‘Terra Nova: Book 1’ is the first book in the Terra Nova series by MTG. Photo: Amazon
MTG has worked in numerous positions, mainly in managerial and executive roles. These include the editor-in-chief of a cultural magazine, an executive director, and most recently, the manager of a non-profit organization that works with immigrants and refugees. She has extensive experience working and studying abroad, including Germany, Italy, Korea, Abu Dhabi, and Pakistan; these experiences taught her about many cultures and worldviews, which influenced her writing. “Terra Nova,” her first publication, is Book 1 of a series. The series’ concept emerged when she, like the protagonist, was diagnosed with the blood disorder paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), and her then-boyfriend (now husband) joked she was becoming a vampire. (MTG, 2022)
“Terra Nova”– Evangeline is living the life of a normal teenager until she starts getting mysterious, severe symptoms. After passing out in the middle of a party, life as she knows it spirals beyond her grasp. She is diagnosed with a rare, genetic blood disorder that causes her body’s white blood cells to kill the red ones. In the delirium of her deteriorating health, a door to a parallel world opens before her; however, once she steps through it, the portal closes, and she is unable to return to Earth.
Evangeline now finds herself in a place called Terra Nova, a world where vampires rule supreme and there are no traces of humanity left. Curious but afraid, she quickly learns that Terra Nova is not the shadow-side of Earth, but rather the tragic result of government experimentation. In order to survive, she must keep her mind open and accept the changes her body is undergoing; soon enough, those who she initially thinks are murderers become her trainers, whose help she must enlist if she ever hopes to return home—and soon enough, a romantic bond begins to bloom.
Back on Earth, Evangeline’s brother and friends are trying to figure out what happened to her, how the government is involved, and how to bring her home. Then there is the mysterious outcast Bambi, whose secrecy disguises her power in making a devastating choice: save one world at the risk of destroying the other.
The new restaurant concept from Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group will open Monday September 19 in San Antonio. Photo: Ladino, used with permission.
Ladino, a Mediterranean Grill House celebrating Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisine, will open Monday, September 19, 2022. Brought to you by Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group and led by Executive Chef Berty Richter, Ladino will pay homage to Berty’s roots with a menu centered around the charcoal grill. The restaurant will be located in the Pearl at 200 E. Grayson St #100 and reservations are now open. (Ladino, 2022)
The name Ladino, was chosen because Berty wanted to showcase and share not only the cuisine he grew up in, but also the influences of the surrounding cultures and cuisines on his style of cooking and eating, sharing food, and the excitement of a bountiful and colorful table of delicious food.
“I grew up in Israel mainly with my mom’s side of the family that came from Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria. We spoke Ladino, a dialect of Spanish mixed with French, Italian, Greek and Turkish,” said Chef Berty Richter. “Large family gatherings and endless feasts were part of our daily lives and I’ve always dreamt of one day creating a concept that will pay homage to my family’s roots and culture. Naming this concept Ladino was the natural choice for me and is the realization of this dream.”
Using a wood burning oven, Ladino’s menu features freshly made pita and other regional specialties accompanied by an abundance of dishes that are playful and bold including Coal Charred Eggplant Dip, Jerusalem Mix, Meat Dumplings in yogurt, and a modern take on Agristada, a traditional Sephardic fish in a lemony egg sauce. The dessert menu is inspired by the sweet and savory staples of the region with a modern touch. The beverage program highlights regional wines and spirits.
The team worked with partner Rand Egbert on the design of the space. Egbert says, “Sephardic Jews have origins all over the Mediterranean with deep roots in North Africa, so much of the interior is influenced by Morocco and the Moorish culture of Spain during the time the Ladino language first came to be. The space is meant to be transportive and that is created through beautiful tile accents, handmade light fixtures, traditional patterns, and pops of color. ”
This marks the seventh concept from Austin-based Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group and the first venture into San Antonio. Other restaurants from the renowned restaurant group include Emmer & Rye, Hestia, Canje, Kalimotxo, Henbit and TLV.
Ladino will be located at 200 E Grayson St #100, San Antonio, TX 78215 and is open Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 5p.m. to 10p.m and Friday and Saturday from 5:30p.m. to 11p.m
The Briscoe Western Art Museum’s new fall exhibition features renowned nature photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen. Thomas D. Mangelsen: A Life In The Wild will be on exhibit starting September 30, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
Western Art celebrates the American West, including the wild places and wildlife that grace the land. The Briscoe Western Art Museum is transforming into a photographic zoo this fall, showcasing the beauty of the West and the animals that call it home in Thomas D. Mangelsen – A Life In The Wild, an exhibition containing forty of the renowned nature photographer’s most resonant photographs—images that take viewers on a journey across the West and around the globe. The exhibition will be on view at the Briscoe September 30, 2022 – January 29, 2023, and is included with museum general admission. (Briscoe Western Art Museum, 2022)
The photographer personally selected forty classic photographs, which he refers to as his legacy photographs, for this retrospective exhibition making its Texas debut in San Antonio. Among photographs which members of the public will certainly be familiar with are “Polar Dance,” of polar bears appearing to dance, “Mountain Outlaw,” a grizzly bear charging through the snow, and “Catch of the Day,” which captures the exact moment that a spawning salmon, trying to leap over a waterfall along Alaska’s Brooks River, soars right into the waiting jaws of a massive brown bear. The image is not only one of the most widely circulated wildlife photographs in history, but also a monumental achievement in photography because it occurred before the advent of digital cameras and involves no digital manipulation.
