Author Archive for agavin – Page 91

Waterloo & City – Fat=Flavour

Feb13

Restaurant: Waterloo & City [1, 2, 3]

Location: 12517 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90066 310.391.4222

Date: January 27, 2012

Rating: Really tasty!

I have reviewed Waterloo & City twice before, but it’s been a couple of months and the menu has changed up, so it’s worth a reprise.

The current menu.

“The Brunello di Montalcino from Poggio Il Castellare is a dark, inward wine imbued with dark cherries, plums, tar, smoke, licorice and new leather, all of which come together on a powerful, incisive frame. This burly, somewhat rough around the edges Brunello shows plenty of length and richness, even if the tannins might benefit from a measure of added polish. Still, I see this working well with boldly flavored dishes. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2024.”

This is a “prince” sized charcuterie. We also have the chicken liver (yum yum), the salmon and egg terrine and the fois gras and prune (good, but heavy), and a duck and walnut country pate.

The duck on the left (yummy) and the salmon on the right. The chicken liver was the really winner here.

“Yellowtail Crudo, Shallot & Ginger Dressing.” Slightly underwelming as the fish was muted by everything else.

“Arugula, Grilled Bartlett Pears, Smoked Almonds, Parmesan.”

A special pasta with parmesan and…

Fresh piedmontese white truffles! This was a really spectacular classic.

Parker 90. “Proprietor Comte de Neipperg is doing everything possible to elevate this estate’s reputation. Readers should take note as prices are sure to rise once the world discovers just how sumptuous recent vintages of Clos de l’Oratoire have been. The 1996 is even better out of bottle than it was from cask. The wine boasts an opaque plum/purple color. Intense aromas of Asian spices, espresso, roasted meats, and sweet, exotic cedar and blackberry fruit soar from the glass of this exotic, ostentatiously-styled St.-Emilion. It is medium to full-bodied, with moderate tannin, a sweet mid-palate (always a good sign), and a dense, concentrated, long, powerful finish. This muscular, impressively-endowed offering should drink well between 2002-2017.”

“Diver Scallops, Parsnip Ravioli, Chamomile, Mandarins, Basil, French Horns.” A nice scallop dish.

“Roast Colorado lamb. English peas, fois gras sauce.” The meat was good, but the pea sauce even better.

More of the “sauce” which was really very rich and good.

Brussels with bacon. Bacon does indeed make everything better.

A can’t remember what exactly was under there, but it included this Indian-style poofy bread.

The desserts here are really good too (see my previous reviews) but we were so stuffed that it would have been fatal to indulge.

Overall, Waterloo & City is still going strong and this was a great (albiet rich) meal.

Or for more LA Restaurants.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Brunello di Montalcino, Culver City, Culver City California, gastropub, Los Angeles, Waterloo, Waterloo & City, Waterloo & City line

Brace yourself for Hardcover

Feb12

Glamour photo

My publisher might be small (one book released and another in the queue) but I was determined to produce a hardcover edition for my debut novel. Why?

1. As a consummate book lover, I’ve always preferred hardcovers. Sure they’re a pain to lug on vacation but they have real weight to them. And the paper doesn’t yellow or the binding fall apart after ten years.

2. Serious books always come out in hardcover. A straight to paperback book is like a straight to DVD movie.

3. Given that most independent books don’t come in hardcover, and it’s my goal with The Darkening Dream to hold production values to the standards of New York’s finest, I thought a hardcover would help make the book look like the classy publication it is.

4. Since the setup costs for a POD (Print On Demand) book are low, it seemed — erroneously as it turned out — that it wouldn’t be much extra work to create a hardcover edition. And even if I didn’t sell many, I wouldn’t be out much money.

5. They smell nice.

Enough with the reasons. How did I do it?

Finding a POD printer was a given. No way was I going to pay to print and warehouse an offset run. And as far as I know, LightningSource is the only mainstream POD printer that will do a proper black and white, novel-sized hardcover. Others do photobook hardcovers, but those have color interiors, and are way too costly. LSI is owned by Ingram, distributes through them and Amazon, and offers seven sizes of casebound (integrated color cover) and three sizes of color dustjacket hardcovers. All of them are priced well. A friend of mine had used them, so I ordered her book. The quality is good, very similar to most offset hardcovers. The cut of the pages is smooth and aligned, which I actually prefer, but you don’t have the option for that ragged sewn look that was popular in the 80s and 90s. The paper is heavy and comes in white or creme (which is what I used). The printing itself is about 5-10% worse than the best offset hardcover printing. It’s nice, but I can tell it’s not the world’s nicest. Still, it’s much better than a BookClub hardcover and more than acceptable. It’s certainly no worse than most of the hardcovers in my extensive (10,000 book!) collection (photo at the end of the article).

Inside. I used a professional book designer and had custom chapter headings commisioned

My book designer recommended that we choose the same paper size for both the trade paperback and the hardcover, that way they could share the print ready file. To that purpose, I went with 6″x9″ for both. The hardcover is actually slightly bigger anyway because the binding is thicker and overhangs the paper, so both feel about right. The hardcover is much denser and heavier.

But first I had to get an account with LSI. This proved to be one of the more subtasks. First you sign up on their site and fill out like a million pages of forms. Then days later they send you questions. Then you answer them. Then you fill out more forms online. You need to provide credit terms or a credit card to fall back on. The don’t take Amex — Grrr Arg! You need proper tax information (like an EIN). Then they insist that you print out about 75 pages of contracts, sign them, fill out lots of paper forms, and fax them back! This almost defeated me. I detest forms, paper, and fax machines. But I plunged on.

LSI’s interface is also a bit obtuse, nowhere near as easy as CreateSpace. But it was manageable. You need your own ISBNs too, which wasn’t a problem as I’d bought a block of 100 from Bowker. The hardcover, paper, and e-book editions all need separate ISBN’s, but the various e-book versions all share the same one. An additional tip with this is to make sure that all of your ISBN’s are listed on your copyright page with the edition names (i.e. hardcover XXXX paperback XXXX). That way the same interior PDF will work for all.

The hardcover mechanical in all its glory

Now the only thing that is really different is the mechanical. For those of you who don’t know, a mechanical is the big carefully assembled CMYK PDF used to print your cover. The above hardcover mechanical has the front, spine, back, and both flaps, plus the ISBN bar code and the proper crop marks. There are websites/programs to generate you barcodes (pro mac one or a free web one).

LightningSource has a nice (but buried) tool that generates PDF or InDesign templates. You pick the size of your book, the type of paper, and the number of pages (which affects the spine) and it will generate these files and email them to you. Then fire up Photoshop or InDesign and carefully layout the elements on top of the template. The second mechanical (say after the paperback, which is similar) doesn’t take too long for someone skilled with these programs. I’m excellent in PS and decent at ID, but I still hired an experienced jacket designer to do the layout. I didn’t want any element of my book looking amateur. Having at least some basic skills with both these programs saves you a lot of money and time.

But you do have to decide what goes where and develop all the copy for the hardcover layout. The synopsis on the left flap is typically longer than the one on the back of a paperback, plus you’ll need the author photo and bio for the right.

You also have to be careful to use LSI’s template. They will not accept the mechanical if it’s not on their EXACT template file, even if the dimensions are otherwise correct. My jacket designer used his own template for the first pass (although he matched the sizes perfectly) and I had to swap it out underneath the layout in ID to get LSI to take the file. Also be very careful not to project any important elements like text outside the safety zones. LSI spends some care examining your mechanical and will bounce it if it isn’t perfect.

