Dear Readers,
I’ve always loved stories within a specialized world. The author makes up rules about how his world works and plops fascinating characters into that world to sink or swim.
I first touched on the unseen wonder of life in The Queen of Sleepy Eye. The hero overhears a conversation–one-sided–between a new widow and her dead husband. This was a very small foray into magical realism, but I really liked it.
In Seeing Things (soon, like hopefully this week, to be released as a Kindle book), the hero’s hallucinations take on form and voice. In Birdie’s world her macular degeneration brings color and detail to her dark place. Nothing unusual there. But I asked myself, What if her hallucinations talked to her? Hallucinations aren’t supposed to do that, but what if they did? The results are both enlightening and troublesome.
Goodness & Mercy asks the question, What if God displayed his mercy and his goodness through children? This isn’t really magical realism unless you’re a hardcore concrete thinker. I happen to believe in miracles, so considering God’s work through a pair of twins came naturally, but to show how being extraordinary would effect the lives of the children and her family stretched me as a writer.
The novel I’m tweaking now, You Deserve Better, gives voice to regrets through antique telephones. Yep, if you hear a telephone ring in the Pierside Bait and Telephony, regret wants to talk to you. This is full-throttle magical realism, and I had a blast considering all the possibilities.
I’ll keep you updated on where You Deserve Better lands.
For now I’m playing with ideas for new worlds.
I hope to find a home in this genre for a long time.
Warmly,
Patti