write for small presses, sometimes called “indie publishers,” i.e. those traditional publishers that aren’t part of a huge Big Five publishing conglomerate. Readers are the ones who benefit—so many good books and good authors now.

Internet readers. Not all readers read books. Maybe you read shorter and pithier articles on internet websites more than books, if you read the latter at all? I do both (not tweets, though), but I get it. You have a busy life and don’t have time for books? That’s OK. That’s why I provide lots of content JUST FOR YOU at this website. I haven’t perused the websites of authors I met at Indie Author Day yet, but just from talking to people it seemed my website is unusual (it is what it is, whether good or bad).

Here are the usually weekly offerings: a quote of note, one relating to current event or reading and writing (Mon); an op-ed article commenting on recent news items or general societal and cultural concerns (Tues); short fiction pieces and/or this newsletter (Weds); an article about reading, writing, and/or the writing business (Thurs); and a book or movie review (Fri).

In total, this amounts to a weekly online newspaper, written just for you. You can peruse the daily offering on the bus or train (please don’t do it while driving). Some days there’s nothing, though, because I either had nothing to say that day or my caffeine just hadn’t kicked in enough to write it down. Good reading!

Oxford comma. In jest on my Facebook author page, I defined this as “a sleepy docent in England who hits one too many m’s on his laptop.” What it really means is adding that last comma in a series: X, Y, and Z, and NOT X, Y and Z. There’s an ongoing battle (because Oxford somehow got involved, shall we call it a “storm in a teacup”?) with fanatical writers choosing sides on whether that comma is needed.

My take: once one of my old English teachers, from back in the days when they actually taught students how to write, told me, “Put a comma in when you’d pause while reading the phrase aloud.” (Yeah, I mentally corrected her—sometimes a semicolon has to be used.) If you can say “Jack went to the levee in his shiny new Chevy, Jill stayed home to play solitaire while drying her hair, and Thomas drove to Toledo to play basketball in his speedo” and not pause before “and Thomas,” you should be free-diving for pearls in the South Seas, not writing. ‘Nough said.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? This is the great title from a 1968 novel by Philip K. Dick. I agonize over my titles as much as I do for “the hook” (found sometimes in a first chapter, other times in a prologue) that begins a story and the climax that ends it (usually followed by a denouement or rehash that ties things together and answers questions the reader might still have—sometimes in an epilogue). I usually don’t settle on a title until I’m ready to copy-edit a final manuscript before sending it to beta-readers. The Last Humans, my new project, had the working title Oasis Redux, for example.

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Too many of us interpret the Second Amendment incorrectly.  It states: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms should not be infringed.” Let’s ignore the incorrect English—the Constitution is full of illiteracy, at least in modern terms, which often gives rise to misinterpretation. But please note the emphasis on militias—the word is even capitalized. Gun fanatics focus on the last clause and take it out of context, thinking it says everyone has a right to have a gun, “keep…arms,” as well as carry them, “bear arms.” That’s crock, of course, but maybe understandable because gun fanatics often don’t know anything about American history.

The American Revolution was started by militias. Those ragtag groups of men armed themselves and fought the British. Let’s forget the point that they were terrorists terrorizing the Brits by any modern interpretation, and they were primarily driven by greed: Why should the Brits make all the money from trade? The writers of the Constitution are recognizing militias and their importance in “winning our freedoms” (they’d be aghast at the taxes we have to pay now, of course—they’d probably have fought the Brits even sooner).

In other words, my interpretation of that badly written Second Amendment is that men in t\]militias have a right to arm themselves and carry their weapons. Duh! But considering that our militias are now institutionalized as the states’ National Guards, which the federal government can send to fight and die overseas, no one else has the right to own and carry guns. Like driving a car, it’s a privilege, not a right. We can regulate drivers’ licenses so DUI assassins and incapacitated people, physical or mentally, can’t wreak havoc on our nation’s streets and highways. Because gun ownership is a privilege, why can’t we do the same with guns?

Moreover, we regulate the condition and type of vehicles people drive, in particular, keeping them from being killing machines—none of those James Bond cars where the hubcaps become claws, for example. Why can’t we regulate the types of guns people own and how they use them?

