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Today on the Booze Nerd, I want to talk about another spirit that, like Absinthe, has an aura of mystery and myth surrounding it: mezcal. The first I heard about this “Mexican moonshine” was whispered promises of potency and the mystical visions that eating the worm at the bottom of the bottle would bring. Even mere talk of this spirit brought an illicit thrill to my curious palate.

In the meantime, I sampled plenty of tequila (and for a long time, had decided it wasn’t really for me. I learned this in college, btw. Tequila 101). Until very recently, I had all but forgotten about mezcal. However, my recent forays into scotch-tasting led me to questing for other smoky spirits.

Tequila is Mezcal, but not all Mezcal is Tequila. 

Mezcal is the quintessential Mexican spirit, distilled from roasted and fermented piñas, or the hearts of agave plants. The agave grows nearly all over Mexico, and contrary to popular belief, is not a cactus, but a succulent, like the aloe plant. One particular variety, known as the blue agave, is the source of Tequila, a regional mezcal first brewed around the late seventeenth century.

Agave (Maguey) (photo Marc Ryckaert / Wikipedia)

The agave is known in Mexico as the maguey, and in popular myth was associated with the goddess Mayahuel, an ancient deity of fertility and rebirth. The sticky, honey-like sap of the maguey was thought to be the goddess’ blood, and could be fermented into a potent, mucilaginous beverage known as pulque. (The trickster god Tlacuache gave this secret to humans after he learned to make it himself). Pulque was a sacred drink, and its use governed by ritual and  tradition, often in connection with the harvests.

That’s not to say it was hoarded only by the priests! On special feast days, everyone was permitted to drink as much as they wanted. Intoxication was thought to bring you closer to the gods, after all. Tezcatzontecatl, Mayahuel’s consort and the god of drunkeness (naturally), had 400 children: each one a rabbit who represented a different type of intoxication!

After Spain colonized Mexico, this rustic drink gained the attention of the Spanish, who were desperate to find a replacement for their dwindling supplies of wine and booze from the Old World. Grapes and other fermentable crops were grown in Mexico, but strict

Mayahuel

legislation and tax codes prevented the colonists from brewing hooch in the traditional methods. But the King of Spain didn’t care at all about the indigenous agave plant.

Mezcal originates mainly from the state of Oaxaca, but in the 1750s, Don José Antonio Cuervo was granted land by the king to grow agave and produce “mezcal wine.” The first recorded distillation took place in 1758 in a little town called Tequila. In 1958, “The Champs” recorded their own homage to the Mexican national beverage, also called “Tequila.”

Roasted And Rustic

Everything about distilling mezcal remains largely rustic, even in an age of massive stainless steel vats and gas-heated boilers. Mezcal production is highly localized, with each remote village responsible for its own distinct flavors and techniques. The key words to remember with mezcal are “hand-crafted.”

The hearts of the agave plant (piñas) are harvested when the plant’s about eight years old, and then slow-roasted in stone lined pits for three days. This is where mezcal picks up its characteristic smokey flavor. By contrast, Tequila is made from piñas that have been baked or steamed.

After roasting, the hearts are allowed to ferment for a few days before being crushed by a horse-drawn millstone. The pulp and juice is then left to ferment in open-topped containers for a few more days. After that, the mash is transferred to a pot still (often made of simple clay or sometimes copper).

Grinding the Piñas (photo Wikipedia)

Generally, mezcal is only distilled once (versus tequila, which is distilled twice) and the palenquero (or distiller) will know when the process is complete by blowing into a pipette of mezcal and judging the size of the resulting bubbles.

Mezcal is often sweetened and flavored with combinations of sugar, plaintains, pineapple, plums, nuts, bark, and even rice. One particular style of mezcal called Pechuga is distilled with a chicken breast suspended in the mash!

The result of these regional variations is a product which can be tricky to classify. Some mezcal is smooth and smokey, perfect for sipping as you would any fine scotch, and other local spirits are more akin to “white lightning” moonshine of backwoods Kentucky.

Either way, you’re in for a treat.

The Worm Turns

There is a moth called the Hypopta Agavis, which likes to lay its eggs on the agave plant. Somewhere in the 1940s, this gusano, or “worm” became inextricably linked with mezcal when some enterprising bottlers began including a gusano to prove the mezcal was authentic. A marketing ploy, to be sure, but soon the worm became a symbol of mezcal’s potency. Eat the worm and you might gain a little of the agave’s power. Eat the worm and you might even see a vision from the spirits…

It’s a good story, and has sold a lot of mezcal to curious gringos eager for visions from Mayahuel.

Mezcal is sweet and fruity, smokey and complex. Unfortunately, gimmicks and “moonshine” associations as a cheap drink have clouded this fine spirit’s true cultural heritage and reputation as one of the world’s best drinks.

Oaxacan Angel (recipe by Dave Kupchinski)

• 2 oz. Del Maguey Vida Mezcal
• 1 tsp agave nectar
• 1/2 dash Cardamom Bitters

Oaxacan Angel (photo by Booze Nerd)

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A good friend of mine here in Vermont, Blackwell Hird, has just launched his first kickstarter campaign to build and release a dedicated tablet game of interstellar war. He’s a recent graduate from the Vancouver Film School for Game design and after graduating, he’s been let down by the current offerings when it comes to space-based strategy games in the digital age. The stories lacked the exploration qualities that he grew up with: “Many of [the games] simply laid out the galaxy as a known quantity which to me, does a diservice for the medium.” Conquest will look to bring the same principles of the space war games into the future that they depict.

Conquest is inspired by many of space based strategy games, that Hird grew up with, such as Twilight Imperium and Warhammer 40K, as well as other strategy games such as Risk and Diplomacy, and will bring the action to an interactive, digital setting. One frustration was the time and effort required to set up the games: “I loved the principles behind [the games], but the time involved to even set them up and get into them were far to inaccessible for many of my friends: we wanted to spend the time playing the games.” Conquest allows players to get right into the action, while still retaining the face to face and social aspects that are trademarks and attractions of board games for the tablet market.

You can visit the Kickstarter campaign here.

Here’s the description from the kickstarter page:

Conquest: my empire’s bigger than yours.
Welcome… To space! At least a small, fiercely contested corner of it. Grab your tablet of choice and revel in gleefully conquering your rivals in this turn-based strategy extravaganza with a twist. The giant space monster is not the twist. It’s just part of the scenery.
How many times have you gone to bust out one of your favorite board games, only to be fended off by long set up times, not being able to get everyone to sit still for long enough to play, and not entirely remembering the rules? The answer is too many times.
Conquest will help alleviate these problems, hopefully proving the balm for your itching board game desires. Setting up a game is as fast as pushing the big red button, the gameplay is easy to put down and pick up again at your leisure, and the rules are simple enough to figure out, while engaging enough to encourage strategy (especially if the strategy is “go forth and blow things up”).
Conquest tasks you with building your very own galactic empire and blasting your opponents into their constituent bits. Use your vast and (mostly) awe-inspiring fleet to explore a galaxy randomly generated by the game or lovingly hand-crafted by you. Discover, explore, and mercilessly conquer planets that you discover in said galaxy, all while hoping that you don’t land your fleet in the middle of a black hole. Then fight the good fight both in space and planet side until you are finally able to plant your flag on your opponent’s home world and then laugh at them.

