Every book in my lists of “Best Mysteries and Thrillers” and “Best Sci-Fi Books” (see my blog posts in the “Writing” category) is an “evergreen book.” What does that mean? It means they never grow old, whether they’re considered a “literary classic” or not. Of course, many literary classics are also evergreen (and some classics are just terrible reading for most readers today).

But evergreen books in the sense that they’re still wonderful books to read, even if they were published a while ago, form a much larger class than best books in a genre or literary classics. Many early books in an author’s oeuvre are evergreen. Unfortunately bookstores and online book merchants prefer to market recent books over evergreen books, thus depriving readers of good books to read and authors of those books readership and royalties. The smaller the bookstore, the more likely this is done. That’s a stocking or warehousing problem essentially. The online merchants like Amazon and Smashwords have no excuse; they have all the space in the world. The reader can find evergreen books there, but they have to know the title and author. (Titles aren’t copyrightable, so you observe the same or similar titles used over many decades.)

Thirty out of thirty-five books listed on my “Steve’s Bookshelf” web page under “Fiction” and “Stealth Reads” are evergreen. The non-fiction books there tend to be more topical and recent, important now, but maybe not future evergreen books. All these books are ones that have really impressed me, for whatever reason, which points out that which books are considered evergreen might differ from reader to reader. Still, when an author declares a book is evergreen, it must bear a little weight, and readers should consider them. (Note: Not all books in my lists of “best books” are on my bookshelf page. There’s just not enough room, and I wanted to get those “Stealth Reads” on that web page.)

While two recent books of mine, Mind Games and The Last Humans, were published this year (2019), I published my first book Full Medical in 2006. It’s an evergreen book because it’s as current today as when it was published, maybe even more so, because it deals with cloning as a nefarious solution to the lack of organs to transplant. I’ve published a few books per year since then. Everyone of them is evergreen except for those 2019 books, which are just “new.”

The “review circus” keeps many evergreen books from popping up on online sites. Unless a book has 25+ reviews, Amazon ignores it, and, of course, Amazon, in their infinite wisdom, doesn’t count reviews posted anywhere else! Amazon mitigates this somewhat by sometimes popping up books that are selling well, even if they don’t sell well. Smashwords pop-ups are only determined by the latter. Any intelligent person can see what a vicious circle this is: pop-ups and other promos will draw customers to books, but they pop up only if many other customers were already drawn to them by some other means.

On my Amazon author page, titles are listed in order of sales, not reviews, although publication date is also weighted somehow (only the bots know the formula). Smashwords simply lists them in reverse chronological order of publication. The first is that vicious circle again; the second makes evergreen books less visible.

Book marketing in bookstores and online conspires against evergreen books. Savvy readers know that and go looking for them, on the author’s online author pages, in used bookstores, and in public libraries. Be a savvy reader. You’ll be surprised at what you can find among those evergreen books.

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Comments are always welcome.

Mind Games. You know A. B. Carolan as the writer of The Secret Lab and The Secret of the Urns. Those novels are sci-fi mysteries for young adults (and adults who are young at heart). In Mind Games, A. B. tells a new story that’s set a bit farther into the future than his first two books. Della Dos Toros is a young girl with psi powers living in the Dark Domes of the planet Sanctuary. Her adopted father doesn’t let her use those powers, but she must do so to find his killer. This story about ESP and androids adds another action-packed novel to the ABC Sci-Fi Mystery series. Available in both print and ebook versions.

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

I was recently amused by an op-ed in the NY Times (5/5/19) written by a novelist. I neither know this writer nor his books. That’s not important. What surprised me was the admission that he wasn’t an avid reader. He seemed to prefer watching Netflix to reading, only returning to the latter for any length of time when the TV network went down.

I probably shouldn’t criticize, but how can you be a writer without being an avid reader? OK, maybe not an avid reader, but someone who at least sits down with a book and reads for long stretches of time instead of watching mind-numbing TV?

