Join us online as local authors read excerpts from their books to put us in a spooky mood.
Videos to be debuted at Noon
October 13th: David Hooker
October 14th: Linda Pittillo
October 15th: Steve Fitzner
October 16th: Christopher Joubert
Signed copies of books available for purchase through TASI Office
Tuesday to Saturday, 12 to 5 PM
409-838-5393, info@artstudio.org
*shipping and handling available
DAVID HOOKER’s “Somewhere Under the Moon”
Author, David Hooker, published SOMEWHERE UNDER THE MOON in 2017 as a reflection of a life at the movies, and of how movies have shaped the life and the imagination of one filmgoer. Here are essays, ruminations, explorations, and celebrations of topics as varied as vampire movies, meetings with celebrities, music and opera, the seasons, and even the aesthetics of refineries, among many others all somehow arising from, and returning to, a love of cinema at the heart of it all.
David Hooker, a professor of English, humanities, and literature at the Lamar Institute of Technology, has written this memoir as a tribute and a kind of love letter to his home town of Beaumont, Texas, within whose many extant and long-vanished movie houses over several decades he has seen nearly 1,000 films, instilling his young and developing sensibilities with dreams of the Great World.
Four signed copies are available at the The Art Studio Inc. and all proceeds support TASI but the book may also be purchased on Amazon at https://rb.gy/0fgjr1
TASI is open 12-5pm Tuesday – Saturday.
Video by Tyler Hargraves
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LINDA PITTILLO’S “SURVIVORS OF THE DARKNESS”
Author, Linda Pittillo, published a series known as her Darkness Trilogy. A description of the book she reads an excerpt from is “Survivors of the Darkness”
“It is the year 2086. The remnants of a comet’s tail have enveloped the Earth in Cosmic dust. Although the Earth still orbits the sun, very little of its heat or light penetrates the thick dust. There are survivors of the extreme cold and lack of food though. However, there are two enemies that use the darkness to kill. These are werewolves and vampires. In New Orleans there is a compound created by a man called GERARD. NICKOLAS and TIM hunt the werewolves and vampires. EMILY is GERARD’s daughter. She has a secret that even her childhood friend Nickolas doesn’t know. SANDY is a psychic with a hidden past. The four of them have both open loves and hidden ones.
Emily is kidnapped by werewolves and then freed by Nickolas, Tim and Sandy. SHADOW is a Halfling who joins them to escape his werewolf heritage.
But now all of them must leave the compound because the vampires are going to attack it. They are heading to a new place safer than New Orleans.
Not all of them will make it. Most will live to see the sun again. Their journey is over but not their adventures.
Linda Pittillo has been writing almost since she learned to read. Her inspiration was the many science fiction and horror books she read in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Also the Hammer Film Productions prevalent in the 1960’s became her guide as to the character of vampires. The old black and white movies about werewolves shown on late night TV fascinated her too.
Linda has to confess she reads a lot of romance books too. All of her books have a romantic component. She has traveled all over the country with her husband because of his career. However, about 10 years ago she settled in Southeast Texas and loves it.
Although Linda has written all of her life, she became discouraged a few years ago by the re1ect1on of a mainstream publisher and wrote without trying to publish anything.
Now however, she wants others to enjoy reading the books she has so enjoyed writing. She says that sometimes in her books the characters seem to have a mind of their own and change their actions to fit their character.
Signed Copies of the Darkness Trilogy are available at The Art Studio, Inc. and 25% of the sale goes to support TASI. They can also be purchased on www.lindapittillo.com
TASI is open 12-5pm Tuesday – Saturday
Video by Tyler Hargraves
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STEVE FITZNER pen name STEPHAN OAK’S “JETT LANDRY: THE FUSE”
A dark evil lurks in Port City, Texas and Private Detectives Markus Jackson and Ashley Garcia are on the case. Meanwhile, Jett Landry, Jackson’s daughter, defends the kids at Port City High from bullies and bigots. Are they fighting the same war?
Four years ago, an old flame calls Markus Jackson and tells him she’s dying, and he needs to take custody of their daughter, Jett Landry. The daughter he never knew he had. Markus Jackson never intended to settle down, he’s not what you’d call a “family man,” but even he knows a kid needs a dad.
Jett Landry is not your typical teenage girl. She’s an honor roll student, she’s a loner, and she’s obsessed with martial arts. The only biracial kid in Port City’s fancy new high school, she’s the target of bullies, racists and an apathetic administration that doesn’t seem to want to solve the problem. But Jett has a secret, and she isn’t telling anyone.
Markus Jackson is Port City’s most well-known Private Investigator. Along with his partner, Asliley Garcia, and the brilliant, beautiful and ridiculously wealthy lawyer, Diana Jones, Jackson has a bad habit of taking on Port City s corrupt elite, earning him enemies among the most powerful families in town. He has the dirt on everyone, and he isn’t afraid to use it for leverage. But Jackson has secrets of his own, and one secret involves the most influential politician in Port City and a conspiracy that is connected to the existence of his own daughter, Jett.
Jett Landry: The Fuse tells the story of the origin of Port City’s next Pulp Fiction character. It’s the story of the old-fashioned Private Detective and the new generation of heroes who become his legacy. It’s the story of a girl fighting racism and bullying while struggling to find her own identity. It’s the story of Port City and all its characters, corruption, conspiracies and contradictions. And in the middle of it all is a lonely girl with a secret.
Coming Soon: Jett Landry: Urban Legend -Volume 2 of the Jett Landry Saga.
Stephan Oak is the author of the Jett Landry Series. The Fuse is his first published work. Part two of the series: Urban Legend, will be released soon. Stephan is influenced by the archetypes in Film Noir and Pulp stories from the past. Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn, Gun with Occassional Music) and Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, The Other Sister) are his two favorite authors.
Cover Art by local artist Micky Mitchell
Video by Tyler Hargraves
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CHRISTOPHER JOUBERT’S “BRISKWOOD BLOOD RAIN”
When Miles Parker walks into one of his final classes of high school, the only thing on his mind is how poorly he is about to do on a Literature quiz he didn’t study for. Then, his teacher dies – and vanishes – in front of him. He thinks his day can’t get any stranger. He’s wrong. When severe weather roars into the small city of Briskwood and school is canceled for the rest of the day, Miles thinks nothing of it. Then, the rain suddenly turns red and mutates people into yellow-eyed, spike-covered creatures, hell-bent on terrorizing anything that moves. Miles soon finds himself trapped at his job, the Royal Cinema Theater, along with his best friend and a group of teenagers who can’t seem to get along, even in a time of crisis. With the blood rain cutting off access to many necessary resources, Miles and the others must use their limited supplies to fight an enemy that is much stronger than they are. The race for survival against this new, deadly species is on.