Not all photographs in the exhibit, some of which measure 10 feet across, are of bears. The exhibition is truly a photographic zoo, with subjects captured in their native Western habitats include American bison, Arctic fox, bald eagle, black bear, bobcat, bohemian and cedar waxwings, brown bear, coyote, great gray owl, grizzly bear, ground squirrel, kestrel, moose, mountain lion, and Sandhill crane. Fantastic landscapes include Alaska’s Denali range and the Great Smoky Mountains, as well as fields of poppies and lupine and forests of redwood and aspen.
One of the most prolific nature photographers of our time, Mangelsen has been described as a spiritual descendant of pioneering American nature photographers Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, and Edward Weston. Bill Allen, the now retired Editor-in-Chief of “National Geographic,” considers Mangelsen to be one of the most important nature photographers of his generation.
The photographer is as much a conservationist as he is an artist. He was named the 2011 Conservation Photographer of the Year by “Nature’s Best Photography,” placing his work in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He was named one of the 40 Most Influential Nature Photographers by “Outdoor Photography,” and one of the 100 Most Important People in Photography by “American Photo” magazine. The North American Nature Photography Association has named him Outstanding Nature Photographer of the Year, while the British Broadcasting Corporation gave him its coveted, prestigious award, Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
Mangelsen has traveled to the wildest corners of North America, Africa, and beyond, for more than 40 years and produced a body of work second to none. At a time when digital technology is, notoriously, conditioning users to have shorter attention spans, A Life In The Wild stands as a testament to the rewards that can come to those, like him, who get close to nature.
To mark the exhibition’s opening, the Briscoe is hosting a preview party on September 29, followed by an opening weekend event that features an urban nature walk.
Opening weekend events include:
Thomas D. Mangelsen – A Life In The Wild Exhibition Preview Party – Thursday, September 29, 6p.m. – 8p.m.
Help the Briscoe kick off a fall steeped in the natural beauty of the American West with Michael Duchemin, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Briscoe. The event includes complimentary beer, wine, specialty cocktails and light bites. The event is $20 for museum members and free for Contributing and President’s Society membership tiers. Museum members may upgrade their membership by calling 210.299.4499. Nonmembers may purchase tickets for $30. Tickets are available online.
A Life In The Wild Urban Nature Walk, Animal Tracks and Pollinator Plants
Discover nature in the heart of San Antonio. Join Mitchell Lake Audubon Center educators as they lead you on a nature walk through the Briscoe Museum’s McNutt Sculpture Garden. After the walk, learn about animals you might have seen in your own backyard, how to match them to their tracks, and create your own track to take home. Then learn how pollinator plants help out these animals and other wildlife while making your own paper pot to fill with a nectar plant to benefit the visitors to your space. The nature walk and activities are included with museum general admission.
David J. Wagner, L.L.C, in partnership with Thomas D. Mangelsen, Inc., is producing The Thomas D. Mangelsen – A Life In The Wild tour. This exhibition is supported in part by Jan McCaleb Elliott, the Greehey Family Foundation, and Jessica Elliott Middleton.
Davi Mai is a short story writer focusing on fantasy, science fiction, and transgressive fiction. ProximaBound is Davi Mai’s latest YA science-fiction novella. (Davi Mai, 2022)
Proxima Bound – Humanity’s last hope rests with the colonists aboard the generational starship Attenborough bound for Proxima Centauri a thousand years away. Catastrophe strikes when a reactor meltdown cuts off those in the ship’s front from the rear. Two factions must now struggle to survive. With four hundred years still to travel, we join a plucky teenager, “Thief.” She has found a way through the ventilation system, around the radioactive core of the ship, and into the front sections. Thief brings back vital components that might help the rear-dwellers connect the ship’s computer. For the first time in hundreds of years, there is hope.
But people are disappearing without a trace, and the makeshift hospital is overflowing with cases of a new virus. It is up to Thief to embark on her toughest mission yet. To crawl through the bowels of the ship, the furthest she has ever been, and find some answers, before there is no-one left alive. What she finds at the front of the ship, however, is terrifying.