“Whoa!” you say. “People can spend their leisure time any way they see fit!” I agree. A person can do anything they want with their spare time, some things unmentionable in this PG-13 blog—hopefully not illegal (the definition of that seems to change all the time). But, in my naiveté, I always assumed authors tell stories because they love story telling. The want to give to the world new stories because they’re hooked on reading others’ stories.

To put a fine point on it: how can authors write good mysteries, for example, if they haven’t read good mysteries to learn how those stories are told? Same for thrillers and so forth. Most of my interviewees have expressed that opinion in one way or another, so I’m not alone in stating that you can’t write well if you haven’t read enough to see how it’s done.

To be fair, maybe that author of the op-ed read a lot before he started to write novels, so he has some idea about how books in his genre used to be written. But the italicized words indicate the same general theme: he has no way of knowing how today’s books are being written. Readers tastes evolve. While some readers only follow certain authors, avid readers often try new ones and new books. I’m often reading a new author and say to myself, “That’s a cool way to do that,” or “That’s a new technique I should try.”

In a previous post, I related how I saw James Patterson mix first and third person in the same book. I’m not plagiarizing Patterson when I do this; I just learned a writing trick from him to use in my own writing by reading his books. If I only wrote my books and ignored others’, this could never happen.

It’s surprising that the op-ed writer is distracted by NetFlix. Distractions abound nowadays, so readership is declining everywhere. It’s surprising that a writer is distracted, though. I watch TV to relax too, but not that much. My preferred shows are news programs and PBS shows like “Nature” and “Nova,” but I’ll watch a decent drama too (and criticize the screenwriters—if they’re too bad, I turn it off). But I’ll reach for my Kindle in a jiffy if what’s on TV is mind-numbing junk.

Am I a member of an endangered species? I don’t think so. Lots of people are avid readers still. I just thought that group contained all authors. You learn something every day.

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Comments are always welcome.

Mind Games. You know A. B. Carolan as the writer of The Secret Lab and The Secret of the Urns. Those novels are sci-fi mysteries for young adults (and adults who are young at heart). In Mind Games, A. B. tells a new story that’s set a bit farther into the future than his first two books. Della Dos Toros is a young girl with psi powers living in the Dark Domes of the planet Sanctuary. Her adopted father doesn’t let her use those powers, but she must do so to find his killer. This story about ESP and androids adds another action-packed novel to the ABC Sci-Fi Mystery series. Just published and available in both print and ebook versions from Amazon and ebook version from Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc).

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

There were two options to consider when I thought about writing a sequel to Rembrandt’s Angel: (1) Write about Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone’s life as a spy in MI6 during the Cold War (i.e. a prequel), or (2) write about some adventures Esther had after those described in Rembrandt’s Angel. As it turns out, I did both!

Let me explain. The main story revolves around Esther and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden, her paramour, the main characters in Rembrandt’s Angel. Also featured are the Renaissance artist, Sandro Botticelli, and St. John the Divine, Christ’s favorite disciple. (And there’s no time travel!) Woven into the plot are flashbacks to Esther’s MI6 career and the side story of Bastiann’s efforts to thwart illegal weapons merchants. Various other themes and substories are present as well, including those about Esther’s Scottish castle, BBC documentary, and art gallery.

The prose about the historical figures so important to the main plot required a lot of research, more so than in any of my other books (they all required some). For example, it is known that John lived a long life. I gathered facts and legends and decided which ones to include in the story. I then had to become creative and fill in enough details to make a historical-fiction tale about the turmoil in the early Church during John’s life. He partners up with Mary Magdalene in a few adventures (no Da Vinci Code romance here, though).

I always wanted to write something about St. John. His gospel is so much more interesting than the other three (there are many more gospels, but the Church only chose four for the canonical Bible). And then there’s the Book of Revelation. Did he really write that? His gospel is about a loving God; the Book of Revelation returns to the vengeful God of the Old Testament. (Just my perception, of course.)