The answer to the last questions seems to be that the NRA and all the gun addicts are binary thinkers, but so are those who want to do away with guns entirely. Gun ownership isn’t a binary issue like many people think it is. It’s not 0 = no one can own a gun, versus 1 = anyone can own a gun. There are many shades of gray between 0 and 1 here, and people have to become smart about gun control. Idiots’ solutions don’t work! Moreover, the Constitution isn’t much help here and just leads to confusion.

What are some reasonable gun control options that the NRA and gun fanatics refuse to accept? Banning of all military-style weapons is one. Assault weapons, even semi-automatic ones, and, of course, all automatic weapons must be banned. You don’t need one of those for sport or hunting, and you don’t need one to protect your home either. Gun manufacturers should be allowed to sell them only to the military and law enforcement agencies. And those gizmos (“bump stocks” are the current words in vogue) that convert semi-automatic weapons into ones of mass destruction should also be outlawed, period. When you can buy such gizmos at Walmart, you know something is terribly wrong with America.

Many people who bow their heads to honor gun victims as Trump et al did after Las Vegas, and then go on to do nothing about reasonable gun control, are hypocrites. Bowing heads is a stupid PR moment—“See America, we care!”—and of no real comfort for the dead and wounded and their families and friends. That’s why survivors and others outraged by incidents of gun violence fervently protest for more gun control. America is doing nothing.

Or, should I say, politicos are doing nothing, because a majority of American voters want reasonable gun control but can’t seem to vote out the jerks in government who feed off the campaign funds provided the NRA and similar groups. Hypocritical devils, all of them. People bowed their heads for the victims of Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, the Orlando nightclub shooting, and the Las Vegas massacre; people bowed their heads for many other incidents too numerous to name here. The NRA and the gun fanatics bow their heads too, but they’re hoping concerned people forget all about Las Vegas until the next time…and the next…and the next. By doing so, they and we encourage domestic terrorism. The NRA is the largest and richest organization that supports terrorism. They are at least as bad as Sinn Fein and probably  ISIS because they’re American terrorism’s lobbyist and political wing.

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To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them; this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.—Ursula Le Guin

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Sci-fi book sale: More than Human: The Mensa Contagion and Rogue Planet are now on sale at Smashwords from October 1 through October 31. Their prices are reduced to $1.99—that’s one-third off. In the first novel, an ET virus changes the world, but in a good way, and leads to the colonization of Mars. In the second, there’s a wee bit of “Game of Thrones” fantasy mixed into the hard sci-fi as Prince Kaushal leads his Second Tribe in their fight against the First Tribe’s brutal theocracy. Both books are stand-alone, not part of a series. Use the Smashwords coupon numbers when you check out. Note that the second book is also available in paper format at Amazon. Lots of exciting fall entertainment for a reasonable price!

In libris libertas!

Blade Runner 2049. Denis Villenueve, dir. There’s a new and improved Blade Runner, and unlike Deckard, Joe K. is most assuredly a replicant, but just as lethal. This sequel isn’t as groundbreaking as the original, arguably the best sci-fi movie ever made, but it’s a great story. Ryan Gosling does a fantastic job as K, AKA Joe K., one of the many 2.0 version replicants whose programming is supposed to guarantee subservience to their human masters. There are a lot of old ones around still, which is why K is still in business, but they and the newer models still have a disobedient orneriness.

Ana de Armas plays Joi, K’s AI lover; Robin Wright plays Lt. Joshi, K’s conflicted boss; and Jared Leto has basically a cameo as Niander Wallace, the villain with a god complex who supposedly made Tyrell’s replicants more subservient. Oh, and Harrison Ford reprises his role as Rick Deckard, but only at the end in the film’s climax, so don’t be disappointed.

And hard sci-fi lovers everywhere shouldn’t be disappointed. I won’t mention the plot only to say it’s simple and powerful. It’s also intense, without a moment’s rest from the intensity (choose your bathroom breaks carefully, because this movie is long), as we follow K on his road to inner discovery and finding his humanity. Subtleties abound. Fans of the first movie will revel in the references to it, but this cinematic tale can stand on its own, like all good sequels, whether in books or movies, so people born after the first movie can enjoy this one (and maybe then see the original?).

And the best movies are based on books, as Hollywood has discovered with sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick. In this movie, the images are fantastic, the soundtrack pounding but appropriate (and romantic enough at times), the dialogue sometimes hard to understand but like that of a hard-boiled detective story, and the action often ugly and lethal but fitting comfortably into the plot (and perhaps creating the R rating as much as the visuals?). The final product is superb.

