{"id":101,"date":"2013-04-07T16:40:06","date_gmt":"2013-04-07T16:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevenmoores.net\/?page_id=101"},"modified":"2023-10-29T12:47:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T18:47:56","slug":"101-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stevenmoores.net\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuff & Things"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Cherub’s Play is Available Now<\/h2>\r\n

Don’t let the cover fool you. It’s a romantic comedy with, as we say in the business, paranormal elements.\u00a0
\"\"<\/a>I recommend bookshop.org, https:\/\/bookshop.org\/<\/a> \u00a0which supports local book stores.

Here’s a flavor of the story:

Geoffrey Almaric always found it unsettling to leave Heaven for a mission to Earth. Heaven was so perfect, while things on Earth got messier each time he paid it a visit. In Heaven, Geoffrey was somebody. Geoffrey Almaric Behir de Giverny, to be precise. Nicknamed “Geoffrey the Avenger” after the Battle of Jericho. In Heaven his credentials were impeccable. On Earth, nobody knew him from Adam.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Are we Safe, yet?\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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A budding author at work, long, long ago.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Needless to say, working at home has had its challenges. One of the hardest was knowing when I was working and when I shouldn’t be. In any case, now that I’m vaccinated and the pandemic maybe, possibly, hopefully is on the wane, at least in some states, I’m glad to get out of the house to do my writing. The day job can stay at home, so I’ll know when I’m “working” at that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What have you been doing with your downtime
<\/em><\/span>(when you’re not working on that novel)?<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Me, I’ve managed to keep my sourdough starter alive and I’ve been baking almost every week. I use a no-knead recipe from the New York Times. It’s the easiest bread I’ve ever made, but it requires a Dutch oven. Let me know if you’d like the recipe.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Published Novels\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I can now answer that inevitable question at cocktail parties – “Are you published?” Yes, by golly I am. Two books came out in 2018. “Cherub’s Play,” a romantic comedy, was published by The Wild Rose Press (under the pen name Katie Grant) and “Love’s Last Stand,” historical romance, was published by Five Star\/Cengage\/Gale (pen name S.B. Moores). Look for them wherever you get your books.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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The ball keeps rolling. Last year “Daphne’s Hero<\/em>” won the 2018 Pages From the Heart Contest!\u00a0 This year the story is a finalist in the Orange County Romance Writers contest! Check it out at: occrwa.org\/<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I am also happy to report Daphne’s Hero took first place in the Published Author’s Short Contemporary Romance category of the contest held by the “From the Heart” Chapter of Romance Writers of America.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Check it out: https:\/\/fthrw.com\/<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Save The Elephants<\/span><\/i><\/b> \u2013 Here\u2019s How (Miniaturization is the Key)<\/span><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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\"Elephant\"<\/a><\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Problem<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

On July 17, 2015, the New York Times wrote that an elephant is killed every 14 minutes. On March 5, 2013, the New York Times <\/a>reported that elephant poaching in Africa was at its highest in 20 years, with an estimated 25,000 elephants killed in 2011.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Times\u2019 story is based on a paper<\/a> published by a number of authors on plos.org, the website of the non-profit Public Library of Science.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One of the paper\u2019s principal authors describes the accelerating rate of elephant poaching as \u201ccatastrophic.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

According to the World Wildlife Federation, there may have been as many as 3 to 4 million African elephants in the 1940s. Today there may be 500,000 elephants in all of Africa. You don\u2019t have to be a math genius to know this devastation can\u2019t continue. Outlawing poaching and the ivory trade haven\u2019t slowed down the slaughter, and, because elephants live in countries with significant economic challenges, existing laws can\u2019t be effectively enforced.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Even if the ivory trade were ended altogether, which it won\u2019t be, human-kind\u2019s endless need for natural resources means the elephants\u2019 habitat is ultimately doomed, even if the elephants themselves weren\u2019t. Simply put, unless we find a solution, elephants are going away forever.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The biggest problem here is the elephant. No pun intended. The animals are too large to live in the modern world, a world that continues to encroach on their habitat. The elephants\u2019 large size also means they need to consume large quantities of food and have limited birth rates. And, finally, the elephants\u2019 size often puts them in direct conflict with humans, whose crops they destroy, and who cannot stop themselves from killing elephants for their ivory.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Solution<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If significant numbers of elephants are ever going to live again, something must be done to make the animals more numerous, less attractive to poachers, and less habitat dependent. Here\u2019s the answer. We need to immediately implement a breeding program aimed at reducing elephants\u2019 size until they are as big as, say, a large German shepherd dog.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Don\u2019t dismiss this idea too quickly. First of all, there is precedent. Miniaturization has been successful with another large animal \u2013 the horse. Check out the website of the American Miniature Horse Association<\/a>, whose slogan is \u201cThe Horse for Everyone.\u201d Fifty million years ago, horses were the size of modern dogs. So, varying a horse\u2019s size might have been a genetically predisposed possibility. Genetically speaking, if they were small once, it may be easier to make them small again.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What about elephants? Were they ever small? Apparently so. Scientists believe mammoths, mastodons and other prehistoric elephants evolved from tiny, mouse-sized mammals that survived the K\/T Extinction 65 million years ago. Ten million years later, the elephant became the lumbering animal we know today. Read about it on About.com<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Even today, a few pygmy elephants can be found in Borneo and elsewhere. Check out the World Wildlife Fund\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Existing pygmy elephants aren\u2019t the answer for African elephants; but, the existence of pygmies is evidence that the elephant, like the horse, is not genetically compelled to be large.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Given that it may be possible, someone should start breeding full-sized elephants down so that large numbers<\/span><\/i> of them may continue to survive, either alone or among humans. Who knows, if they can be bred small enough, maybe they\u2019ll become household pets. Talk about cute, who wouldn\u2019t want one? (The Elephant for Everyone!) If nothing else, that would ensure elephants\u2019 survival.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Elephant breeding is neither quick nor easy, but that means the effort should begin soon, rather than waiting and watching as the current catastrophe unfolds. You might not like the idea of changing such a strong, symbolic animal into a household pet; but, seriously, in the long run, what is the alternative?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Please consider this idea seriously. The elephant\u2019s extinction is not far off. If, some day, Mankind manages to live up to its own high ideals, perhaps elephants can be bred back to their large size, to live safely in a protected forest.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Until that time, we need to preserve the elephant any way we can. One way you can help right now is by visiting The Elephant Sanctuary website <\/a>. The sanctuary, located in Tennessee, is a home for retired circus and zoo elephants, a place where they can live out their remaining days in a natural environment. You can adopt an elephant and follow it via the elephant cam.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The following was posted Christmas Day, 2013<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