Sandro, like many Renaissance artists, made a living painting works about both religion and mythology. Medici, his patron, financed his and others’ frescos in the Sistine Chapel before Michelangelo even touched that ceiling (maybe that’s why he did the ceiling—it was the only space left?). He goes on a trek with his parish priest in the story. Both trip and priest are fictional (we don’t know how much Sandro actually traveled), but the places visited are real.

Esther and Bastiann seemed to be the right pair to add to this mix. Does it matter that there are three parallel but related stories here? I promise you that their stories are interwoven, but that’s all I’ll say. To learn how that occurs, you’ll have to read the book when it comes out. You’ll also learn the origins of the title.

Besides the usual beta-reading and pre-editing I do for every book, I also sent a copy of the manuscript to a Jesuit priest. I’ve had good relationships with Jesuits in the past. I asked this priest to look it over to see if the history part of this historical fiction tome agreed with known facts. I did a lot of research, but you never know (Dan Brown was led astray with The Da Vinci Code). The priest never answered, so I guess he didn’t find anything wrong (chuckle).

While this book was a lot of work for the required research, it was also a lot of fun to write. I hope it will be fun for everyone to read.

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Comments are always welcome.

Rembrandt’s Angel. Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone, the Art and Antiques Division, becomes obsessed with recovering a Rembrandt painting stolen by the Nazis in World War II. Her paramour and Interpol agent Basitann van Coevorden tries to focus that obsession and keep her safe. Their pursuit of the painting leads to a far larger conspiracy. Available at Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.), as well as in our favorite local bookstore (if they don’t have it, ask for it). The sequel, Son of Thunder, is coming soon from Penmore Press. (Check out their catalog for many more good books to read.)

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

Last week I discussed point of view (POV) vs. person. Both involved characters and how we treat them in our stories.

Readers often identify with characters. In my fiction, I kill a few off. Invariably, someone comments or writes, “Oh no, not X! He’s such a great character.” Readers can become attached to characters, but writers have to treat them a bit more objectively—what happens to them must fit the plot and move it forward, and fit the themes winding in and around the plot.

Some authors don’t pay much attention to characters’ names, whether they’re going to kill them off or not. I worry about names a lot. I often use an X as a placeholder until I learn what X is like. Names reflect many things. As an amateur interested in languages and how their histories reflect cultural trends, I believe each character should have an appropriate name. My Detective Castilblanco is a Puerto Rican-American; my arch-villain Vladimir Kalinin is Russian. Although they are both men of the world, their cultural backgrounds play important roles in their subsequent lives portrayed in my fiction.

Writers don’t have to go overboard with their characterizations, but we don’t want our readers to be perplexed and say “Huh?” Dick, Jane, and Spot just don’t cut it either. Who a character is has to make sense. Characters have to seem real. What they say or do has to make sense too.

The flip side of that coin is that a character shouldn’t be a carbon copy or caricature of any real person, especially the author. Writers have to become a bit schizophrenic so every character is a different person one might encounter in real life. I find all that easier to do in first person all the way through the book (that has other benefits too), but many stories aren’t one-person stories. In fact, some novels, through complexity or length of time considered (e.g. several generations), have many characters.

I don’t write outlines for my books, but I maintain a list of characters. At some point when that list becomes too long, I will include the final list at the beginning of the novel. In any case, my personal list has the name of the character and a short description. That also helps me see if I have described a character well enough in words to match my mental image of the character, both physically and mentally.

Imagination is key when telling a story. It’s key for the plot, although that can evolve. But it’s super-important for characters. We need to imagine the inner persona as well as the outer. Both are important.

As often happens in any creative activity, good characterization in writing comes with practice. It is based on observation too. Observation and practice work in hand to make our characters come alive in the reader’s mind.

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Comments are always welcome.

