Friday, June 29, 2012

Winners #2

100 Followers: 1 Book- 1 Winner 
Marriane L. (already announced here)

150 Followers: 2 Books - 1 Winner
Kean 
200 Followers: 2 Books each- 2 Winners
Cherry Z.
Ciara
Additional 50 Followers: 3 Books each- 3 Winners
Mimi
Fiona
Blue81 
I'm really sorry guys, I should have announced this 2 months ago, but due to my activities as a blogger, I almost forgot about this giveaway.
 Lissette Martinez
rhonda1111
sherri
laura thomas
Kelly

  (June 28)
Na
Lissette Martinez
lolmercy
Maria pronounced Mariah

(only 4 people commented this day)
 


Thursday, June 28, 2012

Blog Tour (Book Review): Loving Summer by Kailin Gow



Loving Summer by Kailin Gow


  • File Size: 250 KB
  • Print Length: 250 pages
  • Publisher: theEDGEbooks.com, in Imprint of Sparklesoup Inc. (May 27, 2012)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B0086T6BRS
Summer has always looked forward to spending her summers at her Aunt's beach house with the Donovans. To her, summers at Aunt Sookie's beach house was magical, especially getting to spend time with the Donovans - her best friend Rachel and Rachel's brothers Nathaniel, and Drew. Here at Aunt Sookie's beach house, they can be anyone and anything they dreamed. For Summer, she had always wished to become as pretty as Rachel and for her brothers to think of her as more than Rachel's friend. For Nat and Drew, summers at Aunt Sookie's beach house meant fun and escape, a place where they go to with their mom and sister for the summer, away from city life. They never thought this summer would be different. They never thought things would change as much as they did...and it all began with them falling for and loving Summer.




Shame, but I haven’t read any of Kailin’s book other than this. And like many other readers, I did enjoy reading “Loving Summer”.

I am a bit hesitant of reviewing the book actually. Not because I don’t like it, but because I have problems reading e-books. But when the tour comes out, it just happens, I sign-up for review and here I am. Note: My review is not influenced by my participating in the blog tour. This is my own honest opinion.

I really like the main character, she’s not the type that goes “I’m not worthy for your affection” and she’s not also someone who just jumps to a boy whenever he shows attraction towards her. Summer is different from any contemporary female lead.

Kailin’s writing style was a bit descriptive that it seemed I could feel the breeze on my face. (Oh, I love summer). She managed to give us enough details about Drew, Nat and Astor, that it would make the readers really think of who should Summer end up with. There was such depth in each of the character, that you would really sympathize with each, which makes it harder for Summer. Kailin made the idea of 3 guys falling for the same girl genuine, like I could see why they’d tend to like Summer. Naturally, the love story isn’t forced at all.

I also salute the author for merging family issues into young adult contemporary romance. The book talks about divorce and how it affects the children and even health and life issues. So you guys get the picture, it’s not just a book that focuses on boys and love, it has depth too.

It’s not until the very end of the book that I realize this is going to be a series. So there are a lots of things that are left open, even who Summer will end up with. But for me, I have already chosen someone for her ( I wouldn’t spoil the fun by telling you so..:))

One thing the bugs me though, is that why would Summer kissed all of them (not really jealous..:)).. and yet she didn’t even know what she really felt…and I do wish she spent more time with her best friend Rachel. It’s also a little bit the same with Jenny Han's "The Summer I Turned Pretty" but with different conflicts plus there’s not a love triangle but a love square.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book. It was short (for me) and fun mixed with drama and love.. It’s my only summer read with summer as a theme so Highly recommended to your summer-read-shelf..:)
I’ll definitely read the next book and see what would happen next…





View all my reviews

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Author Interview+Giveaway: Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin


Hi everyone, Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin will be on sale for just 99 cents on AMazon.. I had reviewed the book last time and I love it.. Check out my review here!


