‘Quicksilver,’ Dean Koontz’ new novel, will be out January 25, 2022. Photo: amazon
Internationally bestselling author Dean Koontz is the author of seventy-nine New York Times bestsellers, fourteen of which rose to #1, including “One Door Away from Heaven,” “From the Corner of His Eye,” “Midnight,” “Cold Fire,” “The Bad Place,” “Hideaway,” and “Intensity.” Rolling Stone has hailed him as “America’s most popular suspense novelist” and his books have been published in thirty-eight languages and have sold over five hundred million copies worldwide. His new book “Quicksilver,” he takes a surprising and exhilarating road trip with a man in pursuit of his strange past―mile by frightening mile. It will be released on January 25, 2022. (amazon, 2022)
“Quicksilver”– Quinn Quicksilver was born a mystery― he was abandoned at three days old on a desert highway in Arizona. Raised in an orphanage, never knowing his parents, Quinn had a happy if unexceptional life. Until the day of “strange magnetism.” It compelled him to drive out to the middle of nowhere. It helped him find a coin worth a lot of money and it saved his life when two government agents showed up in the diner in pursuit of him. Now Quinn is on the run from those agents and who knows what else, fleeing for his life. During a shoot-out at a forlorn dude ranch, he finally meets his destined companions: Bridget Rainking, a beauty as gifted in foresight as she is with firearms, and her grandpa Sparky, a romance novelist with an unusual past. Bridget knows what it is like to be Quinn. She is hunted, too. The only way to stay alive is to keep moving. Barreling through the Sonoran Desert, the formidable trio is impelled by that same inexplicable magnetism toward the inevitable. With every deeply disturbing mile, something sinister is in the rearview―an enemy that is more than a match for Quinn. Even as he discovers within himself resources that are every bit as scary.
‘The Starless Crown’ by James Rollins. Photo: amazon
A new month means new books on the horizon. These are some notable new releases for January in my favorite categories: Fiction, Young Adult, History & Biography, Mystery & Thriller, Science fiction, Fantasy, and Historical fiction. My pick for this month is “The Starless Crown” by James Rollins because I enjoy reading fantasy novels and he is one of my go-to authors. (amazon, Goodreads, 2021)
Joan is a thirtysomething ICU doctor at a busy New York City hospital. The daughter of Chinese parents who came to the United States to secure the American dream for their children, Joan is intensely devoted to her work, happily solitary, successful. She does look up sometimes and wonder where her true roots lie: at the hospital, where her white coat makes her feel needed, or with her family, who try to shape her life by their own cultural and social expectations. When Joan’s father suddenly dies and her mother returns to America to reconnect with her children, a series of events sends Joan spiraling out of her comfort zone just as her hospital, her city, and the world are forced to reckon with a health crisis more devastating than anyone could have imagined.
Nothing will get in the way of Millie Price’s dream to become a Broadway star. Not her lovable but super-introverted dad, who after raising Millie alone, does not want to watch her leave home to pursue her dream. Not her annoying and ongoing drama club rival, Oliver, who is the very definition of Simmering Romantic Tension. And not the “Millie Moods,” the feelings of intense emotion that threaten to overwhelm, always at maddeningly inconvenient times. Millie needs an ally. And when a left-open browser brings Millie to her dad’s embarrassingly moody LiveJournal from 2003, Millie knows just what to do. She is going to find her mom. How can you find a new part of your life and expect it to fit into your old one, without leaving any marks?
The Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of “All the President’s Men” — the chronicle of the investigative report about the Watergate break-in and resultant political scandal which led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation—recalls his formative years as a teenage newspaper reporter in JFK’s Washington—a tale of adventures, scrapes, clever escapes, and the opportunity of a lifetime.
When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, Chloe’s father had been arrested as a serial killer and promptly put in prison. Chloe and the rest of her family were left to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath. Twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. She finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to get. Sometimes, though, she feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. And then a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, and that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, and seeing parallels that aren’t really there, or for the second time in her life, is she about to unmask a killer?
Every family has issues. Most cannot blame them on extraterrestrials. Evie Shao and her sister, Kass, are not on speaking terms. Fifteen years ago on a family camping trip, their father and brother vanished. Their dad turned up days later, dehydrated and confused—and convinced he had been abducted by aliens. Their brother, Jakob, remained missing. The women dealt with it very differently. Kass, suspecting her college-dropout twin simply ran off, became the rock of the family. Evie traded academics to pursue alien conspiracy theories, always looking for Jakob. When Evie’s UFO network uncovers a new event, she goes to investigate and discovers Jakob is back. He is different—older, stranger, and talking of an intergalactic war—but the tensions between the siblings have not changed at all. If the family is going to come together to help Jakob, then Kass and Evie are going to have to fix their issues, and fast. Because the FBI is after Jakob, and if their brother is telling the truth, possibly an entire space armada, too.