Mind Games. You know A. B. Carolan as the writer of The Secret Lab and The Secret of the Urns. Those novels are sci-fi mysteries for young adults (and adults who are young at heart). In Mind Games, A. B. tells a new story that’s set a bit farther into the future than his first two books. Della Dos Toros is a young girl with psi powers living in the Dark Domes of the planet Sanctuary. Her adopted father doesn’t let her use those powers, but she must do so to find his killer. This story about ESP and androids adds another action-packed novel to the ABC Sci-Fi Mystery series. Just published and available in ebook and print format from Amazon and ebook format from Smashwords and all its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc).

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

Most authors hesitate when they first think about publishing, whether it is a traditionally or self-published book. Second thoughts are inevitable. We ask ourselves: Will anyone like my book? Will those who don’t attack me? How much marketing should I do? Will I regret publishing this book?

I posed these questions in 2006 with my first book, Full Medical. With every book since then, they rear their heads like some Greek chorus announcing pending doom. The last general question is the most important because it summarizes the others. Even marketing our books exposes us to public opinion, which moves lightning fast these days and often reflects knee-jerk reactions to stimuli. We can rationalize everything by saying that it’s all about our books, not us. Well, yes, but they’re our books. A book just doesn’t materialize out of thin air. An author wrote that book, a real person, not an android or robot (I suppose that day will come). And that person, whether s/he likes it or not, is in the public spotlight. It might be a small one, but more people will know about that author than they would fifty years ago because of social media and online marketing. It’s a zany, new world of publishing now, and no author can escape the public and be a complete recluse.

Let’s put it another way: Any author who puts her or his books out there cannot hide. We’re all visible, some more, some less, just because we publish books. Maybe not enough authors realize this.

Or do we? Are we all closet narcissists now searching for the spotlight? I think we’re both, in a sense—torn between introverted and extroverted behavior. We write our stories alone, but we want validation of our storytelling, so we publish those stories. This is a tricky psychological and sociological balancing act. It’s one all creative people endure, from scientists and engineers to storytellers and song writers.

Fortunately the tightrope where we do this balancing act isn’t thin. Introverts and extroverts can balance on it, and everyone in between. We can pick how much that spotlight shines on us, avoiding what makes us uncomfortable. Reasonable readers respect our privacy, just as we respect theirs. We an chat with readers and among ourselves online and publicly as much as we want, and most everyone gets by.

But how should we respond to those who attack us? Depends on our personalities and how tough our skins are. We shouldn’t look for fights, but there’s always some troll who wants to be confrontational. But is this any different from real life? Maybe there are more trolls because we publish our books, but it’s best to ignore them. Let them stew in their own juices. Be assured that most of them couldn’t tell a good story even if their life depended on it. We can usually tell that from their criticism.

On the other hand, the way we handle praise is key too. First, we must be modest. It’s nice to receive accolades for a book and our writing in general, but we should always realize that there are many good authors and good books out there and count ourselves lucky that those readers sending accolades our way chose our books to read. Also as in real life, a little humility can go a long way.

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Comments are always welcome!

Mind Games. You know A. B. Carolan as the writer of The Secret Lab and The Secret of the Urns. Those novels are sci-fi mysteries for young adults (and adults who are young at heart). In Mind Games, A. B. tells a new story that’s set a bit farther into the future than his first two books. Della Dos Toros is a young girl with psi powers living in the Dark Domes of the planet Sanctuary. Her adopted father doesn’t let her use those powers, but she must do so to find his killer. This story about ESP and androids adds another action-packed novel to the ABC Sci-Fi Mystery series. Coming soon in both print and ebook versions. An excerpt will appear in tomorrow’s newsletter. (Note: the first two books are on sale, but only for my email newsletter subscribers.)

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

I thought I knew about point of view (POV), but I learned I didn’t the hard way, from a review of one of my books. I consider myself a man of logic and reason, so I accepted the critique and learned from it. I now watch my use of POV like a hawk.

