New Texture at Mystery and Imagination, 2010

One of the best bookstores in Los Angeles needs your help.


I can't remember now how I first came to visit Mystery and Imagination Bookshop in Glendale. It's one of those places that becomes such an essential part of your world that you can't recall when it wasn't.

When we began publishing books, that's where we debuted them, thanks to Malcolm and Christine's generosity. Our first three releases — Chris D.'s A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die, Josh Alan Friedman's Black Cracker and my and Stanley Zappa's Stop Requested — together in one event.

Iconic Twilight Zone author George Clayton Johnson 

Our appearance coincided with the birthday of the great Twilight Zone writer George Clayton Johnson, and we — me, Josh Alan and Chris — dedicated our efforts to him. He seemed to approve.

Josh Alan performs in Mystery and Imagination's intimate upper alcove.

That's the kind of place Mystery and Imagination is, and that's what we're in danger of losing. The shop has been  long served as a unique hub for both writers and book lovers, offering frequent signings, readings and fiction workshops that connect brilliant talents with readers and fans, old and new.

Other artists Mystery and Imagination has hosted include Ray Bradbury, William F. Nolan, Earl Hamner, Jr., Ray Harryhausen, Michael Feinstein and Dennis Etchison.

Promotion for our 2010 event at Mystery and Imagination 

Today, the shop is in crisis, with less than a week to raise the money to keep the lights on. Your purchases can help save the store, and the shop is asking for your help.

We've lost far too many great independent bookstores in recent years. Whether in person or online, please support Mystery and Imagination.

Mystery and Imagination Bookshop 
238 North Brand Boulevard 
Glendale, CA 91203 
(818) 545-0206


text and photos copyright © 2010, 2013 Wyatt Doyle

Save Mystery & Imagination Bookshop!

Mystery and Imagination Bookshop needs your help.

Days after the publication of Steven Paul Leiva's effusive Huffington Post profile of the Glendale independent bookstore, "Ray Bradbury’s Favorite Bookshop," proprietors Malcolm and Christine Bell sent this plea to their regular customers:

Dear Bookfriends,

Please help. Our bookstore is in jeopardy and needs your purchasing support now.

For those of you who don’t live within driving distance, we have made a 20% off Sale on our eBay store.  We have listed many SIGNED & special books there recently.

For folks within driving distance, please come for discounts galore.  We need 100 persons to spend $100.  Our financial obligations must be met in one week.  Thank you for your support.

Please note our new expanded open store hours: Tuesday through Saturday 10:00-6; Sunday 12-5

Thank you for your support!
Cheers,
Christine 

There are few places a book lover's $100 can be happier spent, whether in person or online. Please help keep the lights on at one of the finest bookstores in town.

Mystery and Imagination Bookshop
238 North Brand Boulevard
Glendale, CA 91203
(818) 545-0206


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photo © 2013 Wyatt Doyle

Preview NU LUNA by Andrew Biscontini!

Explore the revolutionary world of nu luna by Andrew Biscontini in this 20+ page preview of the thrilling new novel from New Texture!

If you prefer to download the PDF, right click and save this link.

Or, to download the PDF in a zip file, click HERE.

nu luna is available in paperback HERE.

Ray Harryhausen, 1920—2013

"Ray Harryhausen lives in the UK, but is on the West Coast for the big Comicon in San Diego. A Glendale bookshop called Mystery and Imagination hosted him for an evening that week. I'd heard him speak in Los Angeles about a year ago and he was really something.

"Surprise guest Ray Bradbury turned up to visit with Harryhausen. Lifelong friends who first bonded over dinosaurs, Bradbury sported a dinosaur necktie for the occasion. When wine was served, the two old masters sipped from dinosaur mugs.

"The depth of what I feel for both of them is hard to put into words. How do you measure the scope of what these two gentle men have contributed to the popular imagination over the last several decades? I can't even process what they mean to me, personally. They were the first monster magazine names I learned to recognize; these things I love, that's what these men do. And they're not only magicians, they happily share all their secrets.