A gifted student foretells an apocalypse. Her reward is a sentence of death. Fleeing into the unknown she is drawn into a team of outcasts: A broken soldier, who once again takes up the weapons he is forbidden to wield and carves a trail back home. An imprisoned thief, who escapes the crushing dark and discovers a gleaming artifact – one that will ignite a power struggle across the globe. On the run, hunted by enemies old and new, they must learn to trust each other in order to survive in a world evolved in strange, beautiful, and deadly ways, and uncover ancient secrets that hold the key to their salvation. But with each passing moment, doom draws closer.
Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family of five boisterous sons. From the start, her life will be marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth. The family will survive that crisis unscathed, only to face a new one as the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known. Her family loses all and is forced to retreat to a wild and beautiful but remote part of the country. She tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, recounting devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, times of both poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy. Her life will be shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women’s rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and, ultimately, not one but two pandemics.
Mallory Smith in Will Battersby’s Salt in My Soul. Photo: Giant Pictures, used with permission.
Powerful documentary Salt in My Soul will be released theatrically in New York (Cinema Village) and Los Angeles (Laemmle Royal) on January 21 followed by the VOD Release in the US, Canada, and UK & Ireland and key territories worldwide on January 25. (Giant Pictures, 2021)
A Feature Documentary Film by Will Battersby Run time: 96 Minutes (USA- Feature Documentary)
VOD Platforms:
US- Apple TV/iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Microsoft/Xbox, Vudu Canada- Apple TV/ITunes, Microsoft/Xbox UK- Apple TV/iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Microsoft/Xbox Ireland- Apple TV/iTunes, Google Play
Cable Platforms:
US- InDemand TVOD (Comcast, Spectrum, Cox), DirectTV/AT&T and more
Based on the bestselling posthumously published memoir of the same name, Salt in My Soul is a documentary and classic coming of age story about a young woman figuring out how to live while dying. Mallory Smith was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of three. In her twenty five-year battle with the deadly disease, she carved out a life that most of us do not come close to. Using Mallory’s posthumously published 2500-page secret diaries, hundreds of hours of newly discovered footage, and audio recordings, the film offers Mallory as the narrator of her own extraordinary chronicle.
Following her realization at age nine that she would die young, Mallory secretly began to record her inner thoughts in her diary while throwing herself at life: friendships in elementary school, lovers and sports teams in high school, the little travel her disease would allow. She attended college and explored the wider world, one that was just beyond her grasp. She became a devoted environmentalist, seeing a startling and vivid metaphor for her declining health in the destruction of our world. Her father feverishly researched treatment options, desperate that the death sentence be commuted. Her mother obsessively helped her to live, cooking to maintain her weight and create community, raising money for research, and teaching her to prioritize relationships over all else. Mallory fought. And she wrote – about her fears, her loves, her pain, her depression, her hopes, and gave a voice to the many millions who struggle with invisible or visible illness. In Mallory’s final days, her father uncovered a long-forgotten treatment that is now changing the world of medicine. Heartbreakingly, it came too late to save his daughter.
Mallory was a young woman who lived with illness her whole life, who suffered immeasurably but who always found the will to live happy. Her story is a testament to enduring parental love and determination and the healing power of memoir as medicine, inspiring all of us to live life as fully as possible in the face of the challenges we all face.
“Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life,” by Mallory Smith, is a powerful, intimate, and inspiring portrait of a brave young woman living with chronic illness. Mallory understood that patient voices need to be amplified in order to improve healthcare, that the intersection of human behavior and nature is critical to environmental sustainability, and that love and friendship give life meaning. As Mallory’s body deteriorated, she sharpened her mind, crystalized her thinking, and honed her writing skills. In her 2500 pages of private journal entries, she created poetry out of prosaic experiences. Beautifully written, provocative, and peppered with insights, “Salt in My Soul” reminds us to follow Mallory’s mantra and “Live Happy.”