Darkening Dream
The Blurb

The Darkening Dream is the chilling new dark fantasy novel by Andy Gavin, creator of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter.

Even as the modern world pushes the supernatural aside in favor of science and steel, the old ways remain. God, demon, monster, and sorcerer alike plot to regain what was theirs.

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, an attractive Greek immigrant who knows a startling amount about the undead, Sarah sets out to uncover the truth. Their quest takes them to the factory mills of Salem, on a midnight boat ride to spy on an eerie coastal lair, and back, unexpectedly, to their own homes. What can Alex’s elderly, vampire-hunting grandfather and Sarah’s own rabbi father tell them? And what do Sarah’s continuing visions reveal?
No less than Gabriel’s Trumpet, the tool that will announce the End of Days, is at stake, and the forces that have 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 cast is Sarah, who must fight a millennia-old battle against unspeakable forces, knowing the ultimate prize might be herself.
 __________________________________________________________________________________

INTERVIEW!!!

One/Two word/s that describe your book?

DARK


One sentence: Why we should read your book?

To quote Publishers Weekly, it’s “Gorgeously creepy, strangely humorous, and sincerely terrifying.”


Why was it titled Darkening Dream?

There are a number of layers to that, but essentially The Darkening Dream refers to the existence of the magic world layered behind the real world. One of my main goals with this book was to create a sense of complex magic and occult that was fully compatible with the history and world that we know. The supernatural lurks beneath the surface, driving people and events, but never obvious to the bulk of mankind. In this context, Sarah and her friends are dragged literally and figuratively into The Darkening Dream, the ever more costly world of magic, where all power is purchased at a price.


If you would become one of the characters of your book, who would it be?

Al-Nasir, my 900 year-old vampire. Just kidding.

But he was just so deliciously evil and fun to write. I like to think of him as evil mid-upper management, like an undead Executive Vice President of Acquisitions. I wanted a personage of exceptional age, power, and menace, yet also no CEO or CTO level player — even if he has aspirations.  Al-Nasir has been sent west from Europe to Salem Massachusetts. This is no small thing for a vampire, particularly in 1913. A steamship is a dangerous place for the daylight challenged — especially if they have a habit of snacking on the crew. But come he does, under mysterious orders from the loose cabal of occult baddies with whom he works. Al-Nasir finds things. And with the patience and tenacity only the dead can muster.


If this would turn into a movie, who would be the main cast?

I don’t actually spend much time thinking about that as I see them as their own people. But… The girl we cast for the cover nails Sarah’s look. A young Rachel Wiess would’ve been perfect. Failing the time warp, perhaps Nina Dobrev, but she’s too tall and by the time it got made too old. Constantine: Christopher Lee for sure, but we can only hope he’ll still be around :) . And while we’re going for dream cast, I think George Clooney could actually carry al-Nasir. He has the intensity and Nasir sees himself as charming. Steve Buscemi might make a great Parris. Paul Giamatti as Joseph. Chloe Grace Moretz as Emily. And last, but not least, perhaps Anton Yelchin as Alex.





Rachel Wiez
Nina Dobrev

Christopher Lee


George Clooney
Steve Buscemi
Paul Giamatti
Chloe Grace Moretz
Anton Yelchin
Music or Book?

I’ll always take a great book over a great album.


Love or Life?

Life, because without it, there is no love.


Reality or Fantasy?

Fantasy. I find fiction without the exotic droll.



If I can’t sleep, I would slay demons in Diablo.
The craziest thing I did is jump out of a plane.
My greatest dream was being the leader of a rebellion on an alien planet.
The place I’d like to go someday is Ephesus.
One thing people don’t know about me is that besides making video games and writing novels I love food, wine, history, art, and interior design.
I wish I had written Hyperion.

Where could readers go to know more about you and your books? http://andy-gavin-author.com

Useful links:

http://andy-gavin-author.com  about my writing
http://the-darkening-dream.com/amazon the book’s Amazon link
http://untimed-novel.com my second novel, available soon


Thanks so much for your answers Mr. Gavin, I had a fun with the interview..