Plus, unlike CreateSpace, they charge some money for the setup. About $125 + an optional $35 for a printed proof. You’ll want to pay it too because the digital proof doesn’t tell you anything about how your alignment actually looks on the book.

Everything at LSI runs a bit slower than at more automated companies like Lulu or CreateSpace. A day or two instead of hours. But they do pay more attention. I received multiple emails about exactly what issues my first mechanical had, including zoomed jpegs of the problem areas. The LSI agent responded rapidly and helpfully to what was probably a fifteen email exchange. This even included some complicated discussion about the CMYK “ink density,” a subject about which I knew nothing. Now I know just a tad more. Apparently, black areas can have too much ink coverage for certain printing processes. Who knew? But we got it sorted. I built a new mechanical and a day later it passed. About two days after that they overnighted me the paper proof.

It looked pretty much perfect. The only problem is in the alignment of the text on the spine, which on this particular proof is about 1/16″ off center. It’s not in my file, but they folded the dustjacket slightly off center. POD has a bit of variation from book to book and supposedly some of them will be perfect and some will be a little off. It’s not really noticeable unless you are looking for it and a large percent of “regular” books on my shelf have off-center spines.

Also, in keeping with the slower pace, it takes LSI some mysterious time between one and eight weeks to propagate their information to Amazon. Eventually, it’s supposed to just show up there, and a few days after that, merge itself with the Kindle and paperback editions. Likewise changing your description and price via LSI takes forever. And this brings up the whole pricing issue.

LSI allows you to set the “discount” on the book. CreateSpace has a hardwired 40% discount but on LSI you can move it to 20% which forces Amazon to take a lower percentage. I chose $24.99 as my list and set the discount to 20%. We’ll have to see how this works out and what Amazon does with it.

Like most of publishing, building the hardcover is made up of a variety of subtasks that while individually not too significant, end up taking considerable time. Still, holding the gorgeous fellow, it’s worth it.

NOTE: This post was original written as a guest post for NovelPublicity and can be found here.

The flaps and the blue fabric cover. You can pick blue or gray.

In case you’re curious about the book behind the pretty cover:

The Darkening Dream

An ominous vision and the discovery of a gruesome corpse lead Sarah Engelmann into a terrifying encounter with the supernatural in 1913 Salem, Massachusetts. With help from Alex, an attractive Greek immigrant, Sarah sets out to track the evil to its source, never guessing that she will take on a conspiracy involving not only a 900-year vampire, but also a demon-loving Puritan warlock, disgruntled Egyptian gods, and an immortal sorcerer, all on a quest to recover the holy trumpet of the Archangel Gabriel.

Relying on the wisdom of an elderly vampire hunter, Sarah’s rabbi father, and her own disturbing visions, Sarah must fight a millennia-old battle between unspeakable forces, where the ultimate prize might be herself.

Find it here on Amazon!

Just one of the 9 shelves in the Fantasy/Sci-fi section of my library

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, Andy Gavin, Book, Darkening Dream, E-book, Hardcover, New York, Print on demand, The Darkening Dream

Red Medicine – Elfin Feast

Feb11

Restaurant: Red Medicine [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 8400 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, Ca. 90211. 323-651-6500.

Date: February 6, 2012

Cuisine: Elfin Fantasy Food

Summary: A feast for for Elrond’s table

For some reason it took me a year to get back to Red Medicine, even though I very much enjoyed my previous visits. Anyway, as it’s the new year and my partner in Foodie crime Erick is back in town, and having a birthday, we made it 2012’s first official Foodie Club meeting.

The frontage.

The easier to read version

And the new menu. Things look vaguely similar, but most of the dishes have changed up since last time.

Red Medicine technically has a $35 dollar corkage (except no corkage on Fri and Sat), but they nicely allowed us their original policy of waiving a corkage for every bottle of their wine we bought. This ended up being 2 and 2, theirs being this excellent JJ Prum Kabinett (a fav of mine). Parker 91: “Extremely bright in aroma as well as palate impression, the Prums’ 2008 Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Kabinett is dominated by lemon and grapefruit, with village typical cherry and cassis manifesting themselves as an invigorating chew of fruit skin that is delightfully complimented by estate-typical impingement of CO2. Lush yet light, this finishes with not only blazing brightness but a cress-like pungency and strikingly intense salinity and suggestions of wet stone, making your palate stand to attention, wide awake! Plan on following it for a couple of decades, although, unlike many Joh. Jos. Prum wines, I find it (and many of the estate’s 2008s) downright irresistible already.”

“FOIE GRAS / mousse, tete de cochon, beet, kohlrabi, chicory, croissant.” First, let’s not some of the unique elements of this cuisine, what we came to call “dollop and dust” was just as present as last year. But this time the vegetal/natural/flower thing is out of control. Every seemed like that crazy forest elemental from Hellboy 2 had snuck into the kitchen. This one has difficult to get all the flavors in one bite. What I had was good, but I had the feeling that if I had gotten a more substantive chunk it would have been better (we were splitting 5 ways and it was difficult).

“AMBERJACK / red seaweed, buttermilk, lotus root, tapioca, succulents.” The flowers overwhelmed the fish a bit, but it was tasty. And the dish looks like a Christmas crown for a fairy!

“WINTER PEAS / yuzu, soymilk-yogurt, trout roe, purple cabbage, coconut.” More dust. As instructed, we mixed this up and it then looked kinda like a pea pasta. It was actually really good that way.

“RABBIT / five flavor berry, pandan custard, roots, tubers, black currant, sesame leaf.” There are 2-3 rabbit loins hidden under the foliage. Again very tasty, but hard to get all the elements in the mouth, particularly with they very long and fluffy leaves.

“DUNGENESS CRAB / passion fruit, brown butter, black garlic, vietnamese crepe, hearts of palm.” Besides being wrapped in another fairy wreath, this is one giant ravioli but it was darn good. Really good. I just wish I had more than one bite.

“HEIRLOOM BLACK CARROTS / guava, winter kale, dulse, young walnut, tamarind.” Legolas, sir, have you seen the Ent? He was last observed heading into the kitchen! Seriously, while this dish was actually very tasty it looks like the forest floor!

“WILD STRIPED BASS / charred mustard leaf, boiled peanuts, wild garlic, burnt onion syrup.” Is there a striped bass in there under all those flowers?

Indeed, there is!

“CHARRED LEEKS / taro “vichyssoise”, parsley root, chinese celery, vietnamese herb.” And here we have the wild garden of doctor Suess!

“HEIRLOOM RICE PORRIDGE / egg yolk, hazelnuts, ginseng, echire butter + SANTA BARBARA RED UNI.” This frightened me slightly, looking as it does a lot like congee (Chinese rice porridge). But we stirred it up and it turned out to taste incredible, like a fantastic creamy uni risotto!

After two bottles of the Kabinet, we decided to go red (the Auslese on the left we had later for dessert) with the meat. Parker gives this lesser known Bordeaux 91 points. “A fully mature, elegant 1990 with an exceptionally flowery, berry, white chocolate, and smoky oak-scented nose, this fleshy, mid-weight La Lagune exhibits a velvety texture and no hard edges. It is an endearing wine that needs to be drunk over the next 5-6 years.”