This kickstarter project is looking to raise $41,000, which will be used to hire a programer and support team to deliver the game by November 2012, and to create an LLC to support the game and its deployment.

I’m in full agreement with Blackwell: there’s not a whole lot of good games out there that I’ve found, and having played games with him continually over the past decade or so, I’m very eager to see where this one goes.

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Happy Holidays!

’Tis the season for frightful weather, and nothing warms the soul after a slog through the snow to buy those last minute gifts like a hot, spicy drink. For some, the perfect antidote is a cup of coffee, or tea, or even hot chocolate. But this is a Booze Nerd post, so you know where I’m headed on those frosty days!

Hot Toddies

Hot Buttered Rum

Your first line of defense against winter’s chill is the hot toddy. There are many types of toddies, but the basic definition is “any mixed drink served hot that includes alcohol.” Sounds like my kind of drink. The exact origin of the toddy is, like those of a lot of drinks, made cloudy by that great muddler, time. The tradition seems to have emerged from Scotland, where whisky was the common ingredient. Of course, its primary use was “medicinal,” as a remedy against the chill and colds that came with it. Heavy use of spices was thought to help clear the head, though I suspect after a few of these, the head was anything but clear.

You probably felt a lot better, though!

As for the name, it may have originated in India, where wine made from date palms is known as “palm toddy.” (Incidentally, this weak palm wine can be distilled to make the powerful arrack, a popular spirit in the first days of sail.)

While mulled wines and ciders fall into the toddy category, I thought I’d include a recipe for one of my particular favorites — Hot Buttered Rum. Yes, there is actual butter in this.

Hot Buttered Rum

• ½ oz Unsalted Butter
• ½ oz Honey
• 1 oz Hot Water
• 2 oz Your Favorite Spiced Rum (I prefer Cruzan Blackstrap or Kraken)

Add the butter and honey to your glass and stir together; you may need a little hot water to soften them. Add the rum, then the hot water. Grate nutmeg over the top and serve.  

The proportions above are really just suggestions. Add as much of any of the ingredients as suits your tastes, though I advise against using margarine or other replacement butter products as you just won’t get the same silky texture or buttery flavor.

You can also mix the butter ahead of time with brown sugar, cinnamon and other favorite spices. If you add more sugar during this step, omit the honey. You can even skip the rum and use brandy, cognac, or bourbon but be advised, the latter can be very sweet.

Hypocras

This drink with the funny sounding name (also spelled hippocras, ypocras) is actually just spiced wine, but rather than mulling the wine and spices over heat, you mix all the ingredients ahead of time and let it sit for a day or two (or longer). The resulting drink is mellower than most mulled wine, and I think a little sweeter.

Hypocras

Though spiced wine has been known since at least Roman times, hypocras was brought to Europe following the Crusades. It was exceedingly popular in France, and it derived its name from the conical funnel used to strain out the spices. There are many variations on the hypocras theme of course, but all involve some amount of wine, sugar (or honey), fruits, and spices — especially

Krupnikas

cinnamon. While hypocras fell out of favor in the 18^th Century, there are a few producers still around. It’s even said to have inspired the Spanish sangria.

If you’re looking for a something a little different to sip during the holidays, hypocras definitely fits the bill. For something with a more eastern European flavor, I suggest krupnikas —vodka honey wine— and you can find a good recipe for that here. (Shameless plug: I can vouch for the recipe, Hungry Passport is my wife!) You can drink it hot or cold.

Ypocras (recipe courtesy La Varenne/Anne Willen)

Makes 3 cups/750ml

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp ground mace
• 1½ tsp ground cloves
• 1½ tsp ground grains of paradise
• 1 bottle (750ml) fruity red wine such as merlot
• Cheesecloth

1. In a medium, non-metallic bowl, stir together the sugar, cinnamon, mace, cloves, and grains of paradise. Add the wine and stir well. Leave for 10 minutes, then stir again to dissolve the sugar fully. Cover tightly and leave at room temperature for 1-2 days.

2. Strain the wine mixture through a strainer lined with a double layer of cheesecloth into a bowl. A brown deposit will be left on the cheesecloth. Rinse it off and strain the wine at least once more through the cheesecloth to clarify it as well as possible.

3. Store the wine in an airtight container (or, use the original wine bottle) at room temperature. It will keep up to one month.

Eggnog

This little-known drink is sometimes served at EVERY FREAKIN’ HOLIDAY PARTY IN THE WORLD, so you may actually have heard of it.

Eggnog most likely originated in England, where it was often mixed with brandy and assorted spices like nutmeg and the ubiquitous cinnamon. When it was ported over to the colonies, the cheaper and more commonly available rum was a ready substitute, and it remains a pretty popular choice to this day.

Santa likes eggnog.

The grandmama of all holiday drinks, eggnog is also sadly, probably the least good for you. Here’s something you may not have known about eggnog. I suspect it is the reason it’s so popular, quite frankly. If you thought Hot Buttered Rum was rich, it’s got nothing on eggnog:

Essentially you’re drinking ice cream. 

You heard me right.

Creme Anglais, the foundation of the ice cream we all so dearly love is also the foundation of eggnog. It’s no wonder when you dump some holiday spices and booze into it that it becomes even more irresistible.

Drink responsibly. Your doctor is watching.

Eggnog (recipe courtesy Carol Penn-Romine)

Makes about 12 half-cup servings

• 3 cups whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 7 large, fresh eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• nutmeg, to garnish

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We all know the holidays are filled with opportunities to merrily eat festive baked goods while drinking down buckets of holiday cheer. It’s no surprise the scale tends to go up a few pounds after the holiday season is over. Here are a few tips to help you avoid weight gain during one of the highest calorie seasons of the year.

1. Don’t feel obliged to eat food offered to you by your party host, co-workers, family etc. It’s okay to say thanks, but no thanks. Definitely don’t feel you need to eat more than you would or take second helpings in order to make them feel good.
2. While at social gatherings, move away from the food tables, mingle and talk to other people!
3. Eat sensibly throughout the day when you know you have a large feast to attend. Don’t make the mistake of skipping meals, thinking you’ll “save those calories” for later. You’ll end up being hungry and eating even more than you would’ve if you’d eaten normally throughout the day.
4.  If you bake cookies (or other yummy things) for someone else as a gift, give them all the cookies! Don’t make a second batch for your own consumption or eat half of theirs.
5.  Don’t use the excuse, “I’ll go on a diet in January.” Not only is that usually not going to happen, it’s an unhealthy approach to allowing yourself to overeat.
6.  If you receive food gifts you know you shouldn’t eat, give them to the food bank.
7.  Allow yourself to enjoy the holidays. Don’t try and restrict yourself from everything and anything out there. That’s likely to lead to a blow up binge of eating an entire gingerbread house with a side of pie. Moderation is key.

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Jacob Aldridge, scion of a respectable, well off family in 1882 London, has had the shadow of tragedy hanging over him. His beloved fiancée, Rhoda Carothers, has suddenly died, and he seems more than usually affected by the tragedy.  A chance meeting with Livia Aram is shocking to both, for Livia very much resembles the late Rhoda.  Even more so, unbeknownst to both Livia and Jacob, the Aram and Aldridge familes have ties going back generations. Ties involving the magic of the Far East, and a demon and curse bound to the fates of both families.