I was confusing person with POV, among other things. They’re related, but they’re not the same. POV can be omniscient, i.e. the viewpoint of someone who’s not a character in the story “looking down” as it were and telling the reader what’s happening. Some narrative (world building in sci-fi, for example) requires this POV. Omniscient POV isn’t recommended in general, though.

Usually the story is written from some character’s POV. An author shouldn’t change that frequently AKA “head-jumping.” The POV should at least be constant in each section of a chapter. Sometimes it’s constant throughout an entire novel (especially if there’s just one character). I’ve seen authors switching POVs within sections and even within paragraphs. Not recommended either.

My sins weren’t terrible ones, and I learned my lesson. I still have to watch for POV, though. Flubbing POV is one of my writing quirks I have to look for when content editing.

What about person? A character’s POV can be in first (pronoun “I”), second (pronoun “you”), or third person (pronouns “she” or “he” or “it”—for the latter, we have to get fantasy creatures and ETs in the prose sometimes), all singular because it’s just one character (I used “we” in the Chaos Chronicles Trilogy, though, for collective intelligences). The choice of person is therefore distinct from POV. For stretches of prose written in first person, they have to be in that person’s POV, of course, which might add to the confusion. But POV can jump around various characters in a book. All those different POVs can be in third person, for example.

Choosing POV and person are selections writers make in their storytelling. They shouldn’t be taken lightly or ignored. When I wrote The Last Humans, I first had the plot idea and choice of main character; other characters came along as I wrote. But I chose person and POV early on. The key is in the subtitle: The Adventures of Penny Castro. (Somehow that got lost in publication. Probably my bad.) I chose Penny’s POV, writing in first person. That worked best in the first parts of the book where it’s mostly Penny against the post-apocalyptic world. I stuck with it in later parts too, even when other characters (i.e. survivors) came into her life.

In the sequel (I’m still thinking about the title), Penny will share the POV with other characters. She’ll be in first person still, but, because many events don’t involve her, the characters involved in those events will be third person. I’ve used this mix before—most notably in my detective series—but I wasn’t the first author to do so (and probably not the last) because I first saw it in James Patterson’s Alex Cross books.

Handling POV and person are two skills a writer must have. For some, it comes naturally; and for some, who think it comes naturally, they make some gaffes. I was one of the latter long ago and pay special attention to it now. It ranks with a getaway car turning from red to blue in mid-chase for its potential in confusing readers.

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Comments are always welcome.

Mind Games. You know A. B. Carolan as the writer of The Secret Lab and The Secret of the Urns. Those novels are sci-fi mysteries for young adults (and adults who are young at heart). In Mind Games, A. B. tells a new story that’s set a bit farther into the future than his first two books. Della Dos Toros is a young girl with psi powers living in the Dark Domes of the planet Sanctuary. Her adopted father doesn’t let her use those powers, but she must do so to find his killer. This story about ESP and androids adds another action-packed novel to the ABC Sci-Fi Mystery series. Coming soon in both print and ebook versions. An excerpt will appear in tomorrow’s newsletter. (Note: A. B.’s first two books are on sale now, but only for email newsletter subscribers.)

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

I happen to like my name. We’ve been friends since birth. No, I’m not that economist currently in the news. Even Google Alerts got confused. Hey Google, the economist is Stephen—that’s with a “ph” not a “v.” I’m Steven. I’m no relation to Mark Moore either. And I’ve never played with the New England Patriots. And I’m not that other author Steven Moore or the felon Steven Moore. Etc. Etc.

I am an ex-scientist who once worked with terabytes of data and tried to make sense of them (something that economist Stephen never has done, I’m sure). That work often involved statistical analysis (maybe the economist understands stats?). Now I’d like to know some other stats, though: Is Steve Moore more common than Joe Smith? I’ve never personally known a Joe Smith (or John Doe, for that matter), but I once knew a Joel Smee—we competed for the first trombone chair in high school.