‘The Devil in Ohio’ is now a limited series on Netflix. Photo: Amazon
Daria Polatin is a TV writer/executive producer, award-winning playwright, and author. She wrote and directed her new play PALMYRA at Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre, which ran on CTG’s Digital Stage. Her plays have been produced across the United States and internationally. She is a founding member of The Kilroys, the advocacy group for gender parity in the American theater. Under her 1001 Pictures banner, Daria continues to write and produce propulsive stories that challenge and entertain. “Devil in Ohio,” her debut novel, was adapted into a Netflix limited series consisting of eight episodes starring Emily Deschanel and Madeleine Arthur. Daria is the creator, showrunner, and executive producer. (Amazon, 2022)
“Devil in Ohio” – Based on a true story. When fifteen-year-old Jules Mathis comes home from school to find a strange girl sitting in her kitchen, her psychiatrist mother reveals that Mae is one of her patients at the hospital and will be staying with their family for a few days. But soon Mae is wearing Jules’s clothes, sleeping in her bedroom, edging her out of her position on the school paper, and flirting with Jules’s crush. And Mae has no intention of leaving. Then things get weird. Jules walks in on a half-dressed Mae, startled to see: a pentagram carved into Mae’s back. Jules pieces together clues and discovers that Mae is a survivor of the strange cult that’s embedded in a nearby town. And the cult will stop at nothing to get Mae back.
‘The Spark’ is book one in the Beyond the Light Universe series. Photo: Amazon
William Steele is an artist and writer from the Rio Grand Valley in Texas. He is the creator of the Beyond the Light Universe. His debut novel “The Spark” is book one of four in the Beyond the Light series. (Amazon, 2022)
“The Spark”– Art and Science… Magic and Logic… Creation and Destruction…Choice and Inevitability…All are constructs born of an apex sentience, and somewhere out beyond the boundary of our known universe, there exists another apex species that has long since eclipsed us in experience. Their faith in magic has dwindled, and the Era of Egal has passed. By marching forward into the Era of Capitol, and abandoning the magical tether to their planet, the Thearians have decided to meet the trials of evolution head on. They have sealed their embrace of the New Way within the immortal city of Key-Rown, and choose the shelter provided by the great depths of the crystal flower. All have sealed their fate. All but one. This is his message.
‘Overkill’ is Sandra Brown’s new novel. Photo: Amazon
Sandra Brown is the author of seventy-four New York Times bestsellers. There are more than eighty million copies of her books in print worldwide, and her work has been translated into thirty-four languages. Four of her books have been made into films. In 2008, the International Thriller Writers named Brown its Thriller Master, the organization’s highest honor. In her new book “Overkill” she delivers a riveting thriller in which a conflict of conscience for a former football star and an ambitious state prosecutor swiftly intensifies into a fight for their lives. (Amazon, 2022)
“Overkill” – Former Super Bowl MVP quarterback Zach Bridger has not seen his ex-wife, Rebecca Pratt, for some time—not since their volatile marriage imploded—so he is shocked to receive a life-altering call about her. Rebecca has been placed on life support after a violent assault, and he—despite their divorce—has medical power-of-attorney. Zach is asked to make an impossible choice: keep her on life support or take her off of it. Buckling under the weight of the responsibility and the glare of public scrutiny, Zach ultimately walks away, letting Rebecca’s parents have the final say.
Four years later, Rebecca’s attacker, Eban—the heir of a wealthy family in Atlanta—gets an early release from prison. The ludicrous miscarriage of justice reeks of favoritism, and Kate Lennon, a brilliant state prosecutor, is determined to put him back behind bars. Rebecca’s parents have kept her alive all these years, but if her condition were to change—if she were to die—Eban could be retried on a new charge: murder. It is not lost on Zach that in order for Eban to be charged with Rebecca’s murder, Zach must actually be the one to kill her. He rejects Kate’s legal standpoint but cannot resist their ill-timed attraction to each other. Eban, having realized the jeopardy he is in, plots to make certain that neither Zach nor Kate lives to see the death of Rebecca—and the end of his freedom.
The Bigfoot horror movie will have a digital release on September 30, 2022. Photo: Google
Terror Films will release the Michael Pare-starring Bigfoot horror movie The Wild Man this September. Developed during the pandemic, the film stars Michael Pare, and is directed by Tampa Bay native Ryan Justice (Followers). Lauren Crandall, Julian Green, and Mike Reed also help make up the cast. (Terror Films, 2022)
“We used our downtime to create and develop projects. The Wild Man happened to be the perfect project to make at the time. As a Florida Native the Legend of the Skunk Ape (Florida Bigfoot) always had our interest. We wanted to do a fun movie around the legend and do something different with the bigfoot movie genre.”