Such is the tale of Mirror Maze, the supernatural fantasy novel from Michaele Jordan.  Unlike the assortment of Steampunk novels set in the Victorian era, Mirror Maze eschews Steampunk for a straight up supernatural fantasy involving demons, curses, and mirrors.  However, that is just about the most straightforward thing about Mirror Maze.

The book’s title refers to the use of mirrors in the book, a strong and interesting use of Victorian ideas of magic. Seances, mirrors, candles, mirrors and more are the meat and drink of magic in this universe.  Did I mention mirrors? What’s more, however, the book’s title refers to the structure of the plot and how the novel unfolds.  Jordan is stingy with revealing details of the characters’ past or the true nature of events, sometimes leaving a reader to wonder just what is going on until, a chapter or even a section later, a point of view shift and a revelation makes the previous section clear. For a while, reading the book, I was a bit frustrated by the extremely reflective, twisted and unreliable nature of the narrative.  I suspect, however, this might be a case of changed expectations. Once I started to figure out what the author was doing in the novel, I began to expect reinterpretations and revelations after the fact. The book IS a Mirror Maze.

The core set of characters, Jacob, his sister Cecily, Livia and Rhoda are an interesting quartet, with an ever developing and changing set of relationships between them. I hesitate to go into extreme detail involving the characters, since the unfolding of the true nature of their relationships and even their true natures is part of that “mirror maze” involving the curse and the demon that overhangs them, and the others in their families. I’ve already revealed that Rhoda, despite being deceased, is a very active character in the narrative.  A lot of the aspects of the novel might similarly fall into spoiler territory.

As far as the writing goes, the descriptions are lush and evocative. The novel likes to engage the senses, which goes to even better effect when the action brings us to the world beyond the mirror, but also in the waking world as well. Here, Cecily is trying to use a little Victorian magic in the cursed and haunted room of her brother:

The scent that came up from the candle was offensive, and she wrinkled her nose in distaste, wondering if the nasty thing had taken its color from genuine blood. But she dutifully held the taper before her with both hands. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” she murmured. The flame shot up, and she hesitated nervously. But her instructions were clear. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” According to Dr. Chang, it would have been better to recite the Psalm in the original Hebrew, but she did not know the language. “He leadeth me beside the still waters.”

The flame subsided somewhat, although it still reached higher than a typical candle flame. And then it leaned sideways as if in a draft. A very strong, steady draft. It was unmistakably leading her somewhere, although  she doubted it would bring her to still waters. “He restoreth my soul.”, she whispered and stepped in the direction to which the candle flame pointed.

The candle took her into Jacob’s study. It wavered briefly toward the desk before pointing to the chair in the corner. The chair was little used; it was a pretty thing with an embroidered seat but less than comfortable. Other chairs were called into service firt. But the candle pointed directly toward it, so Cecily approached it. The faint odor from the parlor rose up around her, growing stronger with each step, overpowering even the stench of the blood candle. It was a sweet aroma, and she could not have said what made it unpleasant, save perhaps it was perhaps a little too sweet. It was also very familiar. She had smelled it in her childhood. She declined to reflect on the occasion.

The novel rewards those who pay attention, and I felt like I was reading one of the works of Gene Wolfe, in reading Mirror Maze. I am also reminded of some of the theories of difficult fiction in Fantastika as explicated by John Stevens. Those last two sentences of the quote above, for example, are only truly explained and explicated in the last portion of the book, as some of Jacob and Cecily’s very dark family history comes to light.

I think in some ways, the novel’s expectations and intentions just manage to exceed the grasp of the author’s intent. I like to think of myself as a pretty savvy reader and reviewer, but time and again, especially in the early going, I didn’t feel that revelations came from anything than out of the blue.  There are a few eddies and twirls of plot and scene that seem to also suggest things that don’t go anywhere or are not followed up upon.  Sometimes the book’s narrative is a bit  too obscure for its own good, in my opinion.

One other aspect of the novel I am conflicted about is the footnotes. Yes, footnotes.  Flipping back and forth between the text and the end notes was a bit distracting. I have no objections to footnotes per se, but flipping back and forth between the text and the end notes was a bit distracting. So from a stylistic point of view, I think the footnotes could have been better served by placing at the bottom of the page. Also, the content of the footnotes seems to be scattershot.  A few of them are of questionable inclusion. Even in this day and age, I am not sure a footnote explaining who Theseus is, for example, really useful, although the more obscure references explained were definitely useful to me as a reader.

Given everything, in sum, I feel a bit conflicted about the novel and recommending it to readers. The novel as a whole is like that, and reading the book casually, in tiny pieces, is probably going to frustrate readers who don’t have the time and temerity to pay close attention. However, if you are interested in Victorian fantasy without even a whiff of Steampunk, and are willing to work for your reading, so to speak, Mirror Maze might fit your bill.

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Hello again! This is your friendly Booze Nerd, back from a short hiatus. I hope you all have been drinking well. I know I have.

So here we are in the late fall, rushing towards winter and (in the northern hemisphere at least) colder days and especially nights. As far as I’m concerned, those crisp evenings settled in by a cozy fire call for one cocktail in particular: The Widow’s Kiss. I first discovered it in Ted Haigh’s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, and it quickly became one of our go-to cool-weather drinks.

Made from Calvados (French apple brandy) and a pair of France’s finest liqueurs, Chartreuse and Benedictine, the Widow’s Kiss is like drinking autumn in a glass. The drink first appeared in George Kappeler’s Modern American Drinks in 1895, though some sources suggest it was around in one form or another prior to that. Kappeler tended bar at the Holland House Hotel on 5^th Avenue in Manhattan, which was then known as “Millionaire’s Row.” Perhaps this was the kind of rich drink that appealed to sophisticated tastes.

I should also warn you, this is a potent concoction. There are no fruit juices or soda water to dilute it. Some may even find it too sweet. Sip slowly, and savor it as you cuddle with your loved one by the fire. Or after a big holiday dinner.

Now, you may be asking, “Booze Nerd, you just named a bunch of fancy liquor I’ve never heard of. What’s a Calvados? Isn’t Chartreuse a color? Benedictines were monks, right?”

Exactly.

Calvados is French apple brandy from Normandy. The first record of it dates from around the 1530s, but trust me, folks were quaffing this stuff long before then. It had been somewhat relegated to the dust bin of history until the Phylloxera outbreak in the 19^th century seriously threatened the traditional French wine industry. Calvados made a big comeback.

The appellations of Calvados (map by Henrik Mattson)

Up to 40 different kinds of apples and pears are used to distill Calvados (the pears are used to amp up the acidity in certain varieties). The French strictly regulate what is allowed to be labeled “Calvados,” and the brandy has its own A.O.C., or Appellation d’origine contrôlée that specifies how it may be made (just like Champagne does). In the premiere region of the Pays d’Auge, for instance, Calvados must be double-distilled, which makes it super mellow.

Calvados is usually aged about 2 to 3 years, with some specialty bottlings aged as long as 40! Even a young bottle of Calvados is likely to be smoother and richer in character than a North American equivalent such as apple jack. You can drink Calvados as an aperitif or digestive (before or after dinner); it’s quite fine on its own.