Because I like my name, even though it’s common, I chose to use it in my writing. Some people choose a pseudonym. I chose to stick with my given name—never thought much about a pseudonym when I was getting ready to publish my prose. (Maybe I should have? Something like Lee Child? Hmm. That one was already taken.) They say hindsight is twenty-twenty, so at times during my writing career I’ve wondered if I could have done better and become better known with a fake name. But maybe hindsight needs corrective lenses, and it sure isn’t a time machine—I can’t go back and change that decision.

When I wonder about pen names, I can rationalize my choice by asking; Would it have made any difference? I’ll rephrase that question: Does a reader choose a book by an unknown author on the basis of the author’s name? Yeah, maybe, if the name is very unusual, but not if it’s a common name, maybe just a symbol (I throw that in for “Purple Rain” fans—I like that song too). A reader will choose a new book by an already known author because s/he liked that author’s previous books, but they’ll be attracted to the unknown author’s book by other things, all related to the book itself. One exception might be a memoir after the reader peruses an interesting bio, an extreme case being an autobiography. (Some unknown authors might write these, but that would be unusual.)

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One of the unexpected pleasures I’ve received from my association with small presses is confirming my old opinion that they have catalogs with many good books written by many good authors. Of course, the author’s negative in this is that it also confirms that competition is stiff, but the pleasure is augmented when the author, like me, is an avid reader. I always knew this, of course, and often perused specific publisher’s catalogs. But I’m doing it more often now.

Let me hasten to add that there’s no one pressuring me to do this. But, as an author, I know my own books get buried in the thousands of books available at big retail sites. I hate to browse on Amazon and Smashwords for that reason, knowing that other authors must surely suffer the same fate…and their books can be interesting reading.

Black Opal Books and Penmore Press, two small presses that have morphed me into a mongrel (a traditionally published as well as a self-published author), have catalogs with many interesting books that might get buried in the lists of the giant retail sites. I’ve read many books listed therein, and I’m sure I’ll read many more. (Some are already on my TBR list, either already purchased and waiting patiently for me on my Kindle, or waiting to be purchased.)

So I thought in this blog post I’d list some of these books. Most I have reviewed, either in my “official reviewing capacity” on Bookpleasures (before I became associated with the two publishers, mind you) and/or on this blog (see the “Book Reviews” and “Mini-Reviews of Books” archives).

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Like bumper stickers, hats are used to make political statements, acknowledge where their wearers have been or want to go, what their wearers would rather be doing, or expressing support for some sports team. Mine generally do none of that. (I don’t display bumper stickers either.)

I generally wear three types of hats: baseball caps, Panama hats, and Irish wool hats. My reasons for doing so might seem unusual. While the hat itself might make a statement, my main purpose for wearing them is, in fact, utilitarian.

Baseball caps have the disadvantage that they don’t protect the tops of my ears from sunburn. I use them more in rainy weather, preferring them to an umbrella unless it’s  a torrential downpour. Some of them promote something (Guinness stout or Jameson whiskey; Spring Lake, NJ—you might have seen my pic where I wear one), but they’re generally neutral in color—brown or gray, and never red or blue. I’ve lost quite a few baseball caps in my life, many more than a sock from a pair.

I finally found a Panama hat. I’ll confess my ignorance. I discovered hey’re made in Ecuador, not Panama. I think other South American countries make reasonable facsimiles, though (maybe like champagne, they’re not allowed to call them “Panama hats”?). I can’t imagine coffee growers in Colombia paying for an imported hat, even if Ecuador is a next-door neighbor, and they invariably wear one. Of course, the iconic Juan Valdes isn’t a determining factor in this controversy—he wasn’t even Colombian! (Of course, the name is an advertising creation, but the original Juan Valdes  was portrayed by Cuban opera singer Jose Duval.) Those “Panama hats” are pliable, practical, and cool (in both senses of the word), and the wide brim keeps my ears from burning.