Then the riesling: Parker 93-94. “A Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese offers an impressive combination of white raisin-studded apple jelly, mango, caramel, honey, and vanilla in a creamy textural context, with a remarkable, parallel, and somehow perfectly-integrated sense of fresh apple and pear juiciness that guarantees a finish of genuine refreshment, enhanced by near-weightless buoyancy. This is quite thrilling to savor even now, but deserves at least a dozen years’ cellaring and is likely to perform well three decades or more hence.”

Then the meats. “LAMB / glazed in tamarind, hibiscus onion, swiss chard, salted plum.” Tasty!

“WAGYU BEEF / creme fraiche, garlic chive, cashew, lovage, charred cucumber.” Some tasty beef, although not as fatty as one might expect. The creme went very nicely, although again I felt like a rabbit with all those big leaves sticking out of my mouth.

“PORK / caramelized black vinegar, goji berry, spring onion, dried almond.” Underneath this little forrest of green was one of the tastiest dishes of the night, some delectable pork!

“BEEF TARTARE / water lettuce, water chestnut, nuoc leo, chlorophyll, peanu.” This is the first real “repeat” from the menu a year ago, although it’s gone to seed — but it still tastes fantastic.

Shrimp chips to go with the tartare. One puts some steak on a shrimp chip, adds some dust and eats. It’s a pretty wonderful flavor combo.

“MAITAKE MUSHROOMS / cauliflower, snake beans, bacon x.o., walnut.” Sauron’s curse! Someone stole Elrond’s crown! But seriously this was a difficult dish to cut as the wreath of beans snaked around. But it was worth it as it was surprisingly tasty. Perhaps because of the bacon.

The dessert menu.

“COCONUT BAVAROIS / coffee, condensed milk, thai basil, peanut croquant.” This was the most successful dessert — wonderful in fact. The peanut, chocolate, coconut cream thing was pretty amazing.

“BITTER CHOCOLATE / kecap manis, oats, parsnip, brown butter, soy milk sorbet.” Dust and dollops! But this was also very good.

“RHUBARB / mahlab cremeux, hibiscus, gentian, lemongrass meringue.” And so was the rhubarb, although the texture is very fluffy and airy.

“PEAR / wild anise, cream, raw chestnut, mead syrup infused with pear skins.” Where’s it hiding? Inside this natural fortress?

Quick, break down the walls to find… white stuff and pear.

One of the dominant flavors here was anise. It was all pretty good, although probably the weakest of the four.

Overall, I was pretty surprised to find out how far the chef’s cuisine had evolved (see the older meals), and in such an unexpected vegetal direction. Lords of the forest, this was some unique stuff. The flavors were a bit more understated and far less Vietnamese than a year ago. Ultimately odder, but certainly more unique. Still, although every dish was successful in some way, and many were fantastic. They just pursue a unique visual and textural vision. Despite basically ordering the entire menu it was pretty light too.

All in all, unique and playful, but we could have used a little more light in the forest, it was so dark we could hardly appreciate the masterpieces. On a technical note this was the first night that I used my Canon 5D Mark II with a little table top tripod. I found that I still needed to use the flash otherwise (the restaurant being VERY dark) I needed like a 3s shutter time. The tripod was a tad awkward and I’m glad it was only us foodies at the table, but the pictures did turn out very well. I ended up gong full manual and stopping down to about 7, setting a 1/15 (quarter second) exposure and just relying on the flash to fill.

For more LA food reviews, see here.

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills California, California, Dessert, Elrond, Foodie Club, Kabinett, Riesling

Kindle Select – The Results

Feb10

On February 7 and 8 I put The Darkening Dream on 48 hours of Kindle Select free promo. The book tore through the charts to “sell” (I mean give away) over 21,000 copies. In the first 24 hours it propelled itself to #7 free book in the entire Kindle store and for February 8 spent most of the day camped at #4.I was duking it out with that shirtless romance for two days!

But that’s not my favorite shot, that’s below. Side by side with A Game of Thrones!

But what was actually more gratifying than people picking it in mass was the comments (mostly on twitter) from those that read it — uniformly awesome!

But even if you missed the sale, the Kindle version is still just $2.99, so pick it up!

By: agavin
Comments (9)

Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, Andy Gavin, Darkening Dream, E-book, Kindle Select, The Darkening Dream

Q&A on Reddit

Feb09

A Twitter friend during on big promo push for The Darkening Dream that I create an AMA on Reddit. I had no idea what this is, but I looked it up and it sounded like fun.

So you can find it here.

This is an interactive page where anyone can ask me anything and I will (mostly) answer. Now of course you could do this anyway on my blog, but random comments might seem out of place. The readers can also vote up and down both questions and answers. More or less it dynamically evolves into a sort of FAQ. Most of the questions — no surprise — are about my video games. But I’m trying to answer them all as best I can.

Last time I looked it had over 450 questions — and I tried to answer most of them!

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Games

Tagged as: AMA, Online Communities, Public relations, Q & A, question and answer, Reddit, Social Networking, Twitter

Great Free Fiction

Feb08

Who doesn’t love FREE books? My novel The Darkening Dream is still free on Kindle until midnight. So if you missed it, grab it now! Yesterday it enjoyed massive success reaching rates of over 20 copies downloaded per minute and hitting #4 in all Kindle sales, #2 in Fiction, and #1 in Fantasy!

Then flipping the tables around after so many helped me with the promotion of my own novel here are some other recommended free novels from “friends of the family” (my online family).

TWO DAYS ONLY: Wednesday, February 8th and Thursday, February 9th! Come and get ‘em!

For those with a love of YA paranormal: Family Magic (The Hayle Coven novels, #1) Sixteen year old Sydlynn Hayle is the daughter of a powerful witch and a demon lord but she just wants to be ordinary. Find it HERE.

And for those who like a thrill in their YA fiction: Run (The Hunted, #1) Reid thinks life has gone back to normal when his sister rescues him from the foster system. All that changes when he is kidnapped and dumped in the wilderness, forced to run from those who want to kill him. Find it HERE.

Don’t have a Kindle? No problem! Download a FREE app for your computer, iPad, smartphone and more!

Family Magic

Raising the Demon

“Haralthazar,” my mother glided closer to the statue, “we summon you this third night of Power, nine days and nine nights from Samhain Eve, to tighten our bond with you and your realm.” She knelt at the foot of the altar, the picture of the submissive handmaiden. Could she be any more ridiculous? Seriously. “My love, come and be welcome.”

The blinding flash that leapt from her to the statue continued to pour out of her in a deep blue rush of light. I turned my head slightly to the side, squinting in the glare, grateful for the edge of the cowl and the shadow it made. The whole room started to thrum, the floor vibrating with condensed magic as Mom used the energy we had given her to make the doorway that would let my father through.

Sixteen-year-old Sydlynn Hayle is the daughter of a powerful witch and a demon lord of the seventh plane. The trouble is, she just wants to be ordinary. Syd struggles to survive the minefield of her new high school while being torn between her attraction to football hero Brad Peters and the darkly mysterious Quaid Moromond. When her coven comes under attack, Syd is forced to face the fact only her power can save her family’s magic.

What readers are saying about Family Magic:

“This book has everything. Great family drama, hot boys, magic, witches, demons and difficult choices. This is one of my new favorite books of 2011 and I CANNOT WAIT to read the rest of the series.”