Chartreuse was first distilled by the monks of the Carthusian order, which was established in the 17^th century, also in Normandy. Back in those days, most distillation techniques were employed in the manufacture of perfume. Later, when alchemy became quite the craze, strong mixtures of alcohol, herbs, roots, and flowers served as general cure-alls, to ward off all manner of illness. (In fact, if I were to imagine what a Healing potion might taste like, Chartreuse would fit the bill.)

When the colonization of the New World brought refined sugar to the Old, folks realized that a little of the sweet stuff made these medicinal potions quite quaffable. The market was also flooded with exotic botanicals from the Dutch Spice trade, and suddenly, everyone was jumping into the game.

Yellow Chartreuse (photo by the author)

The first Chartreuse as we would recognize it came along in about 1745. It was green, colored by the chlorophyll from its many herbs. It’s where we get the name for the color, in fact. In 1789, at the height of the French Revolution, all the religious orders were stripped of their property and thrown out of the country. The Carthusians were later reestablished, and in about 1840, they also started producing a yellow Chartreuse which got its color mainly from saffron. Yellow Chartreuse is a mellower spirit, and lower in alcohol content.

Now aside from that, no one, except for a couple of monks, really knows what’s in Chartreuse. Some say it’s two monks, others three, but there aren’t many of them, and these guys are allowed to speak to each other only once a week. So the exact makeup of the 130 ingredients in this legendary spirit remains a mystery to this day.

The motto of the Carthusian monks may enlighten us to some degree: Stat crux dum volvitur orbis, which translates as, “The Cross is steady while the world is turning.” Tip back enough Chartreuse and you may begin to understand their point.

Benedictine may be the more well-known of the spirits that make up The Widow’s Kiss. It’s another herbal liqueur that comes from Normandy, from the Benedictine abbey at Fecamp. Legend attributes a visiting Venetian monk named Dom Bernardo Vincelli as its discoverer. It’s said he exclaimed “Deo Optimo Maximo!” when he sampled the result of his happy distillation accident in 1510. This translates roughly as  “Our best, for our Greatest God!” or something close. One wonders how much Dom Vincelli shared with his Lord as he poured the first shot.

(Deo Optimo Maximo is, incidentally, what the D.O.M. stands for on the bottle’s label.)

D.O.M. (Yes, that is my Starfleet Academy shot glass...)

The Benedictine we currently enjoy is the result of a chance discovery in the 19^th century by one Alexandre Le Grand, a lawyer sorting through the papers of the Benedictine Order after the French Revolution had played out. (More bonus Booze Nerd/Food Nerd points: Le Grand was the grandfather of Simone Beck a.k.a. “Simca,” who along with her dear friend Julia Child wrote the seminal Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Small world.) Le Grand had a good head for business, and he found a ready market in America, especially, where drinks like Benedictine and Chartreuse became very popular.

Today’s Benedictine contains 27 botanicals including juniper, myrrh, angelica, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla, tea, lavender, and thyme. The process used to make it includes multiple blendings and distillations; then it is sweetened with honey and caramel and colored with saffron.

Benedictine is less sweet (and perhaps less cloying) than Chartreuse and sips very smoothly.

The adage says, “What grows together, goes together.” I think the Widow’s Kiss is a great example of how three of the finest spirits of northern France merge together to make a drink that is quite sublime.

The Widow’s Kiss

(adapted from Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails)

• 1 1/2 oz Calvados
• 3/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse*
• 3/4 oz  Benedictine
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. If you wish, garnish with a brandied cherry. 

The Widow's Kiss (photo by author)

* You can use Green Chartreuse as well — though some will swear you shouldn’t. I say use whatever Chartreuse you can find.

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The term “podcast” is a combination of “pod” (Portable On Demand) and “broadcast”. A podcast is a pre-recorded bit of music, talk, or other sound, which is posted to a site on the Internet for others to download and listen to. Because it’s available online, it can be accessed anywhere that you can access the Internet via a computer or phone. For example, The Functional Nerds have a weekly podcast where they interview authors, artists, and musicians, and then post the interview for you to hear, for free.

You don’t need to have an interview show to want to create a podcast, though: I record myself reading my fiction and post those recordings on my website, so people have the option of reading the story or listening to the audio. Musicians record their songs, whether to promote a new release or to share a work in progress to get audience feedback.

What you’ll need:

A computer, or smartphone, with an Internet connection. In order to get your podcast to where the public can hear it, you have to be able to record it and post it online.

A microphone. (I’d also recommend a headset.) Your microphone can be the built-in mic on your computer or phone, though a separate microphone which is plugged into your computer will have better sound quality. In addition, I use headphones when recording, instead of listening to the sound through my speakers so that my mic doesn’t pick up from the sound from the speakers and record that too. Even if you’re recording alone, instead of doing an interview with someone else, turn off your speakers – otherwise you’ll pick up the low hiss that a speaker produces when it’s turned on.

Recording and editing software. This can be something simple, like the “Voice Recorder” app that comes with your iPhone, or the “Sound Recorder” program which is available free for Windows or Ubuntu users, or something more complex like Garage Band or Audacity. We’ll discuss the options below.

MP3 converter (if your software can’t save it your recording as an .mp3). Most hosting sites prefer the .mp3 format because most computers have software which will automatically play it. If you use Voice Recorder, for example, you’ll be making an .mp4 file, and if that’s the case, you’ll also need a program to convert it.

A way to host your audio file. If you manage your own website, you should be able to post an .mp3 file easily. If you use a blogging service like WordPress, you can purchase an add on that lets you embed audio files into your blog posts, for an annual fee. You can also sign up with a hosting service that will put your file on the Internet for you.

Some recording software options:

Voice Memos for iPhone: If you have an iPhone, your probably have this app already. By pushing the record button, you can speak into the phone and the app will save an .mp4 file of your voice. Or anything else that you want to record. Then you can email yourself the file, or use another app to post it directly to your website (such as the WordPress app). This is probably the fastest and simplest way to make a podcast, and no other materials are required beyond the phone, the app, and a place to put your podcast.

Sound Recorder (for Windows XP or Vista): To open Sound Recorder, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to Entertainment, and then click Sound Recorder. As long as you have a mic of some kind, you can use this simple program to record your podcast. This will save your recording as a .wav file. Simple button clicking starts and stops the recording, and plays it back for you to hear (in XP, anyway; Vista users don’t get that option).

Sound Recorder (for Ubuntu): Essentially the same program, though you will need to go into your Ubuntu Software Center and install a free copy. Bonus: It will save your file as an .mp3, .m4a, .flac, .ogg, .mp2, .wav or .spx. Chances are great that one of those will be the file format you need.

The Audacity Toolbar: It looks complicated, but isn't

Audacity: Another free recording software. Bonus: It’s available for Windows, Mac or GNU/Linux, which includes Ubuntu. For this reason, it’s the program I’d most recommend. It has a huge list of features, including the ability to edit the sound you’ve recorded together with another sound file, clean up background noise, adjust volume or sound quality,  import a file in one format, and save it as another.

