On Sunday, April 12th, there was a reading and signing of neurologist, lawyer and commercial model Dr. Pedram Navab’s debut novel, Without Anesthesia at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena as a part of their local author day. Other local authors who conducted readings and signings were Jennifer Maimone of Demon’s Prize and James Michael Dorsey of Vanishing Tales from Ancient Trails.
The popular band “French Riviera Incident,” who was on the soundtrack of Navab’s book performed for the audience. Navab also just shot his debut film, the quirky and stylized short, Strangers In A Book. Actors and crew members of the film who attended the signing to show their support for him were Christy Mc Ginity Gibel (Little Women: LA), Kristin West (Seeking Valentina), Rene Fuentes, yours truly, and Navab’s twin sister Pooneh, who was also the film’s wardrobe stylist.
Navab’s compelling page turner is published by Jaded Ibis Productions. The book opens with the haunting “Dear Tess, we cut you up today.” So ends and begins the disturbing and provocative story of Tess, a third-year medical student whose compulsive desire to feel her patients’ pain leads her to destruct her own body by methods both horrific and creative. When Tess’s narrative intersects with similarly obsessive characters, the distinctions between fiction and reality, between art and medicine, are called into question.
Pedram Navab is a board-certified neurologist and a Fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, acting as a medical director of a sleep lab in the Silver Lake neighborhood of LA. Having been educated at Brown and Stanford, Pedram holds both a graduate degree in Modern Culture & Media and a J.D. He is currently in post-production of a short film, entitled “Strangers in a Book,” acting in the capacity of a writer, co-producer, and actor. “Without Anesthesia,” published by Jaded Ibis Press, is his debut novel. His second novel, “Journal with Cocaine,” currently being written, is composed of psychoanalytic case studies of several neurotic patients, living in London and Paris during the late 19th and early 20th Century.
Jennifer Maimone’s Demon’s Prize is also a great, compelling read. The book is about socially withdrawn Dr. Brent Carson, who has been reading about women being abducted throughout the city, the most recent article revealing how all of them may have been practitioners of witchcraft. Out of curiosity, Brent decides to personally investigate what is going on, but is distracted when four friends move to the city, all of whom he knows to be werewolves – except for Angela Dane, who is only half.
As it turns out, Angela is an energetic, talented and very spirited girl. She is extremely close and loyal to her friends, but the first moment Brent sees Angela, there is something about her he finds disturbing. He cannot understand why, but his first reaction towards her is one of hatred, inexplicably feeling as if she shouldn’t even be alive. That night, Angela is attacked by a psychotic demon, one who has been stealing paranormal beings for centuries and taking them to hell for his personal version of trafficking. The demon almost claims her as his newest prize, only to have his interests quickly switch to Brent the moment he learns of his true identity.
Jennifer Maimone is the author of the Alpha Wolf Series, the first book being Demon’s Prize is the first book in Maimone’s popular Alpha Wolf Series. She graduated from college in 2009, and later that year became a special effects makeup artist for independent films. This multi-talented artist started a freelancing business with UnmaskedFX, and has been approached a few times by the FaceOff TV program to be part of their show. Maimone started writing Demon’s Prize in 2012, and after opening her own small publishing business, Light and Dark Imagination, she had this book published. She is currently working on A Cursed Soul, the sequel to Demon’s Prize.
Dick Russell, author of the Eye of the Whale summed up James Dorsey’s Vanishing Tales from Ancient Trails with these great quotes,”James Dorsey is no ordinary travel writer. In this remarkable book, he takes us inside remote cultures many will be surprised to learn still exist. The author’s fascination with remote lands and ancient practices of their inhabitants makes him as much a participant as an observer. That a 21st-century man could invoke the spirit of a Stanley or a Shackleton makes it a must read.”
More info at http://www.vromansbookstore.com/