“With a fantastic, empathetic heroine, plenty of magic, an intriguing mystery and incorporating themes involving the search of self, familial relationships, duty and free will, Family Magic is an enchanting and enjoyable read.”

“I think Syd is one of my all-time favorite characters. She is funny and snarky but has a fierce love for her family. I am ready to follow Syd’s journey through this series. I was hooked from the first paragraph. I thoroughly enjoyed Family Magic, and I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys paranormal novels.”

(You can read the full reviews on Amazon.com)

Run

Kidnapped

Alone, Reid gasps in one deep breath, another. It hurts his ribs, his lungs. He manages to roll over on his right side and regrets it. His shoulder screams in protest. Still, he is finally able to wriggle his numb hands loose from what holds him and claws at the cloth around his eyes.

Darkness. But not complete. The moon is up. Trees loom over him, the smell of spruce and fresh air so sharp it almost hurts. He jerks at the plastic ties around his ankles while. his vision swims through a veil of pain-laden tears. He manages somehow to force his screaming hands to work the ties loose and he is free.

Sixteen-year-old Reid thinks life is back to normal. His sister Lucy pulls herself together and cuts him free from a year of foster care. She promises to take care of him, that her new boss and her new life are what they both needed to start again. Until Reid is taken in the middle of the night, dumped in a wild stretch of forest far from home with no idea why he is there. Lost and afraid, he learns to run from the hunters who prowl the darkness, their only pleasure chasing down kids like him. And killing them.

What readers are saying about Run:

“The fear, the thrill, the emotion that comes through in the writing is amazing. There is never a dull moment in this story of survival.”

“If you’re a fan of YA books that make your heart pound with the unknown and leave you cringing at places (but in a totally cool kinda way) then Run’s the book for you.”

“Reid is such a great strong character and when the story ends, we are left begging for what is to come in the next of the series. This story was unique and SUPER fast-paced! It was a great festival of suspense.”

(You can read the full reviews on Amazon.com)

Thank you for taking the time to check them out!
Happy reading!

About the Author: Patti Larsen is a middle grade, young adult and adult author with a passion for the paranormal. Her YA thriller series, The Hunted, is available now. The first four books of The Hayle Coven series, Family Magic, Witch Hunt, Demon Child and The Wild are also out now. Her YA paranormal novel, Best Friends Forever, and steampunk series, Blood and Gold, are due early in 2012. She is a full time writer and a part time teacher of her Get Your Book Done program. Patti lives on the East Coast of Canada with her very patient husband and four massive cats.

You can find her:

On her website

On Facebook

Her writing blog

On Twitter

On Amazon.com

On Goodreads

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Books

Tagged as: Amazon.com, Best Friends Forever, Family Magic, Free Books, Hayle, Hunted, IPad, Kindle, Patti Larsen, Run, Syd, Sydlynn Hayle, Young-adult fiction

The Darkening Dream – Free on Kindle

Feb07

The title pretty much says it all. The Darkening Dream, my dark fantasy novel, is free on Amazon for the Kindle for just 48 hours — all of February 7 and 8, 2012.

Download it here!

This is a special two day only promotion via Kindle KDP Select. Make sure to grab it while you can, tell your friends about it, and promote everywhere. At the end of Wednesday at midnight it will go back to its normal price. If it does well during the promotion Amazon will bump it up in their internal ranking and it should get a lot of regular sales afterward. That’s the theory at least.

A few words about the book:

As the Nineteenth Century gives way to the Twentieth, modern science and steel girders leave little room for the supernatural. But in dark corners the old forces still gather. God, demon, and sorcerer alike plot to regain what was theirs in Andy Gavin’s chilling debut, The Darkening Dream.

1913, Salem, Massachusetts – Sarah Engelmann’s life is full of friends, books, and avoiding the pressure to choose a husband, until an ominous vision and the haunting call of an otherworldly trumpet shake her. When she stumbles across a gruesome corpse, she fears that her vision was more of a premonition. And when she sees the murdered boy moving through the crowd at an amusement park, Sarah is thrust into a dark battle she does not understand.

With the help of Alex, a Greek immigrant who knows a startling amount about the undead, Sarah sets out to uncover the truth. Their quest takes them to Salem’s brutal factory workrooms, on a clandestine maritime mission, and down into their foe’s nightmarish crypt. But they aren’t prepared for the terrifying backlash that brings the fight back to their own homes and families. Can Alex’s elderly, vampire-hunting grandfather and Sarah’s own rabbi father help protect them? And what do Sarah’s darkening visions reveal?

No less than the Archangel Gabriel’s Horn, destined to announce the End of Days, is at stake, and the forces banded to recover it include a 900 year-old vampire, a trio of disgruntled Egyptian gods, and a demon-loving Puritan minister. At the center of this swirling conflict is Sarah, who must fight a millennia-old battle against unspeakable forces, knowing the ultimate prize might be herself.

NOTE: Free downloads do not count toward tickets for the Naughty Dark Contest.

By: agavin
Comments (7)

Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, Andy Gavin, Darkening Dream, E-book, Kindle, The Darkening Dream

Jak & Daxter Return

Feb06

A couple of weeks ago I went back to Naughty Dog to do some interviews for the Jak & Daxter Collection, which releases tomorrow (February 7). And of course you should go buy this right away, only one click AFTER you buy my novel, The Darkening Dream. But my thoughts about the visit have been logged on the Naughty Dog blog:

While I’m still good friends with many Naughty Dogs and frequently see them socially, it’s been a couple years since I was in the office itself – and this was my first time in the new gigantic Watergarden 2.0 space.

Wow! My baby is all grown up and popped out a helluva pack of rugrats. When I left, the office was 25,000 sq/feet and we had about 80 people – which at the time, seemed enormous enough – now it’s over twice that big with more than twice the folks. From the walls hang giant murals of Naughty Dog masterpieces. It’s enough to make you feel small…

You can find the full post here!

I also got the chance to catch up with all my friends, virtual and real.

Pack leaders old and new! Left to right Christophe, me, Jason, and Evan.

By: agavin
Comments (13)

Posted in: Games

Tagged as: Jak & Daxter, Jak & Daxter Collection, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Naughty Dog, Playstation 3, PlayStation Blog, Uncharted, Video game

Order the Hardcover – sort of

Feb05

Amazon has put up the hardcover. More or less. They have a page, and you can order, but they list it as “Temporarily out of stock.” Still, I’m sure if you do order they’ll ship in a couple of days when they finish sorting out their internal business.

They also haven’t totally connected the product to the Kindle and Paperback editions. I find it interesting how their site puts things together piecemeal. The must have various background jobs that massage the data and not all of them run together on the same schedule. I.e. the “book importer” job puts books in but the “book merger” job later connects various editions together.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, Andy Gavin, E-book, Hardcover, IBook, Kindle, Paperback, The Darkening Dream

The Flash Ad

Feb04

In keeping with my goal of keeping you all informed about every little detail of the creation process — which you readers probably don’t care about but my writer followers might — I had to create a Flash ad for The Darkening Dream this week. On Tuesday it became apparent that I could really use one posthaste to get a campaign going on Goodreads.

But my attempts to find a contractor who was willing to turn something out in a day or two fell flat and I just bit the bullet and handled it myself. I’ve been doing this a lot on this project. I program and design the website. I did a lot of layout work for my covers and interiors. Anyway, during my Flektor years (2006-7) I did a whole bunch of Flash programming but I never really used the animation tools. So I cracked open the documentation webpages and skimmed the minimum I needed.

