Most so-called "epic" novels are the stuff of motion picture blockbusters: tragic love stories, diabolical villains, great battles with gigantic armies colliding upon endless fl at plains of death. Yet in the real world, for most people, the greatest battles of their lives are the ones fought inside their own heads--and the villains are creatures both self-created and self-nurtured.

Meet Charlie Barnes. Age 24, bright, college-educated, talented ... and a failure. Now he's back home in Los Angeles after a disastrous two-year pilgrimage to New York and back. No more time to fail. Time to give it one last shot.

Set against the backdrop of the 1980 Iranian Hostage Crisis and colored by panoramas of California's fabled Santa Anita Racetrack, "Where Gods Gamble" is Eastland's emotional dance through the history, hope, and failed promise of America.

A reluctant hero, young Barnes is a typical, willing victim of America's manufactured myths and sweet, seductive slogans. But now he has an important decision to make. Will he pursue the depressing, false security of a normal 9-to-5 job? Will he select the far more difficult--yet infinitely more fulfi lling--career of a professional gambler? Or will he succumb to his own internal demons in trying to sort it all out ...

There has always been a lot of confusion and misconception regarding the short-story. What exactly is it? What exactly defines it? And if a true "literary artiste" is capable of churning out a whole novel, why waste time on a bunch of stories in the first place?

C. Bradford Eastland, author of the groundbreaking novel "Where Gods Gamble," answers all these questions and more in his masterwork collection of short fiction, ""L.A. Journal"."

Throughout the twenty-two stories of this nostalgic, regionally driven volume, Eastland the artist's lifelong mission becomes clear; to leave behind a handful of powerful, original, timeless vignettes of the times and places in which he lived. Along the way, he takes a stab at making sense of many of the great issues-love, lust, war, religion, friendship, betrayal, craziness, joblessness, homelessness, homophobia, racism, patriotism, terrorism, and the Giants versus the Dodgers-we humans brush up against every day of our lives.

So take a look at Los Angeles through the eyes of a bum, a bartender, a disillusioned writer, an old Negro Leagues ballplayer, and a little boy angry at God-among others. You might wind up seeing one of the greatest and most mocked cities on Earth in a wholly different light.

Most so-called epic novels are the stuff of motion picture blockbusters: tragic love stories, diabolical villains, great battles with gigantic armies colliding upon endless flat plains of death. Yet in the real world, for most people, the greatest battles of their lives are the ones fought inside their own heads and the villains are creatures both self-created and self-nurtured.

Meet Charlie Barnes. Age 24, bright, college-educated, talented and a failure. Now he s back home in Los Angeles after a disastrous two-year pilgrimage to New York and back. No more time to fail. Time to give it one last shot.

Set against the backdrop of the 1980 Iranian Hostage Crisis and colored by panoramas of California s fabled Santa Anita Racetrack, "Where Gods Gamble" is Eastland s emotional dance through the history, hope, and failed promise of America.

A reluctant hero, young Barnes is a typical, willing victim of America s manufactured myths and sweet, seductive slogans. But now he has an important decision to make. Will he pursue the depressing, false security of a normal 9-to-5 job? Will he select the far more difficult yet infinitely more fulfilling career of a professional gambler? Or will he succumb to his own internal demons in trying to sort it all out

There has always been a lot of confusion and misconception regarding the short-story. What exactly is it? What exactly defines it? And if a true "literary artiste" is capable of churning out a whole novel, why waste time on a bunch of stories in the first place?

C. Bradford Eastland, author of the groundbreaking novel "Where Gods Gamble," answers all these questions and more in his masterwork collection of short fiction, ""L.A. Journal"."

Throughout the twenty-two stories of this nostalgic, regionally driven volume, Eastland the artist's lifelong mission becomes clear; to leave behind a handful of powerful, original, timeless vignettes of the times and places in which he lived. Along the way, he takes a stab at making sense of many of the great issues-love, lust, war, religion, friendship, betrayal, craziness, joblessness, homelessness, homophobia, racism, patriotism, terrorism, and the Giants versus the Dodgers-we humans brush up against every day of our lives.

So take a look at Los Angeles through the eyes of a bum, a bartender, a disillusioned writer, an old Negro Leagues ballplayer, and a little boy angry at God-among others. You might wind up seeing one of the greatest and most mocked cities on Earth in a wholly different light.