The critics love it

"A vampire novel with actual bite." ~The Kirkus Reviews
"A gorgeously creepy, strangely humorous, and sincerely terrifying tale." ~Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Read the first two sample chapters here.

Get your 99 cent copy of The Darkening Dream today on Amazon only.

About the Author


Andy Gavin is an unstoppable storyteller who studied for his Ph.D. at M.I.T. and founded video game developer Naughty Dog, Inc. at the age of fifteen, serving as co-president for two decades. There he created, produced, and directed over a dozen video games, including the award winning and best selling Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter franchises, selling over 40 million units worldwide. He sleeps little, reads novels and histories, watches media obsessively, travels, and of course, writes. Find out more here.

A Big Giveaway for The Darkening Dream

This week, through June 29th, Author Andy Gavin is running a big giveaway to celebrate his 99 cent promo sale.
The Darkening Dream Rafflecopter Giveaway
Tweet, like, follow, share, blog and grab a copy of his book to enter.

Be sure to comment below..:)

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

E-book Giveaway Blast


Hi everyone, I’ll be hosting an e-book giveaway. Some I have read, reviewed and some are on my TBR list. So I hope you’ll read it as much as I want to..:)

Anyways, there will be more than 50 e-books up for grabs. And you could win more or less 5, as long as you follow the rules.
Rules:
  1. The only thing you need to do is to comment on this post
Each comment serves as one (1) entry.
NOTE: you could comment whatever you like and as many times as you like… as long as it should have an interval. (the comment next to yours should be from another, and then you could comment again.)
  1. No need to be a follower. You could even comment as anonymous as long as you include your name on the comment.
  2. Leave a way to contact you if I don’t already have it. 
    Comment on this page do not count


PRIZE:
There will be 5 winners per day who get to choose 3 books from below.

SURE WIN:
If you already commented 10 times (with interval-I do check).. Comment on this post that you did so, and I’ll contact you for your free 2 copies.

June 27, June 28 WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT
June 29- winner

Here’s the e-books for grabs
Kindle only:
  1. Allegiance, a Thriller by Derek Blass
  2. Amaranth (The Resistance Trilogy) by Rachael Wade
  3. Bound by Blood (Paranormal Romance/Time Travel) by Danielle Bourdon, Kimberly Hoyt
  4. Justifiable (Oregon) by Pamela Wright
  5. Eden (Eden Saga) by Matthew C. Plourde
  6. Haven (War of the Princes) by A. R. Ivanovich
  7. Heart Strings by Betty Jo Schuler
  8. Kill Me by Alex Owens
  9. Living in Darkness (Bloodbreeders) by Robin Renee Ray
  10. Maggie for Hire (Maggie MacKay - Magical Tracker) by Kate Danley
  11. Midnight Sun by MJ Fredrick
  12. Nikolas & Company:The Merman and The Moon Forgotten by Kevin McGill
  13. Pleasure With Purpose by Lisa Renee Jones
  14. Pretty When She Dies: A Vampire Novel by Rhiannon Frater
  15. She Speaks to Angels: YA Angel Thriller (AngelFire Chronicles Bk #1) by Ami Blackwelder
  16. Spirit of the Forest by J.J. Abrams
  17. The Bad Luck Wedding Dress (The Bad Luck Wedding series) by Geralyn Dawson
  18. The Bedeviled Heart (The Highland Heather and Hearts Scottish Romance Series) by Carmen Caine

  19. The Burning Sky (Halcyon #1) by Joseph Robert Lewis
  20. The Gaia Wars by Kenneth G. Bennett
  21. The Gates (The Resistance Trilogy) by Rachael Wade
  22. The Homecoming Masquerade (Girls Wearing Black: Book One) by Spencer Baum
  23. The Ninth District - A Thriller by Douglas Dorow
  24. The Toil and Trouble Trilogy, Book One by V. J. Chambers
  25. To Love A Witch (A Novel Nibbles title) by Debora Geary
  26. Tsunami Blue (The Tsunami Blue Series) by Gayle Ann Williams