The result (a day and a half later):

[swfobj src=”/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/GoodReads.swf” width=”300″ height=”250″]

I don’t think it’s half bad considering I’m not an artist. But I am a programmer, this SWF has a 9k load footprint! It’s perhaps a hair “flashy” and I couldn’t figure out how to fade the text (if anyone knows, tell me in the comments). The alpha channel disappears on text objects. Probably I have to convert them to movieclips or something like that. Flash has all these weird internal concepts like movieclips and symbols that never made a lot of sense either from interface or the API standpoint.

So tell me what you think. And don’t miss out on my Goodreads paperback giveaway either:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Darkening Dream

by Andy Gavin

Giveaway ends March 01, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

By: agavin
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Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Adobe Flash, Animation, Development Frameworks, Flash, Flash Pro, goodreads, Multimedia

Games, Novels, and Story

Feb03

This article was originally written by me for Gamesajare.com and was published there on January 22 in English and Spanish.

Storytelling, the old fashioned way

Modern man has a wide variety of “pure” storytelling mediums, like film, long form television, and novels. While these have some very significant differences they all share the same basic focus on plot and character. Typically at least, good stories introduce a character with problems, get you to like them, then chronicle the struggle as they are compelled to change and adapt to overcome these problems. In the end, they either do so, or are defeated to teach us a lesson (a variant we call tragedy).

These elements: character, plot, and transformational arc, are completely central to the normal story (I deliberately ignore weird experimental storytelling). Really, they are the core of what makes a good film or novel.

Roman mosaic showing comedy (right) and tragedy (left)

But with a game, this whole business is secondary. The primary focus of a game is fun. And fun through gameplay. Does Tetris have any character or plot? Did even Doom? No. But they were fun games. Really fun.

Games such as Naughty Dog’s Jak & Daxter or Uncharted strive to bridge these gaps by offering both. This is very difficult because they don’t really serve each other.

The gameplay in Uncharted 2, for example, has three primary modes: survival gunplay, platforming, and puzzle solving. The player must assess the layout of the level, learn it, and navigate it without getting killed. This involves anticipating the enemies and taking them out first. You use the weapons at your disposal, the mechanics, and the terrain provided to do so. With platforming you need to come to understand what the character can do physical, find your way, and successfully traverse the route.

Some games do focus on story

When these are done well, when the design is varied, the levels pretty, the enemies cool, and the challenges measured, challenging and above all, doable – it’s fun. Uncharted 2 is such a game.

It also has a pretty darn good story which is woven in with the design of the levels and the challenges. This adds to the whole thing. Watching the next segment of story becomes part of your reward for finishing a segment. There is a tremendous level of art that goes into getting both of these to work at the same time, but certainly each is constrained at times by the needs of the other.

Content in games is expensive and difficult to make. Therefore it needs to repeat. You really do need to shoot the same enemy hundreds of times. Otherwise the enemy isn’t providing enough mileage to justify the labor involved to create him. The player is also in control and therefore the consequences of his play affect success or failure.

My first novel

But in storytelling, success and failure are the carefully monitored heartbeat of any good story. You bring the protagonist up, dash him down, grind him into the ground, lift him up, slam him sideways. I knew this intuitively when writing my first novel, The Darkening Dream. I’ve read so many books and watched so many films and shows that it seemed “obvious.” But at the same time, it turned out to be far from easy. Writing a good story has less constraints than making a good game, but it’s still extremely difficult. You need to be constantly balancing the issues of character, motivation, the logic of the plot, and the need to seesaw the dramatic tension. In the end stylistic concerns sometimes overwhelm dramatic ones (to the reader’s detriment).

In a game, it’s even more complicated, and there is barely a chance of hitting all the right dramatic notes. The player has a lot to say about this natural up and down pacing, so the story-based game tries to separate how well you are really doing from the actual plot. Usually death or failure in the game causes the player to merely repeat some segment of the game (and hence the story), when they finish the level and get the next segment of storytelling, they’ll get it regardless of whether they died once or 100 times. The better player merely proceeds faster.

This is different, but even more problematic in a less linear game such as World of Warcraft. There, the mechanics of the game heavily distort the conceits of storytelling. The story is even broadly linked to the chronological evolution of the game in real time. For example, in December of 2009 Blizzard released the Icecrown Citadel patch of Wrath of the Lich King, making it possible for players to finally reach and confront the ultimate boss of the expansion (the titular Lich King). But the fact is, in order to properly maintain the reward mechanics of endgame raiding, each character was and often did, progress through this segment of the story once, or even twice a week.

The Lich King

Now, two years later, the Lich King has been defeated, the world of Azeroth has been broken, yet it’s still possible to go back to Icecrown and take on Arthas again. And again. Ditto for any of the several hundred even older bosses. Players accept that they have random access to a long and convoluted story. In fact, the need to generate so much gameplay in WOW has created a body of lore that gives the Silmarillion a run for its money. But the way in which it’s experienced mutes the emotional intensity.

What really provides the excitement in WOW (and many other games), isn’t the question of whether the dragon queen Onyxia lives or dies, but the – shall we dare say – drama of whether she does tonight, for us, the group fighting her. And more importantly, will she drop the Nemesis skullcap (arbitrary cool piece of loot) one has been trying to get for six months.

This article was originally written by me for Gamesajare.com and was published there on January 22 in English and Spanish.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Games, Writing

Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Arthas, Jak and Daxter, Lich King, Naughty Dog, Storytelling, Tetris, The Darkening Dream, Uncharted, Video game, World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Ultimate Pizza 2012

Feb02

With the new year comes more Ultimate Pizza (see here for the whole series). In case you missed it, this is the totally hand crafted gourmet pizzas we cook at home.

Yum, Burgundy from the cellar. Parker gives 93 points. “One of the three batches that will be blended to make up d ‘Angerville’s 2005 Volnay Champans was still in malo, so I base my assessment on the other two. Scented with cherry and cassis, flowers and fungus, smoke and chalk dust, this displays richness and depth, fine tannins and emerging silkiness, and a youthfully firm but long finish loaded with savory subtleties. Just give it 6-8 years before revisiting. (The outstanding d’Angerville 2004s were also very late to finish malo, and the Champans is especially memorable for its vivid sauteed champignons, alluring ginger spice, marrowy richness, and flattering mouth feel, indeed comparable in quality though lacking the developmental potential of this 2005. As a striking example of mercantile bipolar disorder, I purchased this outstanding 2004 for $49.99 from a merchant whose price on the 2005 thus represented a 350% premium!)

The late Jacques d’Angerville’s son Guillaume and long-time wine making collaborator and brother-in-law Renaud de Villette can boast a superb collection of 2005s, but an equally apt tribute to the legacy of the late Marquis are the odds-beating results they bottled from 2004, when to the universal difficulties of that vintage were added the ravages of hail it visited on Volnay. The 2005s fermented with pump-overs but no punch-downs and exhibit formidable underlying structure yet pure fruit and early, flattering textural development.”

This is my son’s pizza. Straight up tomato, mozz, raw tomato pizza sauce, corn, figs.

This one has an ultimate pesto base.

Then my patented (albeit stolen from Wolfgang Puck) bagels and cream cheese pizza. First I brush the dough with white truffle oil and fresh rosemary from the garden, then bake.