Garage Band: If you don’t already have it on your Mac, go get Audacity instead. However, if you already have Garage Band, you can add music to your podcast, thanks to the big selection of sampled and synthesized instruments. While this isn’t, strictly speaking, a podcasting software, if you have been using it to learn to play the piano or to be your own DJ, you can also use it to record yourself speaking and export that into a format you can post on your website. (There’s also a Garage Band app.)

Some options for hosting your podcast:

This site allows you to register for free, host your own podcast, and store your past shows in their archive. They also let listeners subscribe to your show, and have some expanded paid options. Of the free podcasting options, the ones hosted on someone else’s site (not your own), this is currently the most professional-oriented.

WordPress doesn’t have an add-on specifically for including audio files in your posts, but you can’t do it unless you’ve added more space. 5g, the smallest option, costs $19.97 a year and includes the ability to add audio to your site.

If you’re interested in having your podcast available on iTunes, and don’t want to use a third-party service to do it, this detailed instruction page will have all of the information you need: Apple’s “Making a Podcast” page

What I use: I have Ubuntu on my desktop at home, so I use Audacity to record. I have an M-Audio Producer USB mic, which has great sound quality (and a built-in headphone jack, and worked without requiring that I install drivers to make it compatible with my system). I use WordPress to create the blog entries for my website, so I paid the annual fee for the added space, and can easily put the audio files into a blog post, the same way that you’d insert an image. I don’t use the M-Audio software because it’s not compatible with Ubuntu, but Audacity has more features than I need, and was free.

While you can put a lot of research and work into choosing the best software for your needs, this is meant to be a basic introduction to podcasting. You can, using just the information in this post, create and publish your podcasts without having to get anything else. For more options, check out this list of sound recording programs for all platforms.

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Interviewer Bryan Thomas Schmidt is the author of the space opera novel The Worker Prince, the collection The North Star Serial, and has several short stories forthcoming in anthologies and magazines. He’s also the host of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat every Wednesday at 9 pm EST on Twitter, where he interviews people like Mike Resnick, AC Crispin, Kevin J. Anderson and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. He can be found online as @BryanThomasS on Twitter or via his website. Excerpts from The Worker Prince can be found on his blog.

Thanks to the Functional Nerds for the invitation to guest post on their blog as part of my book’s blog tour.

“The Worker Prince” released October 4th from Diminished Media Group, a smell press out of Michigan, has been lucky enough to get national press attention and significant notice and thus steady sales. Some are surprised by this. My publisher had to explain to an author excited about signing with them, that the majority of publicity came from the author’s efforts. I had an author friend with a big publishing house ask how my small press could afford such PR. So, since Patrick asked me to blog on the topic “Working With A Small Press” for authors, it seems appropriate to talk about my experiences.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to working with a small press. You won’t get as big of an advance for one. In some cases, production time is slower, others faster. A trade off may be the passion they have at the small press for your book. They also may have more time to focus on it, at least initially. The biggest disadvantage, unless you’re greedy about the advance, is marketing budget and resources. They won’t have much. In the end, whatever size press you wind up with, being published is an honor and can be a great experience. But it does require everyone involved to treat it like a professional career, even if it is not a primary source of income. Every step you take is an investment in your future, marketing is no different.

Given the changing face of publishing, I think anyone wanting to be a published author should be willing to accept that marketing will be a big part of their responsibility, even when signing with a big house. Unless the big house decides you are the next John Grisham, Orson Scott Card or George R R Martin, you will have to spend time marketing your book. And when I say “spend time,” I mean significant time on a regular basis. So how do you do it?

First, building relationships starts now, not a few months before your book’s release. I started networking and building relationships in 2008 when I was still writing my novel. It released here in Fall 2011, around three years later. Much of the national notice my book got came from people who like me, whom I have helped, just helping me without even being asked. For example, publicist Matt Staggs, whose client I have interviewed, included me on Random House blog Suvudu’s national list of releases the week my book came out. I was listed alongside Jim Butcher, etc. And it was a big boost. If nothing else, people took my book seriously as a major release, and certainly people heard of it who might not have.

So start building relationships now and your greatest tool for that will be Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc. When you’re a new author especially, you are marketing yourself as well as your work, so find as many ways to contribute useful content as you can. This includes retweeting or posting content from others you find valuable as well as your own. It includes encouraging and supporting others. It also builds relationships of people who want to help you, too.

Second, since studies show people need to hear your book mentioned at least three times to buy it, your number one job is to just get your book out there and being talked about. You can do this in a number of ways, but reviews and interviews are not the sole options. Guest posts, dialogues, excerpts, and, if you’re lucky, serialization are all things to be considered. Be as creative in marketing at you were in writing. If nothing else, spending time in advance creating unique marketing content will allow you to provide interesting options for anyone willing to support you—from blogger friends to others. The more options they have, the more they will want to help.

Third, learn to talk about yourself without violating your boundaries. While it’s about your story, not you, readers do want to connect with authors. So they want to get a glimpse at the you behind the stories. This does not mean you have to open up every detail of your life. What it means is they want a glimpse who you are, at your sense of humor, how you think, what makes you unique. So ask your friends what is intriguing about you and try and find ways to let it out in small pieces in your marketing. For some this is easier than for others. Most of us are a bit egotistical thinking we write anything of value but at the same time hate talking about ourselves. But little glimpses is all you need.

Fourthly, get a good author photo taken. You may have to spend a little at a professional photographer. Yes, a big press may pay for it. Don’t count on your small press to. But once you have an author photo, it can be used over and over again. Whether you go for the casual look or a more formal one is up to you. Visit author sites and see what others are doing with their author photos, decide what you like and go for it, but you need a photo.

Fifthly, you also need a bio. It does not have to fill an entire typed page. In fact, a paragraph is better. The back of your book bio may be two or three paragraphs, but the one most sites will want for marketing is a paragraph so just include the bare details. My short bio is below this article. Include links your to website and blog. Imbed them if possible. List your major works, a couple in progress, a few personal details, and you’re good to go.

Sixthly, your goal is to get people talking about your book so you don’t have to. So all of the above things are aimed at generating the relationships and interest and content necessary to help others promote your book for you. Yes of course it’s better for someone else to toot your horn than you yourself. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make it easy.

The road to publication is a journey, and it can be a long one. But taking the time to learn what you can do to pave the way and make it easier for yourself and anyone who partners with you is worth any effort required. It does not have to consume you. After all, your greatest marketing tool is your writing itself, so always put time for that first. But these are examples of other things authors can and should do to build their careers, particularly when working with a smell press. I hope you’ll find them helpful. Best of luck with your writing careers.

The Worker Prince is the story of a prince who discovers he was born a slave. When he raises objections about the abusive treatment of slaves, he finds himself in conflict with both friends and families. After a tragic accident, involving the death of a fellow soldier, Davi Rhii winds up on the run. He then joins the worker’s fight for freedom and finds a new identity and new love. Capturing the feel of the original Star Wars, packed with action, intrigue and interweaving storylines, The Worker Prince is a space opera with a Golden Aged Feel. 326 pp · ISBN 978?0?9840209?0?4 ·Trade Paperback/Epub/Mobi · $14.95 tpb $3.99 Ebook · Publication: October 4, 2011

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Stack of the game at launch at Gen*Con 2009

I remember when I was in school one of my favorite things was getting my new “Choose Your Own Adventure” book from the weekly reader. Now many years later I think I have found the boardgame equivalent. “ Tales of the Arabian Nights” is an amazingly rich story telling game that will lead you down many paths and entrench you in a world unlike many others. The game takes you to a mystical time and allows you to take on the persona of several Arabian heroes and heroines. Through out your journey you will choose your way in and out of danger, determine your fate and search for treasure and rewards that only the stories have told of.

