Author: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

This author has written 1987 articles
Read more about the article Bloomfield Cuban

Bloomfield Cuban

Havana Sandwich Cafe, originally uploaded by bloomfieldguy.

When we restarted our search for a house in Bloomfield earlier this year, we made an effort to explore some of the restaurants here and in the surrounding area (trans: Montclair) and were delighted to come across a solid assortment to choose from, both in price and cuisine, and so far have only experienced a handful of duds, including the State Street Grill (overpriced, glorified diner), Nevada Diner (bland diner food) and Stamna (beautiful Greek decor; bland, uninspired food).

Among the places we’ve enjoyed are Aki (unpretentious sushi in a relaxed setting), Vinnie’s Pizzeria and Restaurant (solid Italian food with decent pizza), Señorita’s (great Mexican food and margaritas), and even the Glenwood Diner (solid breakfast) and the IHOP on Bloomfield Avenue (great off-menu specials with a southern twist; kids eat free Mon-Fri evenings), next to Watsessing Park. Our favorite to-date, though, has been Cuban Pete’s in Montclair, a high-energy restaurant that combines authentic Cuban food with a sense of style and atmosphere that avoids feeling like a chain.

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Read more about the article East Orange is for…lovers?

East Orange is for…lovers?

Reddog n Neenee, originally uploaded by Nudnik N Da Hood.

According to CNNMoney it is, ranking it at #21 of the 25 places that have the highest percentage of singles, and an over-30 scene. Hoboken is ranked #1 (ugh), while Newark is #20. (Hat tip to the Barista.)

Interestingly, this is the same East Orange that shares Bloomfield’s southwest border and, every step of the way through our homebuying process, was referred to negatively by, well, just about everybody! (Check the Barista’s comment section for a representative selection of bons mots.)

The worst was the security system sales rep (from Brinks, I think) who drove up the day we were moving in and chatted us up while pitching his services.

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Read more about the article Cruising the Center

Cruising the Center

Sweet Rides, originally uploaded by bloomfieldguy.

The Bloomfield Center Alliance sponsors two events in the summer that nicely represent one of the more appealing differences between living in the sortaburbs and living in the City: Cruise Night and the Farmer’s Market. While a Farmer’s Market isn’t terribly unique — I haven’t visited yet, but after walking through Venner “Park” last night, I don’t imagine ours is terribly big — the central location of both events makes for a nice community-building opportunity in a relatively small town like Bloomfield.

If it were about 5 degrees cooler when we headed uptown for Cruise Night last night, we would have walked there, but instead we drove — those carbon offsets alleviating a bit of the guilt — parked on the south end of the Glenwood/Broad Street intersection, and walked the two block stretch of classic (and not-so-classic) cars on display. There were approx. 25 cars there and at least as many people milling around them, checking them out and talking to their owners.

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Read more about the article Please Keep Out of Water

Please Keep Out of Water

Please Keep Out of Water, originally uploaded by bloomfieldguy. This seemingly purposeful collection of bottles has been sitting on the bank of the, um, creek (?) in Watsessing Park for a couple of days now. They were IN the water on Monday. Considering this creek is presumably one of the reasons we have to pay an extra $2k/year for flood insurance, it's nice that all of the trash gets pulled out before it can back up a drain somewhere down the line, but is it that much more work to bag it and dump it properly?

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Read more about the article Going Local

Going Local

Going Local, originally uploaded by bloomfieldguy.

I picked up the local paper, The Star-Ledger, today instead of the Daily News for the first time. While I prefer the tabloid format over broadsheet, esp. on the train, I want to have a better appreciation for what’s going on in and around my new hometown. The Essex County section’s feature on the Family Day Nursery’s new learning garden was exactly the kind of local story I love to read about, but the quality and focus of their sports coverage will ultimately dictate whether or not it supplants the News as my morning read.

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Read more about the article Thrillerfest: Buzz Your Book

Thrillerfest: Buzz Your Book

I was only able to make it to one session at Thrillerfest yesterday, but it was one I had a particular interest in as it focused on book marketing, a huge black hole in the industry as the minuscule budgets publishers set aside for it are invariably dedicated to the can’t miss A-list authors while the mid-list and debut authors receive little if any support at all. And that’s for commercial fiction; it’s even worse for literary fiction and poetry, never mind comic books.

M.J. Rose and Doug Clegg have their “Buzz Your Book” format down cold and after a brief introduction that noted how they both got lucky (translation: opportunity met preparation) with what they did for their own books, they explained that, while their successes aren’t necessarily duplicable, they do offer a fundamental model that any author can follow up on. Instead of prattling on in generalities, or offering examples of ideas that can’t be duplicated, they called on volunteers to pitch their own books and then offered specific ideas for them to market them effectively and interestingly.

Sadly, none of the ideas included traditional advertising in writing magazines!

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Read more about the article Thrillerfest 2008

Thrillerfest 2008

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez and Kathleen AntrimThrillerfest kicked off yesterday at the Grand Hyatt Hotel here in New York and I had the pleasure of attending the full day — I’ll be back tonight and most of Saturday — meeting some great people, picking up some interesting books, and taking in some insightful information on the publishing game from the perspective of successful authors in the thriller genre. Prior to attending, I considered myself a fan of thrillers but quickly realized the genre I tend to enjoy most is classified more as mystery than thriller — marketing semantics that, according to several authors, means more money for the thriller genre — the difference being the former’s focus on figuring out what happened while the latter emphasizes something that’s going to happen and the clock is ticking.

Lawrence Block’s Scudder series, my hands-down genre favorite, definitely falls under crime mystery, while Charlie Huston’s Thompson and Greg Rucka’s Kodiak series are thrillers, though neither author is in attendance at the show nor represented in the Barnes & Noble bookstore on-site, presumably because neither is a member of the sponsoring organization, International Thriller Writers. Inspired by the energy of the conference, I picked up four novels by authors I’ve never read before, including Kathleen Antrim (pictured, right), Steve Berry, Andrew Gross and David Liss, all but the latter I saw or met yesterday. I’ve started reading Antrim’s Capital Offense, which she describes as “What if the First Lady was plotting to kill the President?” and so far, it’s a brisk read that hits all the right notes expected from the genre.

The first session of the day, Learn How to Pitch Your Book (conducted by Antrim & Bob Mayer), was particularly fascinating for its breakdown of the process of developing a 25-word summary of your book that serves not just as your pitch to agents and editors — the only two influential people who will have actually read your entire book before it hits the bookshelves — but when done well, will represent it all the way through the sales process, internally and externally.

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