Then I add creme fraiche mixed with dill and chives, red onion, and capers. Then lox. Yum yum.

Pizza mistress Mirella cooks up this one. Blue cheese and various other cheeses.

Then morel mushrooms, figs, almonds, and as a sauce: camelized onion compote.

here it is baked.

And dressed with balsamic glaze.

This one starts off old school with tomato sauce and mozz.

Then add mozzarella balls, basil, sun dried tomatoes and crushed red pepper.

Coming off the oven.

Now up is my personal favorite, the chickenless tikka masala pizza. With fresh masala sauce as the sauce. Then bucheron goat cheese, parmesan, almonds, corn, fresh ricotta, mozz balls, and red onion. Then as a new touch this time, I added spicy mango chutney.

Baked. The chutney really took this pizza to the next level. It basically tastes like naan with masala and yogurt + chutney.

But we’re not done yet. Add burrata, a little extra virgin olive oil, and some cilantro — this last amused me as it’s traditional to top a curry with fresh cilantro.

This cheesy monster tasted better than it looked!

Parker 94. The ultra rare riserva. “The 2004 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva, from vines in Castelnuovo dell’Abate, is gorgeous, layered and elegant in its violets, tar, licorice and cherries. The finish is long and impeccable, but this is a somewhat ethereal style, with aromas and flavors that are already a touch forward relative to most 2004 Riservas. Ideally the wine is best enjoyed within the next decade. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2020.”

As a final pizza I made a new variant. This puppy has truffle oil, pesto, dabs of curry, corn, about five types of cheese (mozz, parm, blue, mozz balls, pecorino), figs, chanterelle mushrooms, onions, and even mango chutney.

Then baked.

And dressed with burrata and balsamic glaze. Really good stuff.

Just a bit of the mid pizza carnage.

For dessert out comes the 1988 Rayne-Vigneau. Parker 91. “The 1988 is the best example I have tasted from this property. An intense, honeyed, pear, flower, and apricot fragrance is reminiscent of Muscat de Beaumes de Venise. In the mouth, there is exceptional richness, super focus because of fine acidity, a wonderful touch of toasty new oak, and an elegant, very positive, crisp finish. This is a beautifully made, authoritative tasting, and impeccably well-balanced Sauternes. Anticipated maturity: Now-2006. Last tasted, 3/90.”

Then some mini cupcakes from dots in Pasadena.

And a selection of mini desserts from closer at hand.

The eclair din’t even fit in the box, so he’s lurking on his own.

If there had been a wafer thin mint I would have been coating the walls!

Well, we’ve pretty much got our whole pizza thing down to a science, but still, each time you learn something. I’m still working on the mechanics of transfer into the hot over. If a pizza makes it into the oven without spilling anything then it always cooks perfectly. Get it out — provided you lube up the pizza stones with corn meal — is easy. But I made progress. By making sure to put the pizza’s on the end of the peel, to lube well, and using a new pizza sized teflon spatula I was able to keep things pretty much under control.

Make sure to check out how I make all the components and other pizzas here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Burrata, Cheese, Cooking, cupcakes, Dessert, Pesto, Pizza, Rayne-Vigneau, Sauternes, Tomato sauce, Volnay Champans, Wolfgang Puck

Hardcover Proof & Paperback Giveaway

Feb01

Glamour shot of my hardcover edition

The hardcover proof came in yesterday and it looks awesome! Now I just have to get it up on Amazon. As it’s printed via LightningSource this might take a few days. The trade paperback went through CreateSpace which is owned by Amazon, so it was fast.

This edition was more work than I thought — although it does look great — for a number of reasons. LightningSource has a rather peculiar and unintuitive process, although they make a nice book. Also getting the mechanical all finished was at the far end of a long chain of about seven contractors.

Anyway, it’s mostly done now. A whole set of pictures of the hardcover from every angle can be found at the bottom of the post.

For other The Darkening Dream related news: First of all, the book is now officially $4.99 and enrolled in Amazon’s Kindle Select program. This means the Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Google versions are no longer for sale. Sales were 60:1 higher on Amazon, so it’s a bit of a no brainer and I’ll see how KDP Select goes and revaluate at the end of April.

I’m also running a quick “Vampire Valentines” giveaway on Goodreads. You can enter to win one of twenty copies of the paperback (sorry, if you want this sexy hardcover you’ll have to buy it, the manufacturing cost is almost triple the paperback). Winners will be decided by Goodreads on February 14th. The giveaway can be found here:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Darkening Dream

by Andy Gavin

Giveaway ends March 01, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

By: agavin
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Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Amazon, Andy Gavin, Book, CreateSpace, Giveaway, goodreads, Hardcover, LightningSource, Paperback, The Darkening Dream

Breaking Bad – Season 3

Jan31

Title: Breaking Bad

Genre: Contemporary Dramedy

Watched: Season 3, January 10-27, 2012

Summary: Even stronger

I got distracted by a lot of stuff (mostly involving the publication of my first novel) and stalled for a couple of weeks between the end of season 2 and season 3.

I really like how this show uses the section before the titles to foreshadow. In the second season this was mostly the coming plane crash, during the first half of the third this second is used primarily to characterize the sinister Mexican twins. These two make one stylized, amusing, and downright creepy pair of assassins.

This first half season slowed the pace a bit to focus on character development. Part of the drag comes from the fact that Jesse and Walt are chronicled separately. Leaving me missing their interaction. There’s also a lot of family and Skyler time which — while well done — isn’t my favorite aspect of the show: The crime and the criminals. But things start to pick up when Jesse joins Walt in the lab and then at the midpoint the season goes into hyperdrive. After seven episodes of build up the showdown with the twins is no let down. Dean Norris is a particular standout.

The remaining seven episodes are pretty intense with the exception of the bizarre “fly” episode. And the last three hours is some of the best television I’ve seen in a long while. After having invested really heavily in character development the show cashes in with breakneck zigging and zagging that is all the richer. And the end leaves you breathless and clicking away to order Season 4.

Part of this show’s strength is the standout character writing and acting. Walt and Jesse are both awesome, but Hank also stands out, Saul is pure pleasure to watch reminiscent of Bill Murray in Wild Things, and I really love cleaner Mike and the coolest cucumber to walk the planet: Gus.

For more of my posts on TV, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Television

Tagged as: Aaron Paul, AMC, Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston, Comedy-drama, Dean Norris, Jesse, Jesse Pinkman, List of Breaking Bad characters, Netflix, Television, Walt

Game of Thrones – Season 2 Trailer

Jan29

HBO just released a new trailer for Game of Thrones Season 2. This one finally contains a good bit of footage from the new season itself, so check it out.

I like the narration by Varys. He’s one of my favorite actors from the first season and he has such a deliciously cynical perspective. They even got his voice right. It’s a little known fact that one of the side effects of losing the family jewels before puberty (Varys is a eunuch) is that the voice never drops and so remains high and soft. This was frequently noted by historians in antiquity.

The producers also clearly play up Tryrion/Peter Dinklage, no surprise considering his well deserved Emmy win. But then again, A Clash of Kings (which season 2 is based on) is Tyrion’s book. He totally owns it.

Find out about my own fantasy novel here!