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I think climate control should be a bipartisan concern: we’re now ruining the planet for future generations, so it should be the number one concern that goes beyond election cycles and partisan politics. What we’re doing now is an evil worldwide attack on Gaia, but certain countries are guiltier than others, especially industrialized nations who are dependent and continue their dependence on fossil fuels without remorse. The melting glacier on the bio page of this website symbolizes all that.

While these themes sporadically occur in my fiction (dikes on NYC’s Hudson and East Rivers, toxic mining residues, dependence on fossil fuels, water shortages, endangered species and extinctions, etc.), I usually don’t make a big deal out of them. Frankly, they ARE a big deal, so I shouldn’t have to mention them at all!

My new novel The Last Humans (Black Opal Books, March, 2019) considers water shortages and steps to prevent them. That was the main theme in what started as a short story, but it was reduced to weaving in and around only one of main character Penny Castro’s many adventures in that novel, leading to a climax. My very first novel, Full Medical (Xlibris, 2006, now with a 2011 ebook second edition from Carrick Publishing), mentions the dikes on the Hudson and East Rivers. Later books, for example, Soldiers of God (Infinity, 2008, now with a 2014 second edition from  Carrick Publishing), mention the perfidious influence of fossil fuels.

Only one novel, though, Gaia and the Goliaths (Carrick Publishing, 2017), makes environmental concerns a main theme. Many readers know that Gaia is the Greek goddess representing Earth and her name is often used to indicate that our planet is a living organism that deserves to survive—no, she must survive if human beings are going to survive! In my novel, Gaia is also the name of an environmental activist who becomes a homicide case for my two detectives, Chen and Castilblanco. Yes, I intended her murder to be symbolic (the working title while I wrote the novel was Killing Gaia).

One thing the pragmatic progressive Castilblanco defends both literally and philosophically, much to the consternation of his conservative partner Chen, is nuclear power (yes, a wee bit of role reversal!). His arguments are better stated in the NY Times Sunday Review article “Nuclear Power Can Save the World” by Joshua Goldstein et al (4/7/2019). The argument made there is so scientifically convincing and so succinct that I won’t try to summarize it here. Everyone should read it.

I’ll only emphasize that the article does mention how France and Sweden, by championing nuclear power, have greatly reduced their carbon emissions from fossil fuel use without hurting their economies. That didn’t happen overnight, of course, but it does show how myopic some countries are being, among them the US. And it does point to a path forward far more effective than hydroelectric (most dams have already been built), solar, and wind energy sources for other countries (neither of which are efficient energy producers like nuclear reactors).

In the novel, an American petroleum company conspires with a Russian oligarch to undermine France’s revolution in using nuclear power reactors so that the French will become consumers of fossil fuels again, something that interests the Russians, of course. Several European countries like Germany have already fallen into that trap. You’ll have to read the novel to see how it all turns out.

My novel is but one example of how a general theme can inspire and wind into and around a plot to make it more interesting. The themes often come first to me as part of a what-if, then the plot, and finally the characters who carry the plot forward. Chen and Castilblanco often do a good job in the latter.

I don’t know why I waited so long to consider climate control as a major theme. For years I’ve realized it’s the most important problem that human beings now face. We might have already gone beyond the tipping point now. I hope not. We need all the non-fossil-fuel energy sources we can get. Frankenstein-like fears of nuclear energy as a boogey man are misplaced. As France and Sweden have proven, power reactors are safe as long as those who build and run them aren’t incompetent. ‘Nough said.

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Comments are always welcome.

“Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries.” Who are the MECHs? Find out in this trilogy featuring the novels Muddlin’ Through, Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By, and Goin’ the Extra Mile. These action-packed stories of mystery, thrills, and suspense will provide hours of reading pleasure. Available on Amazon and Smashwords and at the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, Walmart, etc.).

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