Our game of "Tales of the Arabian Nights"

In our game I jumped in about 30 minutes late but soon was caught up to the others and we were on our way. Each character starts out with a mission in which he or she has to accomplish several things. While doing the encounters you build up Destiny and Story points and if you are lucky you build Wealth levels as well. But just as with the “Choose Your Own Adventure” you need to be careful when choosing your encounter strategy. Unlike the books though if you die in the game your “Son or Daughter will pick up and avenge your death”. This is where I thought the rules were a little lacking, the penalty for death was you loose any cards that modified your character, including negatively, and got to start over at the home spot with your wealth, destiny, and story scores intact. The game lasted us about 2 hours total but it did not feel that long and we all walked away having enjoyed the game.

This is a great “Big box” game. For the money you spend there is a lot of product here. It can play up to 6 people and handles it easily. It contains a story guide the likes I have barely seen in a D&D manual. There are dice to help determine your destiny when pulling an encounter card. All in all well worth the money.

I give this game 4 out of 5 pawns.

4 out of 5 pawns

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I’ve been invited to co-host The Geeky Pleasures Radio Show tonight at 8 PM Mountain / 10 PM Eastern.

About the show:  Julia “Jules” Sherred is a mother, writer, author, radio personality, blogger, gamer, tech enthusiast, science nerd, sci-fi and fantasy freak, hard core Trekker, has an unnatural obsession with Optimus Prime and so much more. She emerged from the womb fully embracing her geeky tendencies, with a book on Astrophysics in one hand and a deck of cards in the other. Growing up, games were always an important part of her family, including family board game nights, Christmas family poker games and trying to pry the ColecoVision® and later NES controllers from her mother’s hands. She has now passed on this tradition to her own children and is raising the next generation of geeks and gamers.

The Geeky Pleasures Radio Show took to the airwaves in September 2008 and is now part of The Look 24/7 network.

I’m looking forward to geeking out with Jules and invite you to tune-in and join us in chat so that you can participate in the conversation.

~P

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Hello again.  A few months ago, I looked at three movies that were directly or indirectly inspired by Philip K. Dick.  With the summer season drawing toward a close, I thought I would look at three more movies, the Marvel comic book movies X-Men First Class, Thor, and most recently, Captain America.

I discovered an interesting thread running through the three movies, and, no, it is nothing to do with the Avengers movie in 2011 or the other cookies that link Marvel films.  It is, instead, the fact that all three movies are very definitively period pieces.

What do I mean by period pieces? A period piece, in terms of a work of art such as a movie is a work of art that evokes and delineates the era in which it is set.  The period can be evoked by dialogue, by costuming, by references to contemporary events and characters, by mise en scene, and even by the type of cinematography.  Think of some of the great historical movies throughout the course of cinema. Movies such as The Lion in Winter, or Shakespeare in Love, or Cleopatra bring viewers to the time and place convincingly.

You can even make a movie set today a period piece, and it is my contention that Thor attempts to manage that feat.  As a classic example of a movie that succeeds beyond expectations in that regard, take a look at Back to the Future. That movie is a period piece for *both* 1955 and 1985, with the director Robert Zemeckis giving a very good sense of both eras.  After all, Marty McFly’s 1985 is winningly and to me as a moviegoer, very specifically captured, with references to Ronald Reagan, then-contemporary music , Marty’s clothing, and more.  I believe that Zemeckis was trying to capture the feel of 1985, as opposed to “the present” very specifically.  If you look at a lot of movies set in the present, they don’t try to invoke and evoke the year they are filmed in as well as Back to the Future does for 1985.

In that vein, the three Marvel movies are all period pieces, too, with the eras of the 60’s (X-Men First Class), Modern America (Thor) and the 1940’s (Captain America).

X-Men First Class is very definitively a deliberate evocation of the 1960’s. The plot is tied and tangled around the real-life events of the Cuban Missile Crisis. But it goes far beyond that. The costumes and clothing (especially that of Ms. January Jones) could have come directly from the set of Mad Men.  The themes of nuclear annihilation and the Cold War helped define the early 60’s, and they are well integrated into the movie. The very dialogue and attitudes in the movie, such as Charles’ fumbling attempts at hitting on women, are almost painfully retro in their style.  And X-Men First Class has a harrowing and tense opening scene that is in itself a period piece—a look at a World War II Nazi concentration camp, done in German with subtitles.

By contrast, Thor, in its time set on Earth, is an evocation of 2011 America. This is partially done to show the extreme differences between Earth and Asgard, but let’s go a little deeper.  First, take a look at Jane Foster. In the comics, she has normally been a nurse assigned to Dr. Donald Blake,  one of the secret identities Thor has often employed in comic history.  At best, she’s been little more than a love interest with little volition of her own.  In the Thor movie,  as portrayed by Natalie Portman, Jane Foster is an astrophysicist. While cynics might suggest that Natalie Portman playing an astrophysicist is as realistic as Denise Richards playing a nuclear physicist in a James Bond movie, I think that it is a welcome and contemporary updating of the character for her to do so. And, twenty years from now, Kat Dennings’ character’s antics with a cell phone camera and name checking Facebook will help ground the movie in 2011.

And then there is the scene where Thor attempts to get the Hammer back from S.H.I.E.L.D.  As opposed to the heroic, over the top mythic combat we see in Asgard and Jotunheim, this is Thor’s major fight on Earth, while depowered.  What I was thinking as the scene, in dark and pouring rain and a lot of furious editing was, that director Kenneth Branagh was unleashing his chance to film a contemporary Bourne-style action sequence for the first time. If the movie had been filmed ten or twenty years ago, that sequence would have been filmed with very different sensibilities in terms of its direction. And students of action films will be able to pinpoint when Thor was filmed based on the sequence.

Then there is Captain America, or to be pedantic, Captain America: The First Avenger.  Despite a wrap-around story set in the present, the movie is unbelievably well set in its time frame and its era.

Let me start with the palette. Even more so than X-Men First Class or Thor, Captain America  starts with the very palette of the movie to convey that this is a movie set in the 1940’s. The palette is muted, understated and in many places only a little bit removed from black and white. The cinematography and even the framing of scenes (with a quasi 4×3 sort of look to the scene framing in many places) suggest a 1940-era movie. It might have bombed commercially, but the movie could have been filmed in black and white, and it would have worked, I think.

Beyond the palette and cinematography, the movie is unabashedly a “fight the Nazis” 1940’s era cynic-free patriotism.  Although Captain America himself is not a killer, and eschews guns, his “let’s kick Adolf’s rear to the curb” never gets old (even if the true fight is against Hugo Weaving’s Johann Schmidt).  More pointedly, there is no evidence of world-wearying regrets about war and its costs. That you find in movies set in just about any war since. Additionally, the  Saturday morning serial like music really helps set the aural background needed to make you believe you are in the 1940′s.