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed
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By: agavin
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Posted in: Television

Tagged as: Clash of Kings, Croatia, Emilia Clarke, Emmy Award, eunuch, Fantasy, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Kanye West, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Peter Din, Season 2, Season 2 Teaser, Season 2 Trailer, Stephen Dillane, Teaser, Trailer

Price is Going Up Soon

Jan29

I want to give you all warning that the price of my novel, The Darkening Dream, is going to rise shortly to $4.99. The hardcover is almost ready and I’m about done with the introductory period. So grab it now!

Find it Here

Given how much money I spent on editing, proofreading, typography, interior illustrations, cover illustration, three cover designs, review copies and the like, $4.99 is still a steal. I’ve never been one for anything but the best and The Darkening Dream is no exception.

Additionally, if you read your e-book’s on anything but the Kindle or Kindle app then grab it now. I’m probably going to take down the Google, iBooks, and Nook versions shortly in order to enter Amazon’s Kindle Select. From what my author indie author friends report this is turning out (for the moment) to be a pretty effective marketing tool.

Or find out more about the book here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, Andy Gavin, Darkening Dream, E-book, Google, IBook, Kindle, Nook, The Darkening Dream, Writing and Editing

Sam’s by the Beach – Mom’s Annual Dinner

Jan28

Restaurant: Sam’s by the Beach [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 108 W. Channel Rd.(PCH), Santa Monica, CA90402. 310-230-9100

Date: January 17, 2012

Cuisine: Cal French International

Rating: Stellar food and unparalleled service.

Sam’s by the Beach is one of our favorite local places. Normally, Chef/Owner/Host Sam serves up a modern French fare with tastes of the middle east and Asia. He’s a native of Damascus and his mother comes to town once a year to cook a traditional Syrian dinner. I love really well done traditional food so I was excited to try this out.

The menu for the night.

Our wine. Parker 93. “The 2006 Brunello di Montalcino is a beguiling wine laced with all sorts of black cherries, minerals, spices, licorice and menthol. All of the aromas and flavors are layered together through to the exquisite, refined finish. The 2006 shows a level of richness and density this bottling has lacked in some previous vintages. Today the tannins remain a touch austere, but another few years in bottle should do the trick. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2026.”

To start, “Shorba Bi Addes. Split Red Lentil in Vegetable Broth.” This is a typical “rustic” or homemade soup. Variant bean soups can be found the world over. But I like lentils and this was nicely done with subtle tastes of the east.

The red stuff in front is “Habra Bi Bandora. Ground Beef Patty Syrian Style.” These are basically meat balls in an onion, tomato, garlic sauce. I ate like three portions! They had a nice spicey kefta type thing going on.

On the left, “Salata Bi Sileck. French Swiss-Chard with Pomegranate Seeds, Walnut and Lemon Dressing.” A darn good green vegetable, something I’m normally not a big consumer of. On the right “Angynar Bi Jazzar. Braised Artichoke with Carrots and Leeks in Olive Oil.” Very nice marinated vegetables.

Finished the earlier wine. Moved on to this stellar 97 point Pomerol. “A sensational effort, and one of the two finest Clinets made before the 2008, this prodigious wine made by the late Jean-Michel Arcaute has always been a sprinter out of the gate. Even at age 19, it continues to strut its stuff. A dense blue/garnet/purple hue exhibits slight lightening at the edge, and the gorgeous nose offers up aromas of sweet blueberries, licorice, smoke, acacia flowers, and camphor. Full-bodied with silky tannins, low acidity, and terrific purity, this 1990 has hit its plateau of full maturity where it should remain for another decade.”

For the main. “Maqloupah. Layers of Roasted Eggplant, Ground Lamb and Rice served with Fresh Cucumber and Yogurt Sauce.” This had a very nice middle eastern flavor. The eggplant, lamb, and tomato thing with yogurt was something I had a lot in Turkey. The execution was spot on.

Here is the sauce. Pretty much a great raita.

“Mouhalabiha Bi Dibus. Milk custard with Rose Water and Grape Syrup topped with Toasted Sesame Seeds and Almonds.” A sort of Syrian panna cotta, this has a lovely soft texture (might be gelatinous for some) and a subtle rose water thing going on. I love rose water.

Sam’s Mom didn’t disappoint. This wasn’t wasn’t a super formal meal cuisine wise, but more an example of really well executed home cooking from his homeland.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Brunello di Montalcino, Damascus, lamb, Middle East, Pomerol, Rose Water, Sam's by the Beach, Santa Monica, Santa Monica California, Syrian Food

Tempest

Jan27

Title: Tempest

Author: Julie Cross

Genre: YA time travel

Length: 352 pages

Read: January 23, 2012

Summary: Great fast paced debut

This new YA time travel novel has a bit of buzz (I see it on many of the book blogs I troll looking for candidates to review The Darkening Dream), but I read it — and quickly — because of the superficial similarities to my second novel, Untimed. Both are YA time travel, both have a male protagonist (although he’s a 19 year old in this book, and 15 in mine).

But that’s about where the similarity ends. Although don’t get me wrong, Tempest is a great book (even if Untimed is better!). It’s one of the best YA’s I’ve read in the last year or so, on par with Before I Fall. The beginning is slightly awkward although the 1st person past voice is good. The author’s “I’m a time traveling teen intro” felt slightly forced, but as soon as he’s attacked by mysterious secret agent dudes and forced back from 2009 to 2007 (maybe 10% in) the book rocks along and I read the whole thing in a single sitting. Overall it nicely balances an interesting new scenario, likable characters, a compelling romance, a good mystery, and a touch of pathos. Good stuff.

Tempest borrows lightly from the brilliant The Time Traveler’s Wife too, and while it has a novel take on time travel it’s really more of an action mystery, and most importantly a romance. Untimed on the other hand, which is even heavier on the action, and has a romance (less emphasized), really focuses on the history part of time travel. I visit four centuries, all heavily researched, and explore the big impact individual people can have on the broad sweep of history. Tempest sticks mostly to the personal. The things that change in this novel are all of an intimate nature, having to do with the protagonist and his family. Namely the author is a woman and its all about the relationships: Jackson and his girlfriend, his father, his best friend, and his sister. Not that this is bad, as these relationships are really well done, its just different. The time travel action is confined mostly to a couple years back and is rarely intricate, avoiding most overlap and paradox. All the material stuff occurs between 2007 and 2009 with only a few touristic visits to the decade prior. It’s mostly all in New York city.

This leaves a lot of time to focus on the Jackson / Holly romance. We see it in three modes: as it existed before the novel opens, as he recreates it two years earlier from scratch in alternate 2007, and as he upgrades it on his return. As I said, this is a nicely done romance and really the core of the novel. Both characters felt natural to me, their passion genuine, young, and hopeful. Two major elements interjected a top fight bittersweet note: the problematic nature of a time traveler / normal romance and Jackson’s relationship with his dead twin sister (which because of time travel, lingers on, just a bit).

The mystery element was also good. The book succeeds in NOT revealing exactly what is really going on with the time travelers and even which of two (or even possibly three) factions is actually in the right. This is something I also tried to do in Untimed, and works pretty well here, even if the whole “secret agent” thing and nomenclature of “Enemies of Time” is a bit cheesy. Essentially Cross pulls it off. But the villains are nowhere near as cool as my Tick-Tocks 🙂

And I totally wanted to keep reading. But because of the lame pacing of the traditional publishing system we have to wait a year for the sequel!

Listen to a sample of the audiobook by Macmillan Audio here.