I love this movie. It makes Star Wars and Star Trek movies seem like fantasy and baby food for the mind. This is serious sci-fi that bears well the current banner of dystopian and post-apocalyptic neo-noir films and books. Old Philip must be smiling in whatever sci-fi metaverse he now inhabits.

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Sci-fi book sale: More than Human: The Mensa Contagion and Rogue Planet are now on sale at Smashwords from October 1 through October 31. Their prices are reduced to $1.99—that’s one-third off. In the first novel, an ET virus changes the world, but in a good way, and leads to the colonization of Mars. In the second, there’s a wee bit of “Game of Thrones” fantasy mixed into the hard sci-fi as Prince Kaushal leads his Second Tribe in their fight against the First Tribe’s brutal theocracy. Both books are stand-alone, not part of a series. Use the Smashwords coupon numbers when you check out. Note that the second book is also available in paper format at Amazon. Lots of exciting fall entertainment for a reasonable price!

In libris libertas!

No, I’m not talking about Trump’s moaning about “fake news,” much of which he or his Russian friends create (Trump’s lies total 1145 at last count). My title relates to the idea that good fiction mixes in facts with the fiction in such a way that the reader either thinks the fiction is real or at least seems to be real.

One thing that impressed me about Forsyth’s novel The Day of the Jackal was that events surrounding the Algerian War (the facts) smoothly became an assassination plot against De Gaulle (the fiction). Forsyth, an excellent journalist, obviously could report facts, but he made his fiction seem just as real.

That’s something to emulate. I try to do so in every story, even in my sci-fi stories. The reader knows the latter aren’t real, of course, but if s/he reacts to the prose as if it were real or could be, s/he will have a more entertaining experience.

Forsyth’s theme was the bitterness surrounding the Algerian War. Disgruntled French soldiers were mad at De Gaulle for giving Algeria its independence, if I remember correctly. Themes in fiction are what makes fiction seem fact—in other words, real-world themes make fiction seem real. That might be obvious for near-current stories like Angels Need Not Apply (drug trafficking), Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder (illegal arms trafficking), and The Collector (sex trafficking), to name a few of my mystery and thriller books, but it’s also true for sci-fi books More than Human: The Mensa Contagion (exploration of and colonies on Mars) and Rogue Planet (brutal theocracies).

I’ve written about “themes” in my many posts about writing. Stephen King implied in his book On Writing that themes aren’t important—I guess that’s why I can’t enjoy many of his books. I’ll be blunt: novelists who avoid themes so as not to offend anyone are cowardly. Sure, you can write a mystery, thriller, or sci-fi story without any serious themes, but I probably won’t like it very much as an avid reader, I’ll be reluctant to review it even more, and I’ll certainly won’t emulate it as a writer.

Fiction must be a blend of serious themes and a great story about seemingly real characters who react and relate to those interwoven themes. The themes cannot be trivial either. Ones in most romances and horror stories are if they exist. I don’t object to a wee bit of X meets Y and they have an affair, but if that’s it, my reactions are ho-hums and yawns. Same for blood and gore and nothing more (King’s oeuvre).

I respect an author who takes a theme and writes a great story to surround it. Yeah, that takes courage—the writer is sure to offend some readers who treat fiction as escapist pablum to turn off their minds. I’m not that kind of reader, and I don’t write for that kind of reader. Maybe many readers are looking for that mind-numbing escape. Fine. To each her or his own. Reading tastes are subjective anyway, and readers have a wide variety of books to choose from. For every writer like me, there are probably ten (maybe more?) who don’t have any themes at all in their books so they don’t run the risk of offending anyone. My writing is an example of the following Cyril Connolly quote: “Better to write for yourself and have no public, than write for the public and have no self.”

Yes, reading tastes are subjective, but I’m one avid reader who reads to turn my mind on, not off. Of course, I also want to be entertained. It might seem I’m asking for a lot. Maybe so in today’s publishing world, but I don’t think I’m the only reader who feels this way. And authors can reach such readers by including interesting themes to make their fiction seem like fact.