The Wild Man – Young women have been going missing in Ochopee, FL, without a single suspect in custody. A young journalist, Sara, convinces her crew to join her investigation as she travels to Ochopee to document her discoveries, but they soon realize their presence in this town is not welcome. Determined to find her story, Sara convinces her friends to stick with her, because they are onto something big. Upon meeting Dale, the town’s notorious conspiracy theorist, she is convinced he knows more than he is willing to share. The crew humors Dale’s ridiculous theories, even accompanying him into the Florida swamps on his quest to show them “The Wild Man,” hoping he will somehow reveal his guilt. But what the crew discovers is a secret much deeper than fairy tales and legends. What they discover is much darker and more sinister than they bargained for.
The Wild Man will first premiere on digital platforms September 30 ahead of plays on the Terror Films and Kings of Horror YouTube Channels.
TERRITORY: NORTH AMERICA RELEASE DATE 1: 9/30/22 – DIGITAL RELEASE DATE 2: 10/7/22 – TERROR FILMS CHANNEL RELEASE DATE 2: 10/14/22 – KOH CHANNEL
For the month of September, Bakery Lorraine is donating a portion of all proceeds from their SA Phil Mocha Macaron to San Antonio Philharmonic. Photo: Bakery Lorraine, used with permission.
Bakery Lorraine, a local favorite and nationally recognized pastry shop, is partnering with the San Antonio Philharmonic through the entire month of September to donate a portion of all sales from their mocha macaron. A portion of all proceeds will be donated to the organization whose mission it is to involve new audiences in the transformative power of music. Offer good at all Bakery Lorraine locations. (Bakery Lorraine, 2022)
The SA Phil Mocha Macaron will benefit the SA Philharmonic throughout the month of September. It will be sold as a single macaron priced at $2.65 or available to be included in their assortment boxes. Assortment boxes can be purchased in two different sizes, holding 6 macarons for $14.00 or 12 macarons for $26.00. The SA Phil Mocha Macaron will be available at all Bakery Lorraine locations in San Antonio for dine-in or to go. Portions of sales will be donated to the SA Philharmonic through September 30, 2022.
Bakery Lorraine is a San Antonio favorite and nationally recognized pastry shop famous for its colorful macarons and exquisite French pastries. Owned by chefs Anne Ng, Jeremy Mandrell, and operator Charlie Biedenharn, Bakery Lorraine was named one of the best new bakeries in the U.S. by Food & Wine as well as one of the “13 Destination Bakeries” by Conde Nast Traveler. Bakery Lorraine serves handmade French pastries and macarons using the finest ingredients. The bakery serves an all-day menu including items like its Croque Madame, the quiche Lorraine, an assortment of salads and soups and artisan sandwiches. Bakery Lorraine has four locations in San Antonio including one in the Historic Pearl district, one in the Medical Center, one in the RIM shopping center, and one inside The DoSeum. Bakery Lorraine also has an Austin location at the Domain NORTHSIDE.
Jeremy Squires’ new album Hymnal will be out October 14, 2022 via Blackbird Record Label. Photo: Jeremy Squires
North Carolina songwriter Jeremy Squires’ new upcoming full length album Hymnal will be out October 14 via Blackbird Record Label. The music video for the single “Into The Fog” is out now. Hymnal is an album with a tender and life-affirming quality, where Squires’ warm singing voice, shimmery guitars, sparkling ukulele voicings, and Brand’s vocal harmonies and heartfelt violin melodies stand out just as much as the poignant lyrics. Squires handled almost all the aspects of the album’s making, including the recording of his vocals and string instrument parts, production, and mixing. (Jeremy Squires, 2022)
“These songs are true stories that I wanted to tell without any clutter. I didn’t add any overdubs of instruments. I recorded my parts here at my house live and then sent the album to Autumn Rose Brand, a fantastic violinist and singer who lives here in North Carolina, who played and sang her parts and sent them back to me.” – Jeremy Squires
What sounds like a simple process, though, is anything but. The events, trials, and tribulations that led up to Hymnal center around his dissolving marriage, and the music, reflecting the subject matter, is scaled back compared to his previous full-length efforts. The Alternative shared the music video for “Into the Fog” off of Hymnal, a tenderly strummed song about, in Jeremy’s words, “realizing that you can’t save someone—no matter how hard you try—if they won’t put forth the effort to truly help themselves. It’s about delusions, dreams, and eventually, reality shining through like rays of light at the end.” Brand’s violin highlights the song’s ending refrain: “Oh, I won’t see you in the morning.”
Hymnal track list: 1. Don’t You Cry 2. Lament 3. Moon Coin 4. Hymnal 5. Juniper 6. To the Moon and Back 7. Balancing 8. Into the Fog 9. Echo Roads 10. Nightingale
Catch Jeremy Squires on tour: September 15 – Nashville, TN – ACME Feed & Seed September 16 – Nashville, TN – Brown’s Diner
Hymnal, due out October 14, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
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