Or for more book reviews, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Books

Tagged as: Book Review, Holly, Jackson, Julie Cross, romance, Tempest, Time travel

Drago New Years

Jan26

Restaurant: Drago [1, 2]

Location: 2628 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90403. T: 310/828-1585

Date: December 31, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: One of LA’s top Italians – but closing 🙁

Celestino Drago and his brothers have a bit of a mini Italian culinary empire here in LA with a number of different restaurants and concepts. These include the flagship Drago, a branch in Pasadena, Il Pastiao, Enoteco Drago and Piccolo Paradiso in Beverly Hills, Drago Centro downtown, Panzanella in the valley, a bakery, catering, and probably something I missed. All of these places are top notch and despite the expansion there is a real attention to quality.

Originally from Sicily the family blends tradition with the modern to make some of LA’s best Italian. Having eaten all over Italy I have to say that the two areas with the best food are in my mind the Piedimonte/Venato and Sicily. And the later wins hands down for desserts. Celistino doesn’t purely stick with Sicilian cuisine anyway, but very much pulls in the latest Italian culinary trends. In particular, the pastas, usually homemade, are phenomenal.

He’s also incredibly creative and adaptable. He’s catered about 8 or so of our events and that includes some whacky stuff. In 2006 we even did a party themed after the Ancient World where all of the dishes were based on the ancient Roman cookbook by Apicius. I just gave Celistino a copy with circled dishes and he adapted these VERY OLD (1900 years old!) recipes and brought them to life. Very interesting.

Anyway, Drago is the flagship restaurant of the empire, and its most formal. They have a big Menu well represented in every category, including good hearty meaty dishes. Certain favorites persist, but it’s always being adapted and changed (something I like), and includes seasonal stuff.

We went here for our last meal of 2011 and they had New Year’s supplements in addition to the normal menu.

Unfortunately, despite the food quality remaining high, business has slipped off at this particular branch of the empire and so it is rumored to be closing soon.

Being New Years, I brought some excellent (even by my standards) wines. Parker gives this 98 points. “The dense ruby/purple-colored 1997 Percarlo is compelling. Enormous in aromas, flavors, and persistence on the palate, it exhibits profound levels of concentration as well as unbelievably dense, black currant, blackberry liqueur notes infused with new saddle leather, licorice, truffles, and toasty oak. Enormously thick and viscous, with low acidity, and mouthcoating levels of extract, this wine’s tannin level is high, but largely obscured by the wealth of fruit, glycerin, and extract. It is an amazing accomplishment! Anticipated maturity: now-2020.”

“INSALATA DI BARBABIETOLE E BURRATA. Burrata, market beets, arugula, pistachio, fried shallots, white balsamic vinegar.” Most Italians have a beets and burrata these days, but this way a particularly good one with a very interesting sweet dressing.

“Angelhair pasta with tomato sauce.” For my three year-old.

“TORTELLONI DI ZUCCA. Mussels, clams, bay scallop, shrimp, squid, tomato sauce.” Another favorite and a Celestino classic. This is pumpkin ravioli in a parmesan cream sauce. Inside is a pure of pumpkin, slightly spiced. A homemade spinach pasta, and then a rich cream and cheese sauce. This is a varient on the truly tradition tortellini de zucca where a slightly smaller normal fresh pasta is used, and the stuffing mixes pumpkin and amaretti cookies, and then the sauce is just butter and sage. This version is richer obviously.

““Cavatelli al ragout di capriolo, venison and chanterelle ragout, chestnut.” This is one of the reasons I come here: for dishes like this. While this is a special, there are always many great pastas, and this is a level of pasta perfection that you WILL NOT find at 95% of LA’s Italians. This particular dish is a homemade larvae shaped Cavatelli (pasta perfection) coupled with this incredibly rich winter ragout. The chestnut adds a little crunch and further winter cheer — chestnuts being very popular/traditional in Italy in Dec/Jan. Stylistically I would have to say this is more a Roman or maybe mountains near Rome kind of dish than explicitly Sicilian, but I could be wrong. Doesn’t matter, it’s great.

“The 1989 Barolos include the 1989 Bussia Soprano, a huge, full-bodied, super-concentrated, powerhouse of a wine that exudes aromas of sweet black-cherries, truffles, spices, and some intriguing spring flower blossom scents. Extremely intense, full-bodied, and spicy, with oodles of rich, fleshy fruit, this profound wine possesses high tannin which is sweet rather than astringent, and a mindboggling finish. This awesome Barolo can be drunk at an early age, but it should keep for 25-30 or more years.
Every Italian wine authority, from the late Sheldon Wasserman, to Burton Anderson, to Victor Hazan, to Roberto Parkero, considers Aldo Conterno to be one of the great masters of his craft. The staggering display of wines he produced in 1989 and 1990 confirmed that no one in Piedmont is making greater Barolo than Aldo Conterno and his sons. If you love great wine, these are must purchases; if you love Barolo, a pilgrimage to your favorite Italian wine shop is in order!
It is virtually impossible to pick a favorite among Conterno’s 1989s and 1990s. However, the 1990s, which are not yet bottled, appear even more massive, structured, and tannic than the flamboyant, super-concentrated, flashy 1989s. Readers should keep in mind that the Barolo-Riserva Gran Bussia is released a year later than the other Barolos, so the 1989 will not appear in the marketplace until spring, 1995, and the 1990 a year later.
Wine enthusiasts throughout the world should be beating a path to their retailers to buy the 1989s and to reserve the 1990s when they arrive next year. By the way, Aldo Conterno is one of Piedmont’s sweetest people, proving that sometimes nice guys do finish first!”

“BRANZINO ARROSTO. Mediterrenean seabass, gremolata, parnship, potato, endive.”

“Salmon with stewed tomatoes.”

“PETTO DI POLLO. Porcini prosciutto crust, potato pancake, prosciutto parmesan cheese cream, king trumpets mushrooms, pearl onion.” I don’t normally order chicken, but this one called out to me for some reason. The breast was perfectly cooked with a nice textural quality to the crust. I didn’t really detect the prosciutto, so I would have liked a bit more of a statement there, but it was very tasty.

This is only a small selection of what Drago can do and they have excellent deserts as well. But we had some at home for New Years and old three year-old was getting restless.

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Burrata, Celestino Drago, Drago, Drago Santa Monica, Italian cuisine, Italian Food, New Year, Panzanella, Santa Monica, Santa Monica California, Sicily

Hardcover Mechanical

Jan25

The The Darkening Dream‘s hardcover mechanical came in and I submitted a proof. This is the third version of the book, the e-book and the trade paperback already being for sale.

Look for them here

As a long time book lover (over 10,000 books in my library) I wanted a hardcover, even though the paperback will be cheaper, and it’s unusual for a small imprint like mine to do a hardcover edition. Plus it’s even more unusual for the hardcover to come out after the trade (a few weeks in this case), but I’ve never been much for doing it the normal way. I just love the feel of a nice hardcover. I’m printing it through Lightning Source which is the only POD printer I know that does real dust jacket hardcovers. And some people say the quality is better than Createspace too, but boy the sign up and interface are 100x more obtuse — which is one of the many reasons Amazon will continue to crush the competition.

Anyway, Apple also turned up the iBooks version the other day — finally! The whole process only took them a month! (I had to make a new iConnect account, as for some mysterious reason app accounts can’t also sell books!). But in any case, if for some odd reason this is better for you than the Kindle version, here it is: