Amazon. I have many problems with Amazon, but package delivery isn’t one of them. Like most online retailers, they use many delivery services—the USPS is just one of them. These delivery services generally do a good job (I just wish more of them would at least ring the doorbell). They also make money from retailers, whether you get free delivery or not (it’s rarely free for the retailer). That keeps the USPS in business so the few of us who still send letters, birthday and holiday cards, and yes, packages, can still do so.

Every online retailer has to pay state sales tax for direct deliveries now; I guess the law also applies to affiliated retailers (Amazon has many), but that’s not Amazon’s responsibility—how could it be? Is Amazon putting brick-and-mortar stores out of business? Maybe. Toys-R-Us couldn’t adapt; Walmart and others are adapting. Blaming Amazon for USPS budget woes seems like a stretch, but the times they are a-changin’….

My problems with Amazon? They’re mostly book author-related. Readers are only affected because they’re limited to what they can see on their laptops and smart phones. That’s why libraries and bookstores will never be replaced, thank goodness.

Facebook. Many of you know I have a Facebook author page. It complements my website and includes mini-reviews of books, mostly classics, and some chat about my own books, including sales. I pay nothing for that service. But everyone reading this who uses Facebook should revise their security preferences. And beware of surveys. Your online security is important to me. Every reader is. We all have to help each other.

Old radio shows. They were the precursors of audiobooks, complete with sound effects. They were the precursors of podcasts too. Most of all, they were like fiction books because they sent imaginations into overdrive. Even though families often sat around listening to them, each person’s imagination participated and created her or his own little world.

A 1940s radio show will have propagated 80 light-years by the end of this decade, farther than TV. ETs wouldn’t know how to interpret the video anyway, and TV audio signals wouldn’t convey all the information within the signal from a radio show. I wonder if some of those ETs aren’t enjoying The Whistler and The Green Lantern.

2018 Holly Berry Show. I’m back! I skipped last year for health reasons, but I plan to have a booth at this wonderful arts and crafts show run by the Upper Montclair Women’s Club. It’s always a festive occasion, and visitors from all over northern New Jersey  have a wide selection of artsy gifts for sale for all their family and friends.  The show also offers me an opportunity to meet and greet local readers and writers and sell and sign a few books for those interested. It takes place on November 3 and 4 at the Upper Montclair Women’s Club. See you there!

Art and fiction. In my blog post “Art and Fiction,” I focused on paintings and sculpture. What about music?  Do you listen to it when you read? I often do, mostly light classical or soft rock. It’s uncanny how the moods of the prose and the music are often in synch. Maybe there’s some kind of resonance between audio waves and brain waves—the latter really exist.

In a PDF free for the asking titled “Murder, Mayhem, and Music,” I offer a collection of short mystery and crime stories inspired by music. Use my contact page or email me using steve@stevenmmoore.com to receive your free copy.

First contact variation.  First contact is a common theme in sci-fi. I treat it a bit differently in “Portal in the Pines,” another PDF free for the asking. It’s a novella that will leave you thinking about what it means to be human.  Use my contact page or email me using steve@stevenmmoore.com to receive your free copy.

Other free fiction. See the complete list of free PDFs on my “Free Stuff & Contests” webpage.  You’ll also find free short fiction in the blog categories “ABC Shorts” and “Steve’s Shorts.”

And now for some words from our sponsor…. You don’t actually see much of the ETs in “Portal in the Pines,” but one story of mine, “Escape from Mother World,” represents the other extreme. There are no humans in this novella, and its main character is an ET. One reader found it strange to be inside an ET’s mind. That novella was certainly a challenge to write. Have you read any other sci-fi stories like that? This story was originally part of Sing a Zamba Galactica, now found in The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection, but I excised it to keep the novel shorter. The novella is now available in Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape, a collection of my short fiction. (Sorry, this ebook is only available on Amazon.)

Did you miss any recent books? Mystery/thriller Rembrandt’s Angel has Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone team up with paramour Interpol Agent Bastiann van Coevorden to recover a missing Rembrandt; they get more than they bargained for. The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection features three sci-fi novels that take the reader from a dystopian Earth to the stars. And The Secret Lab, rewritten and reedited by my collaborator A. B. Carolan, has four kids trying to discover the origins of a mysterious mutant cat; they too get more than they bargained for. The first and third books are available in both ebook and print versions; the second only as an ebook.

Great Spring Thaw Sale. Every two weeks, with one week overlap, starting April 1, one of my books will be on sale at Smashwords (the overlap means that there are usually two books on sale). (Yes, it’s been going on…sorry about that, but it was announced on my Home page and elsewhere.) Take advantage of this to download some entertaining spring reading. Each ebook will be on sale for $1.99, regardless of the normal retail price. Access my author page for the entire list of ebooks. (Remember, Smashwords offers ALL ebook formats, including mobi format for Kindles.) Use the coupon code for the ebook on checkout.

In libris libertas!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2018 at 3:30 am and is filed under News and Notices from the Writing Trenches, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.