Giant Pictures is a leading digital distributor that is committed to empowering filmmakers to own their distribution. With offices in New York and Los Angeles, we work directly with rights owners to distribute movies and TV shows to VOD and streaming platforms in North America and worldwide. Our content partners range from first-time filmmakers to award-winning independent producers, as well as notable studios Alamo Drafthouse Films, Abramorama Selects, Participant, Tribeca Enterprises, Utopia Distribution, and XYZ Films. A division of Giant Interactive, the award-winning digital media and technology services company, we distribute across 45+ platforms, including AppleTV, Netflix, Prime Video, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Tubi, and Peacock.
The acquisition establishes EVO Entertainment Group as largest operator of cinema-entertainment centers in the country. Photo: EVO Entertainment Group
EVO Entertainment Group (“EVO”) and ShowBiz Cinemas (“ShowBiz”), two leading innovators in motion picture entertainment, announced this week that they have closed a transaction under which EVO has acquired 100% of the stock of Showbiz Cinemas in an all-cash deal. (EVO Entertainment Group, 2022)
“Today is a monumental moment for our company and our industry. This transaction establishes EVO as the country’s largest operator of cinema-entertainment centers and paves the way for accelerated progress and innovation within a new era of cinema.” – Mitch Roberts, Founder and CEO of EVO Entertainment Group and 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree.
Kevin Mitchell, CEO & Founder of Showbiz Cinemas, along with Mitch Roberts represent multiple generations in the cinema business. Their pioneering of cinema entertainment centers has been a smashing success. Kevin Mitchell reflected, “It is a wonderful time to entrust the company I started to a fourth-generation motion picture exhibitor and family member, because Showbiz Cinemas just had an all-time record-breaking holiday season! I am confident that Mitch’s leadership and Marbella’s capital strength will ensure a long and successful run for Showbiz, and I now look forward to exploring new ventures both in and out of the entertainment industry.”
The combined enterprise will provide dynamic and multi-faceted entertainment experiences to over eight million patrons annually in 16 venues with 148 screens, 108 bowling lanes, 9 full-service restaurants & bars, a 3,000-capacity live music venue, and over 30,000 combined square feet of gaming and attractions across four states, including Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. EVO’s expansion will continue into 2022 with additional venues currently under construction and expected to open in the coming months. The acquisition marks the first major move in the partnership between EVO and Marbella Interests, the Austin, Texas-based family office of Formentera Partners founder and former Parsley Energy founder and CEO, Bryan Sheffield.
EVO Entertainment Group is an Austin based out-of-home entertainment operator made up from several innovative brands including EVO Entertainment, EVO Cinemas, and EVO Concerts. Since its launch in 2014, EVO has gained a reputation as a leader in innovation, as well as one of the fastest growing independent cinema circuits in the country.
Founded in 2007 by exhibition industry veteran Kevin Mitchell, ShowBiz Cinemas is an independently owned and operated entertainment operator offering bowling, movies, games, food, and more across nine entertainment venues with 89 screens and 70 bowling lanes across Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, and Wyoming.
Whataburger’s Spicy Ketchup Limited Batch #2. Photo: google
Whataburger is introducing a brand-new product that is sure to spice things up: Whataburger Spicy Ketchup Limited Batch #2. This limited batch ketchup gets its distinctive flavor from a combination of Whataburger’s signature Fancy Ketchup recipe, a hot sauce made from arbol and piquin peppers and a blend of signature spices, offering a fresh take on the Whataburger Spicy Ketchup fans already know and love. (Whataburger, 2022)
The Buffalo Ranch line-up, featuring the Buffalo Ranch Chicken Strip Sandwich and Buffalo Ranch Chicken Strip Salad,is also back for a limited timealongside the fan-favorite Dr Pepper Shake.For night owls and early birds who cannot get enough of the Breakfast Burger, Whataburger will continue to offer this menu item during breakfast hours for those craving a hearty meal. All items are available now while supplies last, and prices vary by market.
Since 1950 when Harmon Dobson opened the first Whataburger as a small roadside burger stand in Corpus Christi, Whataburger has focuses on its fresh, made-to-order burgers and friendly customer service. Today, the company is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, with more than 850 locations across its 14-state footprint, and sales of more than $2.8 billion annually. Whataburger has 50,000 Family Members (employees) and more than 60 million customers who like to customize their Whataburgers just the way they like it.