Available on all formats:
A Heart in Sun and Shadow    by Annie Bellet
A Kingdom's Cost    by J. R. Tomlin
A Storm Hits Valparaiso    by David Gaughran
All The Secret Things    by Sheila Cragg
Alone (Vampires and the Life of Erin Rose - 1)    by Steve Perlow
Angel Evolution    by David Estes
Animaia    by Lee Rogers
Anyone    by Melissa Conway
Be Brave, Be Strong: A Journey Across the Great Divide    by Jill Homer
Beast Saves the Brothers and Sisters of the Cosmic I AM    by G.W. Davies
Beckoning Light (The Afterglow Trilogy)    by Alyssa Rose Ivy
Betrayed    by Wodke Hawkinson
Blood Duty    by J. R. Tomlin
Blood of the Dragon    by Samantha Warren
Blood Tide    by Tess Oliver
Bound by Fire    by Ronald Craft
Brambleman    by Jonathan Grant
Brandon Marlowe and the Alpha in the Omega    by Eric Livingston
Burning Embers and Other Stories of Marriage, Work, and Family    by Charlie Close
Chain Gang Elementary    by Jonathan Grant
City of Roses Vol. 1: "Wake up..."    by Kip Manley
Color My Horse    by Bev Pettersen
Counterpoint    by Tom S. Christian
Dark Before Dawn    by Stacy Juba
Darkest Desire: The Wolf's Own Tale    by Anthony Schmitz
Deadly Straits (For Tom Clancy & W.E.B. Griffin fans)    by R.E. McDermott
Death of an Escort    by Nathan Pennington
Deep Black Beyond    by Annie Bellet
Dirty Little Angels    by Chris Tusa
Dolphin Girl    by Shel Delisle
Draykon    by Charlotte E. English
Elegy: Book 1 of the Arbiter Codex    by Christopher Kellen
Falling (Fallen Idols #1 - paranormal chick lit romance novella)    by Cecilia Gray
Fast-Tracked (Book 1 in the Fast-Track Triolgy)    by Tracy Rozzlynn
Fezariu's Epiphany    by David M. Brown
Finding Fiona    by Emily Ann Ward
Fire (Elements of the Undead Book One)    by William Esmont
Fresh Flesh    by Todd Russell
Friends With Partial Benefits    by Luke Young
Future Destinies    by Chris Turner
Gargoyles    by Alan Nayes
Grave Situation    by Alex MacLean
Grundish and Askew    by Lance Carbuncle
Hang On    by Nell Gavin
Harbingers of Mortality    by Steve Thomas
In Search of the Yellow Dog    by George L Potter
India Was One    by An Indian
La Cienega Just Smiled    by Leslie DuBois
Let the Dragon Wake    by Sylvia Volk
Limerick: The Shimmer Trilogy, #2    by Kimberly Spencer
Linked    by Lisa Alden
Love Lust and Petty Crime    by Hercules Bantas
LS: The Beginning    by Kelvin O'Ralph
Malice    by Griffin Hayes
Megazaur: Akysha's Fury    by Brian Poor
Michael Belmont and the Tomb of Anubis    by Ethan Russell Erway
Multiples of Six    by Andy Rane
Naked Mommy    by Aidan Parkinson
Not Quite Ordinary    by Ariana Knight
Of Moths and Butterflies    by VR Christensen
Olga - A Daughter's Tale    by Marie-Therese Browne (Marie Campbell)
Online    by Seth Blackburn
Past, Future, & Present Danger (Book Two of The Absurd Misadventures of Captain Rescue)    by Joshua Price
Pendant of Power    by J. R. Tomlin
Playing with Fire    by Coral Russell
Practice Cake    by Dalya Moon
Promising Light    by Emily Ann Ward
Prowl    by RW Holmen
Race    by Mobashar Qureshi
Restless Highways    by Melissa L. Webb
Return to Love: A Romance Novel for Young Adults    by Lynn Hubbard
Rex Rising    by Chrystalla Thoma
Rippler    by Cidney Swanson
River Daughter and Other Stories    by Annie Bellet
Saturation    by Jennifer Place
Sea Change    by Francis Rowan
Seven Point Eight: The First Chronicle    by Marie Harbon
Shada    by Craig Hansen
Sink or Swim    by Stacy Juba
Spirits Rising    by Krista D. Ball
Still Life With Brass Pole    by Craig Machen
Stray : Touchstone Part 1    by Andrea Höst
Summoning    by Debi Faulkner
Taken (The Taken Trilogy, Book #1)    by Zia Marie
Talon of the Unnamed Goddess    by J. R. Tomlin
Ten Typewriter Tales    by Mobashar Qureshi
The Caldarian Conflict    by Mike Kalmbach
The Cemetery Vote    by Steve Silkin
The Choice    by Lorhainne Eckhart
The Elsingham Portrait    by Elizabeth Chater
The Gifts (Vol 1- The Gifts: Trilogy)    by Patria Dunn-Rowe
The Gossamer Sphere    by Melissa Conway
The Inhabitants of Magnolia Park    by Tracy James Jones
The Legion Legacy, Part 1; The Vampire's Heart    by Cochin Breaker
The New Death and others    by James Hutchings
The Nightmare Within    by Glen Krisch
The October Five    by Mobashar Qureshi
The Paperboys Club    by Mobashar Qureshi
The Price    by Joseph Garraty
The Shoot    by Timothy Frost
The Sphinx Project    by Kate Hawkings
The Traveler's Companion    by Christopher John Chater
The Unborn Trilogy    by Aldrea Alien
The Zarder    by Sara Jo Easton
Thin Hope    by Holly Hook
Three Girls and a Baby    by Rachel Schurig
Too Far Under    by Lynn Osterkamp
Twenty-Five Years Ago Today    by Stacy Juba
Unaccounted For    by Nan Willard Cappo
Up in the Attic and Other Stories    by Amanda Lawrence Auverigne
Valentine's Cafe    by Anthony Schmitz
Verita (Book 1 in the Verita Series)    by Tracy Rozzlynn
Voices Beckon    by Linda Lee Graham
Welcome To The Underworld    by I.F Rowan
Where Darkness Dwells    by Glen Krisch
Willowtree    by Mike Bove
Xenofreak Nation    by Melissa Conway
Year of the WereCurse—WereWhat? by Debi Faulkner