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Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press). How far would you go to recover a missing masterpiece? Have great fun this fall reading about the adventures of Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Inspector Esther Brookstone and her paramour/sidekick, Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden. Esther becomes obsessed with recovering Rembrandt’s “An Angel with Titus’ Features,” a painting stolen by the Nazis for Hitler’s museum. The crime-fighting duo goes after the painting and those currently possessing the painting, but the whole caper becomes much more dangerous as they uncover a conspiracy that threatens the security of Europe. With all the danger, their budding romance becomes full-blown. This book is available as an ebook on Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, B&N, and Apple, and also as a print book from Amazon and your local bookstore (if they don’t have it, ask for them to order it). Check out the review and interview at Feathered Quill.

In libris libertas!

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.—Arthur Schopenhauer.

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Sci-fi book sale: More than Human: The Mensa Contagion and Rogue Planet are now on sale at Smashwords from October 1 through October 31. Their prices are reduced to $1.99—that’s one-third off. In the first novel, an ET virus changes the world, but in a good way, and leads to the colonization of Mars. In the second, there’s a wee bit of “Game of Thrones” fantasy mixed into the hard sci-fi as Prince Kaushal leads his Second Tribe in their fight against the First Tribe’s brutal theocracy. Both books are stand-alone, not part of a series. Use the Smashwords coupon numbers when you check out. Note that the second book is also available in paper format at Amazon. Lots of exciting fall entertainment for a reasonable price!

In libris libertas!

Stronger. David Gordon Green, dir. The superlative title is taken from “Boston Strong,” the ubiquitous cheer after the Boston Marathon bombing. The main character is Jeff Baumann who lost his legs in the attack. Played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who maybe gives an Oscar-worthy performance, Mr. Baumann comes across as an ordinary guy with a lot of rough edges. His family comes across much worse, and the girlfriend Erin Hurley, played by Tatiana Maslany, comes across better than all of them. Of course, Mr. Baumann had a lot on his plate to contend with, so you have to admire his courage.

This movie is both depressing and uplifting. After living many years in the Boston area, I didn’t want to see it, but I did. It’s an emotional roller coaster ride, but I reacted better than I did with 9/11 when I learned about friends and colleagues who died (the first two planes took off from Boston). These are powerful emotions that I have trouble with as a reasonable and logical person, but terrorism is neith logical nor reasonable.

The Vietnam War. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, dirs. OK, this is more a serialized documentary, probably the best doc I’ve ever seen. Of course, I might be biased because I lived through a lot of this. Even so, it’s a learning experience.

Millennials, do you wonder why baby boomers aren’t activists? Don’t fret because we were, are, and forever will be. This war changed everything, and you weren’t even born! Our parents’ generation fought World War Two and then the Korean War. One can argue that the latter was a precursor to Vietnam, but those fighting didn’t question it as much as Vietnam, and there weren’t ever the kind of protests as those against the Vietnam War, as people at home and in the fighting soon came to realized their government was lying to them.

But back to the learning experience with the doc: I learned that we can add Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy to the list of leaders who thought the dominoes were falling in Southeast Asia. LBJ and Nixon thought that too (the latter started his career supporting McCarthyism—not Eugene but the other jerk—but so did Bobby Kennedy). Lying to the American public seems to be a skill most politicians develop. Kennedy actually OK’d a coup without consulting his advisors. Nixon did worse by telling the corrupt South to delay their participation in the Paris talks until after he beat Humphrey, promising he would prosecute the war against the North more than LBJ had if they did him that favor. Ad infinitum. The worst of American politics was displayed during the Vietnam era.

The doc rightly focuses on those fighting in the conflict—how the North started boldly as a movement for independence, not a Communist uprising, and became corrupt; how the South wanted nothing to do with Communism, and became corrupt; and how soldiers on both sides fought to defend corruption. This was a human tragedy all around, but especially for the Vietnamese people, when you consider how many combatants and civilians died in the conflict.

The series also portrays the discord at home in the U.S. The war tore this nation apart more than any other since the Civil War. It even tore families apart—my brother and I never reconciled our opinions about the war. What’s going on today seems to diminish in importance compared to that national upheaval, the longest war until Afghanistan came along. The times are a-changin’, but a lot of thing stay the same, because we make the same mistakes and will probably continue to do so until I’m no longer alive to care.