Lord Nelson carries their live show into the recording studio with Transmission. Photo: Lord Nelson
When it came time for Lord Nelson to get back into the studio to make a new album, the band wanted to lean into exactly what has earned them fans and thousands of streams of their songs throughout their career: a burn-down-the-house live show. The Charlottesville-based band was looking for a way to create a calling card for their boisterous live act, something that would bridge the gap between studio and performance, so they took a batch of road tested songs into the studio with a very simple goal in mind and achieved just that. The resulting album, Transmission, will be released January 21, but Lord Nelson recently shared the first track from the album. (Lord Nelson, 2021)
“Tooth and Nail” opens Transmission with a raucous groove and electric guitars every bit appropriate for the kind of lights-down, beginning of the show anticipation usually reserved for the stage. “Navigating this world is a full time job and the person we become may be sometimes far removed from the vision we had when we set out on this journey,” say the band’s members about “Tooth and Nail.” “Own your disasters and keep moving.” Watch the video for “Tooth and Nail” now at this linkand pre-order or pre-save Transmission ahead of its January 21 release here.
For the first time, this Lord Nelson record features three writers and vocalists, with brothers Henry and Calloway Jones contributing to Kai Crowe-Getty’s set of songs. Rounding out the group are Andrew Hollifield and Niko Cventanovich on bass, Johnny Stubblefield on drums, and Dave Pinto on pedal steel and harmonica. The collection of songs marks a wide range of stories and characters, but there is a creeping lightness that settles around the edges of what could be darker themes in other hands. From car crashes, murder, bank robberies, devotion, trucks in lakes, drug busts, and relationships, to hope, triumph, and overcoming the odds, this record engages a wide view of the human experience.
Using a converted barn to track the record, guitarist Calloway Jones and collaborator Ivan Barry engineered two sessions across a few weeks, and the bones of an album were fitted into a suit. Lord Nelson initially worked to move through recording quickly as to release Transmission and get back on the road. Like the rest of the world, those plans came to a sudden halt with the pandemic. The band wondered, “Does the world need this music now? Will it ever see the light of day?” But finishing vocals in blanket forts, tracking guitars in an old farm house, and sending the sessions to friends to record parts enabled this process to grow and change slightly with the enforced break from touring. It allowed the band to pause and take in the songs and choices with a bit more thought. It changed the work and brought a reexamination. Ultimately, this record intends to bring people together—to dance, sing in the car, hum along, crank up on the stereo, and to stop taking life too seriously for a few minutes.
Transmission Track list: Tooth and Nail Hell or High Water Country Desperation Drag Me Down Putting in the Time Broken Part Rolling Stoned Cheap Red Wine Let It Ride Burn It Down Julia
Jamestown Revival’s new album Young Man will be out January 14, 2022. Photo: google
In 2020, Jamestown Revival released A Field Guide To Loneliness, an intimate collection of songs that finds Clay and Chance reflecting on recent times whereby human contact was limited more than ever. A Field Guide To Loneliness follows Jamestown Revival’s 2019 critically acclaimed release, San Isabel. Recorded in a remote cabin in the majestic and calming landscape of central Colorado, the band embraced a minimalist approach in the recording of San Isabel. Finding inspiration in ‘60s and early 70’s folk and pop, the original songs on San Isabel show reverence for early John Denver and Bob Dylan, as well as Simon & Garfunkel and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Their new album, Young Man, will be released on January 14, 2022. (Jamestown Revival, 2021)
With a swaggering waltz, close harmonies, and a wealth of slide guitars, Jamestown Revival has perfectly summarized the dog days of feeling stranded by the events of the last two years in their brand new single “These Days.” Straddling the line of good-time music and down-and-out feelings, “These Days” feels universal; a blurry memory of a worldwide shared experience, but a little closer to home for those who found themselves out of work for months on end. “‘These Days’ is about being down in the dumps, hamstrung, and unable to work,” say Jamestown Revival bandmates Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance. “The past year needs no introduction. As the months rolled on by, there were surely days when it felt like it got the best of us. We wrote this song on one of those days.” Fans can hear “These Days” now at this link.
“These Days” is the second song to be released from Jamestown Revival’s upcoming LP, Young Man. Produced and mixed by Robert Ellis and Joshua Block and bolstered by a thriving community of friends and musicians in Texas, Young Man is Jamestown Revival’s first project without electric guitars, with the emphasis instead on skillful songwriting, flawless harmony, and intricate fingerpicking. Displaying most of the genres that collectively make up “Americana” music—folk, jazz, bluegrass, roots rock—sometimes all in one song, this upcoming album represents a distilled and pure Jamestown Revival at their finest. Young Man is due out January 14 and can be pre-ordered or pre-saved now right here.
Additionally, Jamestown Revival just announced new tour dates including Thalia Hall in Chicago and Nashville’s new Brooklyn Bowl. A full list of new dates, as well as previously announced tour stops, can be found below. Tickets are available online.