I do understand if it’s hard to choose..:).. I myself got tired of typing all these.. So I hope you all win.. Good Luck!!!

The Magic of The Darkening Dream (Giveaway): Andy Gavin


In constructing The Darkening Dream I wanted the meta-story to play off conventional tropes. Broadly, a cabal of ancient supernatural beings has sent one of their number to recover an artifact needed to destroy the world. And surprise, it turns out a group of teens are all that stands between them and Armageddon.
How much more Buffy can you get?
But that's just the high level. I also wanted to ground this preposterous scenario in real history and legend. So as a methodology, in designing my array of supernatural beings and occult practitioners I turned to historic sources. Before our modern science and technology rendered magic quaint, it was the domain of religion and superstition. Of belief.
And each spiritual and magical system has its own framework. Proponents wrote out of certainty, out of faith. I merely dig up their writings and take them at their word.
 

Villains


Osiris as king in the west
What binds a group of ancient evil beings together? Not some grand principle of villainy. Evil is just extreme selfishness. But hatred can go a long way. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. So who from the ancient world has suffered the most?
Might it be the old gods? Or those who worship them? Who offers sacrifice anymore to Osiris? Who fears the shadow of Anubis as they step from this world into the next? Who believes the beetle god Khepri drags the sun across the sky behind him?
No one. And those that remember the glory days are pissed off.
So who's been lurking around since the time of the pharaohs?