Unfortunately, since it is completely a movie captured by the era it is set in, the attempts at diversity, both in gender and in the ethnic range of Cap’s team feel a bit forced and out of place.  I do give them credit for trying as hard as they could with a movie set in World War II, and “everyone doing their part for the War” is a strongly played theme.  Although the movie only technically passes the Bechdel test, given the era and subject matter, I’m willing to give it a pass.

I do think that all three of the movies are worth your attention, especially to Marvel fans. Sure, Captain America and Thor are loaded with references and tie-ins to the “Avengers movies” and even the X-Men First Class movie has a cameo tying it into other X-Men films.  Those are just the rainbow sprinkles on top of the ice cream of the movies.  None of these movies are main courses of a film, deep movies that offer the depth and emotional resonance of the great works of cinematic art.  As far as I can tell, none of the three are even attempting such a feat, although Thor does try for pseudo-Shakespearean family dynamics between Loki, Thor and Odin.

No, what these movies are is entertainment, pure entertainment in the comic book movie subgenre. I do admit that all three movies do veer into tragedy and loss in various ways, especially in their climaxes, but I think that’s necessary emotional ballast to the entertainment.  And in any event  they are all period pieces in the course of doing that.

Which was my favorite? Hard to say. I was well entertained by them all.  I had not expected to like Captain America as much as I did—I walked in to see it to be a completist and walked out very satisfied. I think X-Men First Class is a notch or so more entertaining for me than Thor.

Which is the best, objectively?  I think that as a period piece that Captain America edges out X-Men First Class and both are significantly ahead of Thor in evoking the time periods that they do.  Ten years from now, when viewers watch either of those films, the technology of the film might be dated, but viewers will be equally transported to the 1960’s and 1940’s respectively.  As far as Thor being a period piece, I can amusingly imagine 30 years from now having a young viewer ask their grandmother.  “Grandma, what’s  a Facebook?”

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Huh.  Weird.

After posting the interview with Charles Day, I received a message from him that he couldn’t actually see the post.  I looked in Firefox and Safari, the two browsers I use the most, and everything looked fine.  Assuming this meant he was using Internet Explorer, I checked out the post there and was stunned to see that the post was completely blank/broken.  In a panic, I clicked on past episodes to see if they, too, were broken in IE, but they weren’t.

Huh.

Then I looked at the post itself.  Nothing weird that should break a browser.  I changed a ‘&’ for a ‘and’, saved it, checked the post in IE – still broken.  I played around with the text and the layout.  Still broken.

What the hell?

On a lark, I added a test post.  Our theme uses a next/last link at the top of each post, linking to the next post or the last one.  I don’t know why I thought that might effect things, but I was willing to try anything.

Sure as shit, when I added the test post, the episode appeared in IE.

What an odd little quirk…

~P

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I recently received a copy of White Elephant from Brian Kelley. Brian is trying to fund his game thru kickstarter and sent out a few demos to get feedback on and also to get the word out about this fun party card game. White Elephant is based on the annual tradition of holiday party gift exchanges.

In between reading a book by a guy who “is not my bitch” and Real Life(TM) I sat down this week with some friends at work and played through a few “Parties” and we had ourselves a grand old time. The game mechanics are fairly easy and can be picked up in a flash even if you do not know what a white elephant gift exchange is. Each player is assigned a list of people to find presents for and the goal is to have the highest point combination at the end of the “parties”.

The rounds went very quickly with the traditional fun of steal and face retribution that make the White Elephant so much fun. During our games we did find that there is a distinct advantage to being the first pick in the final round. Overall it was a very enjoyable game and I hope it reaches the funding goal in time. Please give him some of your time and love.

4 out of 5 pawns

Links from above:
Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bkelley/white-elephant-card-game
White Elephant Card Game: http://whiteelephantcardgame.com/
George R.R. Martin is not your bitch: http://scifisongs.blogspot.com/2009/08/sci-fi-song-20-george-rr-martin-is-not.html

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Music

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Don’t doubt your eyes, the do not betray you. It is indeed a nerd news update.

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They say there are only two certainties in this life: death and taxes.

If you live in the United States, most of you have probably already completed your income taxes for this year. The forms are in the mail (or e-filed) and with any luck, you’re waiting on your refund. Or maybe you owe Uncle Sam and your pockets are a little lighter. Filed an extension to deal with the pain later?

Well, in any case, a libation might be just the thing.

The Income Tax

Let me introduce you to the Income Tax cocktail. This venerable Prohibition-era cocktail actually derives from an even more venerable drink called The Bronx (a relation to the Manhattan and the Brooklyn cocktails). The only real difference between the Bronx and the Income Tax is the addition of Angostura bitters.

This is not a drink to be taken lightly. It’s a potent brew, and as it’s original name “Bronx with Bitters” suggests, can be quite bitter. But then, aren’t you after forking over all your hard-earned cash?

I’ll admit, this is a cocktail outside my usual repertoire. I sampled several variations (research is hard!) and there were a few I just didn’t care for. The recipe I include here was the best balanced. It’s important not to skimp on the fresh orange juice, by the way. You need its bright flavor to balance out the gin. OJ out of a carton is right out!

I might just reserve this drink for those times when I need a shot of something to remind me that even the most bitter drink is better than doing my taxes.

Now, to that other certainty. One of Ernest Hemingway’s favorite drinks was the aptly named “Death in the Afternoon.”

Death in the Afternoon

The story goes that Hemingway invented it while on a storm-tossed boat: champagne with its bubbles was thought to calm seasickness, much like ginger ale today. The name of the drink is also the title of Papa’s book on the bullfighting culture of Spain. I’m certain he enjoyed more than a few of these potions while he wrote it. Hemingway loved his cocktails, and they make many appearances in his work.

Death in the Afternoon (the cocktail) was first published in 1935, in So Red the Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon, edited by Sterling North and Carl Kroch. This collection of celebrity cocktails was a little tongue in cheek. Death in the Afternoon in particular was lauded for its ability to put “hair on your chest.”

Here are Hemingway’s instructions:

Pour one jigger of absinthe into a champagne glass. Add iced champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.

I don’t know about drinking 3-5 of them, slow or not. One is more than enough to cloud the head and/or put hair on your chest if that’s your thing. I do not recommend this drink as a topical ointment, however. It’s far too tasty for that.

So give these two a try and let me know what you think. Odds are after drinking one of these you won’t be so worried about death or taxes.

Cheers!

The Income Tax Cocktail

• 1 1/2  oz gin
• 1 oz freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/4 oz dry vermouth
• 1/4 oz sweet vermouth
• dash of Angostura bitters

Shake and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with swathe of orange peel.

Death in the Afternoon

• 1 1/2 oz absinthe
• 4 oz of champagne (or use Spanish cava)

Pour the absinthe into a champagne flute. Top with iced champagne until it turns milky. And the glass is full. Drink. Repeat.

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Yep, storm clouds are thrice cursed. First the Fae found out where I was hiding, then my dog killed a human, and now I’d earned the very personal enmity of a god who had been content for centuries to simply let his minions slap me around.

–Atticus O’Sullivan, mentally reviewing just much trouble he’s gotten into.

