Why don't you tell us about your latest work?
My latest novel, Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By, continues
the story about Mary Jo Melendez, ex-USN Master-at-Arms. After the events
in Muddlin’ Through, where she
beats the frame for the murder of her sister and brother-in-law, she heads west
to find a job as security officer in a Silicon Valley firm. She discovers
she has a stalker; two different groups of agents are also pursuing her.
She hires a local PI to help with her own personal security and develops an
emotional relationship with him. An autistic boy who’s a computer guru
also helps her. Will she survive the attacks from three different
parties? That question makes this a mystery and suspense novel as well as
a thriller. (By the way, I’ll send a free copy of any book from
my catlog in return for an honest review.)
What inspired it? At the time I finished
writing Muddlin’ Through, my muses
(AKA banshees with tasers) were already clamoring for a sequel. Mary
Jo told me she wanted to straighten out her life a wee bit too. With the
sequel, I satisfied the muses and placated Mary Jo, but only to the extent that
she didn’t have to travel so much in this one. She became very busy in
California, though.
That’s
part of the inspiration. The other part is more general: I like strong,
smart women and love to feature them in my writing. Mary Jo is Hispanic
too, so both novels are a nod to those years I spent in Latin America,
specifically Colombia. The mystery, suspense, and thriller genres need to
feature more Hispanics.
Is there something you are currently working on?
I’m always writing, whether blog posts (op-ed about current events, book
reviews, movie reviews, author interviews, and articles about the writing
business), or storytelling. For novels, More than Human: The Mensa Contagion, a sci-fi tale, is coming
soon, and I have another novel for the “Detectives Chen
and Castilblanco Series,” Family
Affairs, in the works (an expert can be found in The Collector, the last book in that
series).
Is there a topic you would like to write about but
haven't gotten around to yet? I’ve been collecting a list of
what-ifs for years. Most of my books deal with one or two social
issues. For example, The Collector treated sex trafficking and the
exploitation of women and children for porn and prostitution. If a reader
is borrowed by these issues, I’m sorry, but they’re unfortunately part of
modern life.
I
also celebrate diversity in my novels. One thing I’ve learned from my
travels is that most of us are more alike than different, but understanding and
celebrating the differences can only lead to peace and understanding. I’d
like to see more of the latter, of course.
Within
these general parameters, there are specific themes on my list. I won’t
go into them in detail because that would be a bit of a spoiler, wouldn’t
it? I like to surprise my readers. That’s part of entertaining
them, my most important goal.
When did you finally feel like you could call yourself
an author? That’s semantics. I wrote my first novel the
summer I turned thirteen. At that point, I might have said I was an
author, but it was terrible (the plot wasn’t bad, more or less reversing the
gender roles in the film City of Angels).
I suppose after ten ebooks or so, I started calling myself an
author. Some people don’t want to do that until they have a NY Times
bestseller, though.
Other than writing, what are your favorite things
to do? Music, forensics, genetics, math, physics, study
religions of the world, scientific ethics…I’m a dabbler in ideas. I
read a lot too, and not just fiction. An author should read a lot in
her/his genre, of course, but also go beyond that to broaden her/his
horizons.
Are there any websites where readers can
connect with you? I have a contact page
on my website, http://stevenmmoore.com. I love to hear from readers and writers.
