Monday, July 11, 2016

Magical Realism in The Double Life of Tutweiler Buckhead




The Double Life of Tutweiler Buckhead is an urban crime story.  I wrote set in the city I had been living in for 7 years when I wrote it.  I may well live in Indianapolis again - in fact, I think so.  I just had to attend to a family matter involving Europe.

This novel is about preventing a meth amphetemine lab from being built within the 465 Highway loop, which is a sacred boundary.   I like teamwork in real life and so it seemed natural for me to make the hero actually a team of champions.  The protagonists are not heroes like in the comics but are a blend of 'every day heroes' types and protagonists who don't live up to the term 'hero' or the feminine 'heroine'.

Magical realism is a subgenre that intrigues me.  I read a lot of fantasy as a youth and met with a certain amount of magic in the real world. Magic in the real world usually manifests as either:  stage magic – intentionally trickery.  Some claim that politics and law are forms of real world magic.  Others are less cynical and believe that only stage magicians and illusionists are real world magicians - the kind you can get at parties.  The second most common form of magic in the real world is religious practice.  The religious rituals of all religions other than one's own are just magic.  The third real world manifestation of magic is actual 'occultism' including witchcraft and 'that stuff Aleister Crowely did' involving robes and chanting not clearly associated with any religion. 

I was very interested in presenting some realistic magic within the novel.  I wanted it to be enough but not so much that people would be reading a fantasy novel.  This needed to not be sword and sorcery.  I LOVE sword and sorcery by the way but wow, did this need to be different.  I think I managed to present that well in the novel.  Some of it is religious ritual related and some of it is not.  I think readers will be able to enjoy the contrast.  I would LOVE reader feedback about how the magical realism is in the novel.  One has such a narrow perspective as the creative artist.



The Double Life of Tutweiler Buckhead
Miriam Pia

Genre: urban fiction, magical realism,
crime fiction, mystery

Publisher: SBPRA

Date of Publication:  2015
ISBN: 978-1628572254

Number of pages:300
Word Count: 95,000

Book Description:

Frustrated by the audacity of local villains, the sheriff of Marion County turns to the mayor. Urban fiction set in a real city, The Double Life of Tutweiler Buckhead takes some of the charm of vigilante comic book heroism and mixes it with the nitty gritty of contemporary crime fiction.

A band of champions searches for the missing pieces in the evil plot of a local drug kingpin in The Double Life of Tutweiler Buckhead: An Adventure in Indianapolis.

Ideal for those who love events of the outside world and the workings of the mind – characters’ actions and thoughts are portrayed in this contemporary novel – with just a touch of magic.



About the Author:

Miriam Pia has been writing for decades, including over ten years as a professional.  Most of her work was done without a byline and as a ghostwriter.  This is the author's first published novel.



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