Today I'm delighted to have a visit from my friend,
Tahlia Newland author of You Can't Shatter Me, a new young adult novella with an inspiring and
empowering message for solving bullying. Tahlia writes magical realism and
contemporary fantasy for young adults & adults. She has two short stories available free on kindle for a limited period, Not Me, It Can’t Be from 28th June to the 2nd July and A Hole in the Pavement from 3rd to 7th July.
Why I write magic realism
Magical Realism is a genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. They’re written as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the “real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of thought. In my writing, the magical elements take the form of analogies or extended metaphors for character’s inner experiences.
Sometimes the lines between magical realism and fantasy can become blurred, but the writing is more powerful if the genre stays within its boundaries. The difference between the two genres is that fantasy uses ordinary metaphors in a magical or fantasy world, whereas magical realism uses magical or fantastic metaphors in a real world. The magical aspect is a way of illuminating reality, rather than taking us into an unreal world.
I started out writing fantasy then realised that because my fantasy elements were often analogies for real things, it bordered on magical realism. I wrote a couple of magical realism stories for my short story collection A Matter of Perception and after readers raved about A Hole in the Pavement, (available now as a separate ebook on kindle) I thought I’d try my hand at more in the genre.
The beauty of magical realism is that it allows you to highlight and emphasise aspects of ordinary life in a highly imaginative and evocative way. I’ve always been fascinated by the mind and how it shapes our perception, but in a normal novel, if you spend too long on a characters thoughts and feelings, it can get boring.
With magical realism, I can express the character’s inner experience in a more interesting and powerful way by providing a visual image. For example when Dylan, the main male character tries to decide what subjects to choose for school the following year, words fly around the room and attack him, and when Carly, the female lead, battles doubt in herself, she uses laser light from her heart to destroys a huge purple doubt dragon.
The subject matter for You Can't Shatter Me is bullying, which could be too real for some, but if you turn it into fantasy, it becomes too unreal to relate to people’s lives. Writing about real kids in a very real situation but with magical elements to illuminate the character’s inner development was the perfect choice for You Can't Shatter Me.
Synopsis: You Can't Shatter Me
Sixteen year old Carly wants to write her own life and cast herself as a superhero, but when she stands up to a bully, the story gets out of her control. Dylan, a karate-trained nerd who supports her stand, turns out to be a secret admirer, and Justin, the bully, makes Carly his next victim. While romance blossoms, Dylan faces attacking words, an unreliable movie director, a concrete habit that requires smashing, and an unruly Neanderthal. Meanwhile, the bully’s increasing harassment forces Carly to deal with flying hooks, unflushable cowpats, and deadly dragons. An old hippie shows her an inner magic that’s supposed to make her invincible, but will Carly learn to use it before the bully strikes again and Dylan resorts to violence?
Book Links for You Can’t Shatter Me
Book trailer
http://youtu.be/ysXMYoJUsO0
Purchase links
Ebook
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Author bio & links
Tahlia is an avid reader, an extremely casual high school teacher, an occasional mask-maker and has studied philosophy & meditation for many years. After scripting and performing in Visual Theatre shows for 20 years, she is now a bone-fide expatriate of the performing arts. She lives in an Australian rainforest, is married with a teenage daughter and loves cats, but she doesn’t have one because they eat native birds.
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Don’t forget to pick up one of Tahlia’s free short stories for your kindle, Not Me, It Can’t Be from 28th June to the 2nd July and A Hole in the Pavement from 3rd to 7th July.
Goodreads Author page
Amazon Author page
Smashwords author page
Don’t forget to pick up one of Tahlia’s free short stories for your kindle, Not Me, It Can’t Be from 28th June to the 2nd July and A Hole in the Pavement from 3rd to 7th July.
Great post Tahlia.
ReplyDeleteI think magic realism is another great string to fantasy's bow and has a great chance of reading a wide audience.
I find my comfort zone in fantasy but I'm trying to do different things with the genre.
Best of luck with You Can't Shatter Me.
Thanks for your comment, David. I agree and think that's because it bridges the gap between contemporary fiction and fantasy
ReplyDeleteI got introduced to magical realism and natural supernaturalism in college when I read Latin American fiction. I think the latin american definition of magical realism is somewhat different from the american version and both are valid in their own way. The Latin American form of magical realism is not merely only evocative metaphor (although it often is) But it is combined with a sense of mystery and --depending on the author (for instance Borges or Gabriel Garcia Marquez) it is used to A) hint at the underlying magical mystery of everyday life...and to sacramentalize (in the Roman Catholic sense) the world. I haven't read your book and I hope to one day because I am writing a book with magical realism (latin American definition) and I like seeing magical realism, even if it is only used as metaphor. Much success with your book.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Carole, I don't think that way of looking at is different to what I said, it's more a deepening or extension of it. Although metaphorical, my 'magical' aspects do also 'hint at the underlying magical mystery of everyday life', though unfortunately not as eloquently as Borges or Marquez.
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