"There are a lot of things that help make each of us what we are, but Harryhausen and Bradbury are a big influence on the best parts of me. They're ambassadors of the imagination, emissaries from the greatest place there is. And they're here to remind us about it, because we sometimes forget."

[2007] 


Text and photo copyright © 2007/2013 Wyatt Doyle

Andrew Biscontini's NU LUNA is HERE.

“This is the Colony. The better your ideas,
the more people want you dead.”

After 400 years of colonization, the moon is home to nearly a billion people living in a crowded, stagnant and steeply stratified industrial police state on the verge of collapse for nearly a century.

But underneath the rigid, totalitarian grasp of the Colonial Authority, it’s also home to the vibrant, ambitious, diverse and irrepressibly competitive indigenous population of the Moonborn, for whom life is a constant struggle for survival under the often cruel, sometimes insane, and generally shortsighted and misguided CA administration.

At the collapse of this society, the life of Sanjit Ramirez, truck driver, will intersect with those of the Sister Doctor, racked with guilt over causing an accidental genocide, and her adolescent android assistant, who hates her for it; Demetrius Wei, a genetically engineered genius with Oppositional Defiance Disorder and a catastrophic grudge; Sanjit’s ex-girlfriend Naeemah, a pinup-queen-turned-avenging –cyborg-army; and Sel, a teenaged Moonborn musician who, whether she likes it or not, may be the catalyst that changes the course of humanity.

Andrew Biscontini’s nu luna is a deeply personal matinee space-adventure deftly spun through a vividly imagined, improbably plausible future history in which tyranny, no matter how technologically advanced, cannot suppress the decisions of individuals to do the right thing.

nu luna. Available NOW from New Texture. Order your copy HERE.

The future is beautiful and dangerous.

Coming Soon: DEVIL MAY CALL

DEVIL MAY CALL is the shocking new thriller directed by Jason Cuadrado, from a screenplay by Cuadrado and New Texture's Wyatt Doyle.

DEVIL MAY CALL stars Corri English (Holliston), Tyler Mane (X-Men), Traci Lords (Cry-Baby), Van Hansis (Occupant), and Daniel Hugh Kelly (Cujo). From Angel & Bear Productions and Esperanza Productions.

Visit DEVIL MAY CALL's official website HERE.

COMING SOON!

Happy Birthday, John Waters!

John Waters' latest book is Role Models; pick up a copy here.

Black Cracker by Josh Alan Friedman is available NOW; signed copies are available here.

Visit Josh Alan at Black Cracker Online here.

photo © 2010, 2013 Wyatt Doyle

Andrew Biscontini's NU LUNA Is Coming.

“This is the Colony. The better your ideas,
the more people want you dead.”

After 400 years of colonization, the moon is home to nearly a billion people living in a crowded, stagnant and steeply stratified industrial police state on the verge of collapse for nearly a century.

But underneath the rigid, totalitarian grasp of the Colonial Authority, it’s also home to the vibrant, ambitious, diverse and irrepressibly competitive indigenous population of the Moonborn, for whom life is a constant struggle for survival under the often cruel, sometimes insane, and generally shortsighted and misguided CA administration.

At the collapse of this society, the life of Sanjit Ramirez, truck driver, will intersect with those of the Sister Doctor, racked with guilt over causing an accidental genocide, and her adolescent android assistant, who hates her for it; Demetrius Wei, a genetically engineered genius with Oppositional Defiance Disorder and a catastrophic grudge; Sanjit’s ex-girlfriend Naeemah, a pinup-queen-turned-avenging –cyborg-army; and Sel, a teenaged Moonborn musician who, whether she likes it or not, may be the catalyst that changes the course of humanity.

Andrew Biscontini’s nu luna is a deeply personal matinee space-adventure deftly spun through a vividly imagined, improbably plausible future history in which tyranny, no matter how technologically advanced, cannot supress the decisions of individuals to do the right thing.

nu luna. Coming soon from New Texture.

The future is beautiful and dangerous.