The comte at Versailles
The Comte de St. Germain has, or so he told everyone in the court of Louis XV. Apparently, at the very least, he is party to the secret magics of Osiris, Son of the Earth, King of the Dead. The elixir of Osiris is said to prevent death. And so the comte, which is but one of his many names, has been lurking about for some time. But the old magics are not what they once were. Their power has diminished with their gods. So he whispers in the ears of kings, pulling on what strings he can, seeking allies where he can find them.
And old gods may fade, but as long as a single soul still believes, they never die.
Even the ancient blood gods and their vampire acolytes. Born in ancient forests of the north where men offered midnight blood sacrifice. Of their king, their Ancient Master, raised from the dead a hundred centuries past, nothing remains but pure fury. Hatred for the burning sun, hatred for his mortal prey, hatred for the new world of foul brick and lifeless steel.
But in hatred, perhaps, there is common cause.
 

The Artifact


Observe the all important Ram in the Thicket (lower right)
Clearly, the physical goal of our baddies had to be something really big. Something useful to them in their plots. The fall of antiquity was not about barbarians at the gates of Rome. No. The rising tide of monotheism was what really swept away the old order.
So it is against God that our villains lash out.
And I found the perfect legend in the most unlikely of places. I was passing the time during Yom Kippur services by reading the story of Abraham offering Isaac for sacrifice (Genesis 22). This has always been a passage of particular interest to me, dealing as it does with the nature of the relationship between man and God and the meaning of ritual sacrifice. But it was in the commentary that I noticed something peculiar, a cryptic remark that "the Ram in the Thicket is but one of ten special things created by God on the eve of creation."
How's that for a magic seeker's wet dream.
Back at home I dug into this and discovered that on the eve of the first Sabbath, before the creation of world, God created ten special things (which besides the Ram include the rainbow of Noah, the staff of Moses, and other goodies). These items are eternal, having existed before the universe, they have no temporal beginning or end. God, it seemed, placed the Ram into the trust of the Archangel Gabriel, who kept it in the Garden of Eden until Abraham needed it at Mount Moriah. Afterward, nothing of the Ram was wasted. Gabriel took the horns and brought one to Moses so that he could sound the arrival of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. The other was kept by the archangel, hidden in the Garden, so that at the appointed time it might be brought to Elijah to sound the End of Days.

Gabriel and his trumpet
This notion of a horn blast sounding the end of the world is a highly persistent meme. It's found not just in the Jewish traditions regarding the Messiah, but in the Revelations of John where seven angels (including presumably, Gabriel) sound the end of time and the Last Judgment. And also in diverse mythologies such as the Norse, where the Gjallarhorn shall announce the onset of Ragnarök.
In the world of The Darkening Dream, all beliefs are simultaneously true, as brought forth and conceived by their believers. This means that anything as consistent as the horn legend is doubly true. Archetypal truth made manifest.
And what of Gabriel's Horn? Eternity is a long time and the archangel flits hither and yon. Might not a busy seraph misplace such a thing... if only for a short time?
 

The Myriad Layers of the Esoteric World

How to properly envision a world in which vampires, the Archangel Gabriel, witchcraft, and Egyptian gods all exist? Many might just toss them together arbitrarily, but I wanted to find a framework consistent with traditional mysticism. Having read hundreds of religious and magical texts I have identified numerous consistencies in the thought patterns of the esoteric mind.