Atticus O’Sullivan is a druid living in 21^st Century America.  He’s the last one, as far as he can tell, and given that he looks like a local college student, he doesn’t look like a Druid to nearly everyone. You would think that the treeless desert of Tempe, Arizona, would be the perfect place for a Druid to keep far away from the Tuatha De Danaan he has been long on the run from, but unfortunately for Atticus, trouble has rolled up to his doorstep. A Celtic god wants back the sword Atticus has had long held possession of, and is prepared to go great lengths to get it. Indeed, the angry god is prepared to go to greater lengths that Atticus at first suspects or even imagines.

Other Celtic gods and goddesses have figured out where the long-hiding druid is, too, and they have their own mysterious agendas and plans for Atticus. Throw in a local witches’ coven, a werewolf pack, a mysterious bartender at his favorite Fish and chips pub, his intelligent wolfhound, and a bloodsucking lawyer who is a vampire, and you quickly get the sense that Atticus’ outwardly quiet life running a new age shop is far from quiet, or ordinary.\

Hounded is a debut novel from Kevin Hearne, telling the story of Atticus O’Sullivan in a wisecracking, hip first person narrative that crackles with energy, style and voice.  Despite being 21 centuries old, Atticus comes across as a modern American, with an endless stream of pop culture references in thought and speech.  He does show a variety of sides, giving an older, more nuanced mien to his supernatural friends, and a tuned into the modern world vibe to the wider world.  I think the modern world voice is somewhat stronger in the narrative than the ancient druid patterns of thought and speech. Atticus, unlike many quasi-immortals in fantasy fiction, has found the secret to not being stuck in old ways of thinking and doing things. It is ironic, then, that his failure to understand an aspect of the modern world, the Internet, is the impetus for the plot.

Hearne is mining classic Urban Fantasy tropes in Hounded, with a protagonist who pretends to be normal, with a mundane existence, while all the time living and interacting with a supernatural world that most mortals do not see or suspect exists. Given the mythological sheen to the supernatural elements in the book, I was strongly reminded of the Role playing game Scion, where the children of various mythological pantheons deal with hidden supernatural threats in the modern world.

Another strong character besides Atticus himself is the milieu Hounded takes place in. The author lives in, and clearly loves Tempe, Arizona, and the book and Atticus himself reflect that loving detail. I was surprised at first, but bought into the idea that a green-loving druid could come to appreciate the stark desert of his adopted home. From the author’s favorite pub, to the mountains and parks around Tempe, the Arizona city and the terrain around it made an impression on me, the reader. I appreciate when a novelist invokes a city effectively enough for me to want to visit it sometime just to see some of the places brought to life by his words.

The action scenes in the novel work well, and the protagonist makes it clear that fighting to win, sometimes dirty, is the only rational approach to combat. Atticus fights to win and characters in fantastic literature ranging from the Gray Mouser to Prince Corwin to Lazarus Long to Quick Ben would approve of his methodology.  I never felt that the often short and brutal fights had any “flynning” to pad the flow of the fights.  These combats also do show that tangling in such fighting have consequences.

Given that there are a plethora of supernatural beings in the book, you will not be surprised to learn that there are a number of magic systems at work in the book, including the protagonist’s novel and unusual ability to handle the otherwise magic-eating cold iron.  While the novel makes it clear that he has spent centuries learning and honing this difficult and unique magic, I didn’t quite get the sense of what this knowledge cost him to perfect.  Given how powerful and important it is to his survival, and given that classic enmity between magic and cold iron, a little more explication of how he managed the feat of using in enchantment was something I would have liked to know more about.

As someone interested in world-building, however, my major criticism of the book is the kitchen sink approach to all of the mythology and supernatural elements with somewhat less rigor than I would have liked.

Reading between the lines, it’s clear that human imagination and belief seem to shape how the gods act and manifest, but I think this is insufficiently explored, at least in this volume.  Comments about Mary and Jesus, for instance, make it clear that the worshippers of a god have an influence on that god’s attributes—but if that is the case, why do gods who haven’t been widely worshipped in a thousand years have any agency at all, or even still exist? How precisely does it work?  I think of several Harry Turtledove novels which explore the theological connection between worshipper and the strength, power and abilities of their gods, and wonder how the gods here work in that sort of framework.

Author Kevin Hearne

I did appreciate, though, that Hearne had the good agency to make his pantheons evolve and change over time.  The pecking order of the Celtic pantheon has changed and evolved over 2000 years, and I am sure that other mythological pantheons might show similar change as well.

However, the rest of the supernatural elements we see felt to an extent like they were thrown in for the sake of having them, and almost feel like piling on to the Celtic mythology.  In addition to the Celtic Gods, as mentioned above Hounded has werewolves *and* witches *and* a vampire. There is even more along this vein that I won’t reveal for spoiler purposes, since their appearance is not until relatively late in the book.  And there are hints that there are even more supernaturals running around his world that the protagonist himself is less than aware of. Having too many hidden supernatural elements, in my opinion, starts to require a greater explanation for why the ordinary public is unaware of such a large population living in their midst.

Overall, I think Hounded is an above average novel debut. Urban Fantasy is a crowded field these days, with a lot of interchangeable heroes and heroines in a sea of werewolves, vampires, witches and other things that go bump in the night. Although he does fall himself into the trap of using some of those familiar tropes, with its mythological roots Hearne has created an Urban Fantasy world that carves a niche of its own. He gets crucial points from me for trying some original things in the subgenre, and the strong clear voice and personality of Atticus clinches it for me.

Readers like me who are tired of an endless parade of cookie cutter nocturnal urban fantasy would do well to check out Hounded. Such potential readers who read copious amounts of mythology would be doubly advised to check out what Hearne is doing.  I can be extremely picky with Urban Fantasy, and only a few select authors ever tempt me to read a second book from them. Although there are some weaknesses as I mentioned above, I am looking forward to picking up and reading the next two volumes in Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid trilogy.

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Introducing the Booze Nerd T-Shirt!

Want people to know that yours is a sophisticated palette?  That you don’t mess around with just any old drink – you prefer your liquor mixed, blended – the classic cocktail is your raison detre.

Well, now you can have your drink and advertise it too!

The Limited Edition Booze Nerd Shirt from the Functional Nerds is here.

Made of durable, high-quality, pre-shrunk 100% cotton and sporting a super-cool neon Booze Nerd logo, this t-shirt is what to wear when you want to go comfortably casual.

Also available in Ladies V-Neck and plus sizes.

This shirt will be available for ONE WEEK ONLY – March 29th through April 5th on the Functional Nerds Store at CafePress.com, so get yours today!

Links:

• The Functional Nerds Dark T-Shirt $21.99
• The Functional Nerds Women’s V-Neck Dark T-Shirt $22.99
• The Functional Nerds Women’s Dark T-Shirt $22.99
• The Functional Nerds Men’s Fitted T-Shirt (dark) $24.99
• The Functional Nerds Women’s Plus Size V-Neck Dark $27.99
• The Functional Nerds Women’s Plus Size Scoop Neck $27.99

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One of the best games I played was Batman: Arkham Asylum and this year, for my birthday no less (October 18th), they are releasing the sequel, Arkham City. Holy crap does it look awesome!! I definitely plan to waste a lot of time playing this one… Check it out:

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