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Sci-fi book sale: More than Human: The Mensa Contagion and Rogue Planet are now on sale at Smashwords from October 1 through October 31. Their prices are reduced to $1.99—that’s one-third off. In the first novel, an ET virus changes the world, but in a good way, and leads to the colonization of Mars. In the second, there’s a wee bit of fantasy mixed into the hard sci-fi as Prince Kaushal leads his Second Tribe in their fight against the First Tribe’s brutal theocracy. Both books are stand-alone, not part of a series. Use the Smashwords coupon numbers when you check out. A print version of the second book is available on Amazon. Lots of exciting fall entertainment for a reasonable price!

In libris libertas!

The state is big—in size, scenery, population, and history. As a native Californian, it’s odd that not many of my stories have a Californian setting. Silicon Slummin’…and Just Getting’ By, the second Mary Jo Melendez mystery, take place there, but mostly in Silicon Valley, the one place in the state I don’t know very well because it wasn’t there when I was growing up! (Millennials might not realize that we actually could survive without so much technology back then.)

When I started writing my post-apocalyptic thriller The Last Humans, I realized how little of my Californian soul is in my books. That’s odd, like I said, but even more so when considering that ubiquitous advice “write what you know.” Of course that advice is wrong, but one can easily correct it to “write what you know or can imagine.”  The Last Humans contains bits and pieces of my Californian soul, though, so in a sense I’ve made up for lost time. Let’s consider some settings in the book.

It starts north of LA on the coast where Penny Castro, a diver for the LA County Sheriff’s Department, is on a dive to recover the body of a murder victim. I know that whole coast well, from San Diego to San Francisco. Every third week my father covered part of that coast on a sales route, he painted the rugged ocean scenery, and died at UCSF medical center. I often went with him during the summer. I went to college in Santa Barbara and partied in LA and San Diego, but when he passed away I was a continent away so I couldn’t even go to his funeral. Yet I still love that coast, and Frisco is my favorite city in the world.

Penny also ventures into the Big Valley where I was born. On a clear day, you can see Mt. Whitney from my home town, and the latter can be considered the gateway to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, so it was natural that one high school was named Mt. Whitney and the other Redwood. The local junior college is the College of the Sequoias; my brother went there for two years before going on to UC Santa Barbara, where I went for four.

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[Another milestone for this online newsletter: edition # 150…and it doesn’t even come out every week. OK, I’ve been doing this for 10+ years now, but it’s still fun! Hopefully for you too.]

Would you rather be reading? Of course, this question probably doesn’t apply to you—that is, all the avid readers out there—but I can now add two more modern activities that have less worth than reading. In other posts I’ve mentioned streaming video (especially “binge viewing”) and video gaming. The two new additions are fantasy football and online gambling. As the smartphone becomes more like a miniature laptop, people sit around (or worse, driving!) and become addicted to them like they were the modern version of Brave New World’s soma (don’t know the book? shame on you).

You, noble reader, probably don’t do any of this, but if you know people who do, help them out of their mental passivity by giving them books and encouraging them to read them. Books make us human; those other activities make us vegetables. In libris libertas!

Twenty years of wonder. On September 15^th we bid farewell to the NASA space probe Cassini. Some of its discoveries from its twenty-year mission were already incorporated in Survivors of the Chaos and More than Human: The Mensa Contagion, and maybe some of my short fiction for all I know. Read the “Ode to Cassini” now featured on my “Home” webpage. The data obtained from the probe will keep scientists busy for years…and might appear in more of my sci-fi stories.

Just in from Midwest Book Review (on the mystery/suspense shelf): “A deftly crafted and consistently riveting read from beginning to end. ‘Rembrandt’s Angel’ showcases author Steven Moore’s genuine flair for originality and his impressive mastery of the Mystery/Suspense genre. While unreservedly recommended for community library collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of dedicated mystery buffs that ‘Rembrandt’s Angel’ is also available in digital book format.”

(Thanks to James Cox, Editor-in-Chief, and his excellent staff at Midwest Book Review.)

And to continue… this thread, let me state I’ve loved public libraries since I was a kid, so I’m honored that Midwest Book Review recommends Rembrandt’s Angel to them. Recently I also made ALL my other ebooks available to these libraries at a reduced price on Smashwords. If your library lends ebooks as well as print versions, let your librarian know. (Smashwords performs a great service in allowing authors to offer special prices for libraries.)

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