The Tree of Life
By way of example, let's place ourselves in the mind of my protagonist Sarah's father Joseph. As a Rabbi, scholar, and mystic Joseph draws his world view from the Zohar and other great texts of the Kabbalah. In this conceptualization, which can be summed up as "hidden and not revealed," the world is a many layered thing, like an onion, with the portion we perceive merely the lowest of ten modalities, all simultaneously overlaid. The pure conceptualization of God pervades everything, and is the highest. Yet the human mind can not fully comprehend this level of divine and celestial purity. In between are various layers that express important truths like "Beauty" and "Wisdom." In Joseph's orthodox world, God is all powerful, so powerful that even the Archangel Gabriel is but a manifestation of His Strength. The angel is not an independent entity, but a protrusion of God's will into these middle layers of reality. Joseph might actually see the angel, but in his mind, this is just his perception of an aspect of God leaking into the mortal layers. The human mind cannot comprehend the divine, so God softens the blow with the angelic form.

Sitting down to the witches Sabbath
As hard as this might be to get your head around, it seemed reasonable to extend this kind of framework to many forms of magic in the book. The villainous Puritan warlock, Pastor John Parris, works a school of traditional witchcraft, yet it too is based on layered perception of reality. For him, the magical realm is twisted into a less spacial form, with objects and people adjacent not just by physical proximity, but by the likeness of their form and nature. So, a person's hair, separated as it might be from their body, provides magical access to the owner. Likewise, his religious conceptualization allows for the layering of hell dimensions, separated by flame. With the help of his succubus lover he is able to step through these fiery gateways and bend the rules of time and space.
While occasionally, as is the case with the Horn, the mythological drives the story, most often the structural needs of my plot demanded esoteric action. I therefore required interoperability between diverse magic systems in order to make the action work. For example, when Joseph wishes to protect his home from the intrusions of the evil Parris and the ancient vampire al-Nasir, he prays to invoke the archangels and align the physical rectangle of his house with the metaphysical form of King Solomon's Temple. For him this is an act of faith drawing on protective aspects of God's divinity.
But Parris too is able to perceive this change in the nature of reality, albeit in his own terms. His plans to gain entry requires the construction of an elaborate ritual analog. Like a voodoo doll for a building. Just as the limbs of the doll can be broken, the metaphysical walls of the temple may be breached.
 

Succubus from the source


Learning from the mouth of devils
For each of my supernatural beings I strove to draw upon classical source materials rather than rely on 20th century pop culture. My warlock, Pastor Parris, is a man of repressed passion based on serial killer profiles. His only emotional connection to the outside world has been through a series of dominating female figures. First his puritanical grandmother, then following her grisly demise, his succubus lover Betty. Like all magic in the world of The Darkening Dream, Betty is a conceptual product of her beholder. So I turned to The Malleus Maleficarum, the rantings of two 15th century clergymen, Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger. This book, which translates as the The Witch Hammer, was used by the Inquisition as a handbook for identifying and persecuting witches and demons.
Along with a five page essay on the mechanism by which Succubi and Incubi transfer semen, the Maleficarum has this to say about Succubi:
Devils have no lungs or tongue, though they can show the latter, as well as teeth and lips, artificially made according to the condition of their body; therefore they cannot truly and properly speak. But since they have understanding, and when they wish to express their meaning, then, by some disturbance of the air included in their assumed body, not of air breathed in and out as in the case of men, they produce, not voices, but sounds which have some likeness to voices, and send them articulately through the outside air to the ears of the hearer.
From this passage, we know that one of the means of identifying Succubi is that they do not move their lips when speaking, but manipulate the elements of fluid air near their mouths directly. Hence, in my novel, Betty does not open her mouth to speak, but the air in front of her shimmers as she does. In keeping with my fast paced action oriented novel, I never make an issue of this, but like thousands of other details in the book it is informed by the source. Clearly brothers Kramer and Sprenger knew what they were talking about, as they inspired thousands to burn at the stake.

