Spam. In my last newsletter, I explained why comments to this blog disappeared for a while. I fixed that, but I’ve been getting a lot of spam recently, so I’ve been adjusting my spam filter accordingly (sometimes with active participation). Apparently WordPress understands a lot of written languages; I don’t. While I’m a man of the world, I’m not a polyglot and only know a few languages.

It’s fun to receive comments written in lots of different alphabets, but I can’t trust WordPress’s spam filter to screen them properly. Moreover, if responders can read the blog post, they can at least write their comment in English, no matter how bad it is, so other readers (and me!) can understand the content of the comment.

As a consequence, and very reluctantly, I will delete all comments written in a foreign language EVEN IF I do understand that language. That’s only fair to the readers who might want to start a discussion thread.

I apologize for any inconvenience this might cause readers of this blog.

Bookstores. Reports are indicating a comeback. That’s good news for both readers and writers. There was a time when a lot of them were going out of business, most notably Borders. The B&N book barns and smaller many smaller ones have made themselves into a community service—functions, events, and coffee and treats offered new experiences—but they’ve maintained their comfortable side of offering a place to browse while we look for that special book for someone, even ourselves.  They’re all doing a bit better.

USA doesn’t always win (that’s “United States of Amazon,” in this case, because the online retailer seems to offer anything and everything to the buying public). Walmart is trying to get in on the act now.  I still like to browse in the stacks, either in a bookstore or the public library.  My favorite bookstores are the ones that sell used books! There’s a musty je ne sais quoi to them that gets my reader’s juices flowing.

Beaches. I don’t know about you, but I have problems reading my Kindle Fire in bright sunlight, so I do my beachside reading with a print book or use my Kindle inside or in the shade. But vacation reading is coming up. Mother Nature snapped her fingers a while ago and turned winter into summer with several ninety degree days, but we went back to spring for a while. It’s still good to prepare for your vacation by loading up your e-reader with some good ebooks, or purchasing a few books in print you’ve been wanting to read (you can’t pack many of those, though).

Is your reading seasonal? Mine is a bit. I tend to read lighter fare more in the spring and summer—mysteries, thrillers, and sci-fi, exactly what I write. In the fall and winter, I get comfy in my recliner and often delve into heavier literature—biographies, histories, and politics. Those are just tendencies, though, because I’ll read just about anything that catches my eye.

Libraries and literacy. We’ve all seen people buying old books at yard sales and funding events for clubs and schools. These are usually spring events, but they occur all year round. There are also many programs that promote reading and literacy; many public libraries support them.

Do you think books are too expensive? Think what luxuries they might seem to be for a person with little or no disposable income. Literacy programs can use old books to get people reading. Please support them.

Another interview. I lov’em. They allow me to reach out to readers so they can get to know me better as a person. A hearty thank you to the Indie Crime Scene for interviewing me—the interview was posted on May 14. Visit and get to know me better.

Holly Berry Show. This annual pre-holiday event at the Upper Montclair Women’s Club offers attendees the chance to purchase all sorts of arts and crafts as holiday gifts for family and friends. The atmosphere is always festive. It takes place on November 3 and 4 this year.

I’ll be there. I always enjoy discussing reading, writing, and publishing with the attendees who stop by my booth. And a book might just be that perfect holiday gift they’re looking for. I’ll offer mysteries, thrillers, and sci-fi novels, and at least one sci-fi mystery written for young adults or young-at-heart adults (see “New Books” below).  See you there!

RIP Glimmer Train. Although I was never published by this literary magazine, I submitted a few stories on occasion, ones that I thought might meet their “literary fiction” standards (AKA they don’t like genre fiction very much). Still, they’ve been around a long time, so I’ll be sad to see them go in October 2019. Apparently they’re asking for manuscripts big time now to go out in a blaze of glory, sort of like the Viking funeral boat sent into the fjord on fire? Writers of non-genre fiction (AKA that catch-all genre “literary fiction,” what Glimmer Train calls “meaningful fiction,” as if all other fiction isn’t meaningful?) might think about submitting their masterpiece. It can all be done online. (No, I don’t know when the cut-off date is. I’m guessing they’ll tell you at their website.)

Free PDFs. I’d been wanting to facilitate the downloading of my free PDFs for a while, and I finally figured out how to do it without paying some service like DropBox. Every Win10 user has access to Microsoft’s OneDrive. I’m old fashioned and do all my backups on external hard drives, so I’d forgotten about it. But I could upload all my PDFs there and share them.

You only need the OneDrive URL. Of course, that only gives you a list of PDF files that you can download. To see a few more details about each one, visit my webpage “Free Stuff & Contests” at my website. (You still have the option of requesting the PDFs you want via email. In that case, you can also sign up for my email newsletter if you like.)

When you download my PDF(s), please feel free to share with family and friends. I only ask that you respect the copyright. (While most of the content is short fiction, there are articles about specific books and some lists of questions for book club members, etc.)

Why do I give away these PDFs? I can’t publish everything I write, even the good stuff (of course, the bad stuff never sees the light of day), so why not entice future readers by introducing my writing, or reward present readers with some freebies.

New books. My Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection and A. B. Carolan’s 2^nd edition of the YA sci-fi mystery The Secret Lab (also available in print) are both newly released from Carrick Publishing in recent months. Carrick will also publish A. B.’s YA sci-fi mystery The Secret of the Urns and my mystery/thriller Goin’ the Extra Mile (Mary Jo Melendez #3). Black Opal Books will publish my post-apocalyptic thriller The Last Humans in early 2019.  Phew!  Yeah, I need to take a few days off this summer.

Did you miss Rembrandt’s Angel? Both that novel and my novel The Collector present my unique thesis that stolen artwork can be used as collateral for other nefarious criminal activity. In Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press, 2017), Bastiann van Coevorden, an Interpol agent, has to manage Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone’s obsession with recovering the Rembrandt, “An Angel with Titus’ Features,” stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. Esther’s mission becomes deadlier and different from her usual cases in the Art and Antiques Division of the Yard. The duo takes readers on a wild tour of Europe and South America before the story reaches its climax, as they find out what the stolen paintings are used to finance. In the process, the couple’s romantic interludes become a full-blown romance. Available on Amazon, Smashwords and its affiliates (Apple, B&N, Kobo, etc), and in most bookstores (if they don’t have it, ask for it).

The earlier novel, The Collector, also features Esther and Bastiann in cameo roles, and he also appears in Aristocrats and Assassins and Gaia and the Goliaths. These three ebooks are available on Amazon and Smashwords.

All of these books can be read independently.

The Great Spring Thaw Sale. On Smashwords, you’ll generally find two ebooks on sale all the time until the end of June. Visit my author’s page and peruse the entire list of ebooks. You’ll see the ones on sale. Use the coupon code on checking out.

Follow me on social media. These blog posts are more extensive than those on my Facebook page; they complement the posts found here. Visit that page and “Like” me if you like those posts. And use the buttons at the bottom of this post to share and “Like” a particular post on your own account. You can also follow me on Twitter with @StevenMMoore4.  (I’ll confess I don’t know what the Twitter button is for. I assume it’s for sharing too. Comment if you know, because I’m new to Twitter.)

In libris libertas!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018 at 3:30 am and is filed under News and Notices from the Writing Trenches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.