All I want for Christmas is . . .<\/span> <\/span><\/b><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It\u2019s Christmas. I\u2019m sitting in the only Starbucks open for miles, and the joint is well attended. People need their grande no-whip chai and their caramel macchiato even on Christmas.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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I\u2019ve been thinking about Xmas, religion, and the New Year, and, sure, my thoughts might be ones everyone has\u00a0had this time of year, still, you can\u2019t help thinking . . .<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Finding myself alone Christmas Eve, I watched television while various things baked in the kitchen. I found myself flipping back and forth between a Frontline special on the life and times of Jesus and a CNN special, \u201cBack to the Beginning,\u201d about physical evidence of the biblical stories.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I learned a lot from both programs, e.g. Jesus wasn\u2019t a simple carpenter\u2019s son living in rural Galilee. Instead, he grew up within four miles of a major Roman sea port and probably spoke at least Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew. At least that\u2019s what most scholars apparently now believe.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One thing both of these programs inadvertently drove home is that perhaps the most significant evil in the world today, and since Mankind began, is tribalism. Us vs. Them. Whether it\u2019s Catholics vs. Protestants, Christians vs. Jews, Jews vs. Muslims, Suni vs. Shia, Blacks vs. Whites, Broncos vs. Raiders, Chevy vs. Ford, it seems that all our lives, we have insisted on separating ourselves from others for completely artificial reasons, but reasons for which we willing to fight to the death to defend.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

On Christmas, on television, this point was made by the fact that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all trace their roots to the Old Testament, and to the same founding fathers and mothers.\u00a0 So, if you are Christian and you believe that Abraham\u2019s God was the only true God, then you\u2019d be no different from Jews and Muslims, who believe exactly the same thing about exactly the same God. Truth be told, genetic testing would probably reveal that members of all three religions are directly related to each other.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Still, people insist on finding ways to describe themselves as different from each other, then they use that irrelevant difference to make themselves bitter enemies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Even as I write this, ethnic Dinkas and Nuers are killing each other in South Sudan. How can they tell themselves apart, and therefore know who to kill? They find people who don\u2019t speak their language, then they shoot them. \u00a0(Don\u2019t let the Academie Francaise find out about this.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What in the world is worth killing each over is South Sudan? Surely it\u2019s not a language barrier. People, people! We will never achieve any measure of world peace or harmony unless we can overcome our tribal instincts.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If God is listening, please Lord, help the people of the world get over themselves in the New Year. If you can\u2019t do that directly, please send us Michael Rennie and his robot Gort to set things right. Klaatu barada nikto. The sooner the better.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

And, before I forget Lord. Happy Birthday!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

~ ~ ~\u00a0\u00a0 ~ ~ ~\u00a0\u00a0 ~ ~ ~\u00a0\u00a0 ~ ~ ~<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Fiction Writer and ADD<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A\u00a0few years ago I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD, but without the hyperactivity (in ADHD) that accompanies the disorder in some children. Longer ago than that, I became a fiction writer. But ever since my diagnosis, I have wondered whether there is a connection between my writing and my ADD.\u00a0 If there is one, is it a good connection or a bad connection?\u00a0 And is ADD really a \u201cdisorder\u201d when it comes to writing fiction?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

These days, more and more adults are diagnosed with ADD, which is characterized by a long list of symptoms, most of which anybody could be guilty of.\u00a0 These include, among many others.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n