Khepri and Osiris in the good old days

The Power of the Word

With each different school of magic I tried to extract the historic flavor and mindset of past occultists. The mysterious Khepri, another of my villains, practices an ancient Egyptian magic entirely different from Parris' devilish thaumaturgy. The spirit of Egyptian magic often derives from the use of secret names and the spoken word — nay command. The sorcerer/priest orders, by way of his secret magic, the very gods and demons to do his bidding. So it is that when Khepri invokes the miniature sun which is his weapon, he cries these words from The Egyptian Book of the Dead:
Re sits in his Abode of Millions of Years. The doors of the sky are opened for me, the doors of the earth are opened for me, the door-bolts of Geb are opened for me, the shutters of the sky-windows are thrown open for me. I know you, I know your names; Release him, loose him!
By sheer force of his sorcerous will he demands the sun yield to him. And so it does.
 

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

By writing a modern fantasy adventure, but by grounding the magic and supernatural in tradition, I wanted to prove that the old adage really is true: Truth is stranger than fiction. The twisted imaginations of our ancestors, devoid of the distractions of the current age, were often far more creative than the half-assed creations of Hollywood and the like.

A Big Giveaway for The Darkening Dream

This week, through June 29th, Author Andy Gavin is running a big giveaway to celebrate his 99 cent promo sale.

To enter the giveaway.. visit this blog on June 27... The post will go live by 12:00 EST..
and please don't forget to comment..:) 


Tweet, like, follow, share, blog and grab a copy of his book  in advance to enter.

About The Darkening Dream

As the modern world establishes itself and pushes the supernatural into the shadows, the supernatural fights back.
An ominous vision and the discovery of a gruesome corpse lead Sarah and her friends into a terrifying encounter with a fledgling vampire in 1913 Salem, Massachusetts. Eager to prove themselves, the young heroes set out to track the evil to its source, never guessing that they 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 a Greek 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 Sarah herself.

The critics love it

"A vampire novel with actual bite." ~The Kirkus Reviews
"A gorgeously creepy, strangely humorous, and sincerely terrifying tale." ~Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Read the first two sample chapters here.

Get your 99 cent copy of The Darkening Dream today on Amazon only.

About the Author


Andy Gavin is an unstoppable storyteller who studied for his Ph.D. at M.I.T. and founded video game developer Naughty Dog, Inc. at the age of fifteen, serving as co-president for two decades. There he created, produced, and directed over a dozen video games, including the award winning and best selling Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter franchises, selling over 40 million units worldwide. He sleeps little, reads novels and histories, watches media obsessively, travels, and of course, writes. Find out more here.

Games, Novels, and Story (Giveaway): Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin


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.

A Big Giveaway for The Darkening Dream

This week, through June 29th, Author Andy Gavin is running a big giveaway to celebrate his 99 cent promo sale.

To enter the giveaway.. visit this blog on June 27... The post will go live by 12:00 EST..
and please don't forget to comment..:) 


Tweet, like, follow, share, blog and grab a copy of his book in advance to enter.

About The Darkening Dream

As the modern world establishes itself and pushes the supernatural into the shadows, the supernatural fights back.
An ominous vision and the discovery of a gruesome corpse lead Sarah and her friends into a terrifying encounter with a fledgling vampire in 1913 Salem, Massachusetts. Eager to prove themselves, the young heroes set out to track the evil to its source, never guessing that they 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 a Greek 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 Sarah herself.

The critics love it

"A vampire novel with actual bite." ~The Kirkus Reviews
"A gorgeously creepy, strangely humorous, and sincerely terrifying tale." ~Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Read the first two sample chapters here.

Get your 99 cent copy of The Darkening Dream today on Amazon only.

About the Author


Andy Gavin is an unstoppable storyteller who studied for his Ph.D. at M.I.T. and founded video game developer Naughty Dog, Inc. at the age of fifteen, serving as co-president for two decades. There he created, produced, and directed over a dozen video games, including the award winning and best selling Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter franchises, selling over 40 million units worldwide. He sleeps little, reads novels and histories, watches media obsessively, travels, and of course, writes. Find out more here.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Listia

Auctions for free stuff at Listia.com