Last Songs & True Magic: An Excerpt

My newest book, Last Songs & True Magic, is available now on Amazon. It is also available through local bookstores. Ask them to order it for you. (It’s on Ingram. They’ll know what that means).

This collection of shorter pieces includes the novella, True Magic, which tells the story of the only practitioner of honest to goodness magic. The problem is, he’s just not that good at it.

Here’s the first bit of the novella:

“There is magic in this world,” said the woodsman to his son. “If you see, truly see, an acorn grow into a tree, and that tree be turned to lumber, and that lumber be turned into a house, you cannot doubt that magic is real.”

“But, that is boring,” said the boy.

“And that is the nature of magic. True magic is boring. And that’s why so few people bother to do it.”

- An excerpt from the Austrian collection of tales The Wisdom of the Woods, author unknown.

 All persons and events depicted in this story are fictional. Any resemblance to any person living or dead, and particularly those who are litigious, is strictly coincidental

If you find yourself among a group of magicians, it is not difficult to get them to discuss, ad nauseum, their art and its practitioners throughout history. Ask them, or don’t, for surely they will offer this information unprompted, who the greatest magician of all time is, and you will not get a consensus. You will get a Houdini or a Houdine. A Dai Vernon or a Ricky Jay. A Copperfield here, a Blackstone there. Some will vehemently argue that Penn & Teller belong at the top for their skill and their rock and roll popularization of the craft. Occasionally, someone will toss David Blaine or Criss Angel into the mix. Regardless of the choice, the practitioners will agree they have named great showmen who brought new technique to the art; they were good at selling the sizzle.

So, when you ask magicians who the best among them ever was, they will argue about the specifics of the who, but will invariably agree on the why as they give you a list of technically proficient performers who knew how to put on a good show.

But when you ask these same magicians, preferably after they have been into their cups – regular cups filled with whiskey and wine and not balls or flowers or doves – if there was ever anyone who came close to performing actual, honest to God magic, they will pause. And then they will quibble about religious figures and mythical figures. But once you get them past that, and if they will answer you, every single one of them will reluctantly admit that they know of only one person who ever performed actual magic. 

His name was Jim Lane, and as far as anyone can tell, he is the only human being who ever lived who could perform feats of actual magic. The problem was that he wasn’t particularly good at it. And it just wasn’t that interesting.

***

True Magic isn’t the only story in the collection. There's humor, action, horror, drama, and some last songs in here. You might even find some romantic comedy and fantasy. Sometimes, true magic simply does not fit into a tidy box.

This book includes:
Bones and Longe's Last Song
Closing Time Bar Inspection Report
Overnight Crossing
Questions Raised by Willy Wonka
Love and Pancakes at the Top of the World
Random Lines From That Noir Novel I am Writing
True Magic (a novella)
The Flying Jaguar
Random Lines From That Cybertech Thriller I am Writing
Christmas at Sir Percival's Estate
Tower of the Necromancer
Random Lines From That Wistful Memoir I am Writing
Madridsburg Square
Bisbee Abstract
Questions Raised by Piano Man
The Equinox Pattern

A few pieces come from this site, but mostly it’s new material, and even the older stuff has been reworked. Hopefully you will encounter some magical last song that resonates with you.

Last Songs & True Magic

Available in Paperback and Kindle