New Jamestown Revival Tour Dates: February 8 – Kansas City, MO. – Knuckleheads Saloon^ February 9 – St. Louis, MO. – Delmar Hall^ February 10 – Chicago, IL. – Thalia Hall^ February 11 – Minneapolis, MN. – Fine Line^ February 12 – Milwaukee, WI. – The Rave/Eagles Club – Rave II^ February 14 – Pittsburgh, PA. – Mr. Smalls^ February 15 – Detroit, MI. – St. Andrews Hall^ February 16 – Lexington, KY. – The Burl^ February 17 – Indianapolis, IN. – The Vogue^ February 18 – Columbus, OH. – Columbus Athenaeum^ February 19 – Nashville, TN. – Brooklyn Bowl^
Previously Announced 2022 Dates: January 14 – New Braunfels, TX. – Gruene Hall^ January 16 – Tucson, AZ. – Rialto Theatre* January 17 – Solana Beach, CA. – Belly Up* January 18 – Solana Beach, CA. – Belly Up* January 19 – Santa Cruz, CA. – Catalyst* January 20 – San Francisco, CA. – The Fillmore* January 21 – Los Angeles, CA. – Fonda Theatre* January 22 – Sacramento, CA. – Ace of Spades* January 23 – San Luis Obispo, CA. – Fremont Theatre* January 25 – Salt Lake City, UT. – Commonwealth* January 26 – Steamboat Springs, CO. – Strings Music Pavilion** January 27 – Denver, CO. – Ogden Theatre* January 28 – Telluride, CO. – Club Red* January 29 – Ft. Collins, CO. – Aggie Theatre** January 30 – Aspen, CO. – Belly Up^
Special Guests: * Mipso & Robert Ellis ** Mipso ^ Robert Ellis
Young Man Track list: 1. Coyote 2. Young Man 3. Moving Man 4. Northbound 5. These Days 6. One Step Forward 7. Slow It Down 8. Way It Was 9. Old Man Looking Back 10. Working On Love
The movie adaptation of ‘The Lost Daughter’ by Elena Ferrante is now playing in theaters everywhere. Photo: amazon
Elena Ferrante is the author of seven novels, including four New York Times bestsellers; “The Beach at Night,” an illustrated book for children; and “Frantumaglia,” a collection of letters, literary essays, and interviews. Her fiction has been translated into over forty languages and been shortlisted for the MAN Booker International Prize. In 2016 she was named one of TIME’s most influential people of the year and The New York Times has described her as “one of the great novelists of our time.” Her book “The Lost Daughter”has been adapted into a major motion picture directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Paul Mescal, and Peter Sarsgaard. (amazon, 2022)
“The Lost Daughter” – Leda, a middle-aged divorcée, is alone for the first time in years after her two adult daughters leave home to live with their father in Toronto. Enjoying an unexpected sense of liberty, she heads to the Ionian coast for a vacation. But she soon finds herself intrigued by Nina, a young mother on the beach, eventually striking up a conversation with her. After Nina confides a dark secret, one seemingly trivial occurrence leads to events that could destroy Nina’s family in this “arresting” novel by the author of the New York Times–bestselling Neapolitan Novels, which have sold millions of copies.
In his new book, Marc Savoy shares the fascinating story of Cajun Music’s iconic instrument. Photo: amazon
Born in 1940, Marc Savoy grew up in a rural French-speaking community outside of Eunice, Louisiana, and started playing the accordion at age twelve. By age twenty, he was building and selling his own Acadian-brand Cajun accordions. In 1966, he opened the doors to the iconic Savoy Music Center in his hometown. Today, he is revered as one of the finest builders and players of the instrument in the world. His new book “Made in Louisiana: The Story of the Acadian Accordion” is the story of how an instrument once known as the “German-style” accordion became the iconic image of Louisiana’s Cajun culture. (Marc Savoy, 2021)
Most strands of American music have an iconic instrument. Horns for jazz, banjos for bluegrass, and electric guitars for rock and roll, but few invoke the immediate recognition as the accordion found in the wildly unique music of Louisiana Cajuns. Few know the instrument as intimately as world-renowned accordion player, builder, and author, Marc Savoy. Upon seeing a Louisiana-handmade diatonic accordion for the first time in 1957, a teenage Marc Savoy began a quest that arguably no one has come closer to achieving: to build the perfect Cajun accordion. Told in Savoy’s own words, “Made in Louisiana” is the story of the evolution of his Acadian brand accordions—from being a young prodigy to a self-made businessman to a music store owner to a definitive figure in Cajun music.
SA Examiner 