Magical Realism

 I've had the devil's own time figuring out how to market Prophets Tango and to whom. When I was filling out the categories offered by KDP, the reflex, without a lot of options, was Paranormal Romance. I've given readers a pretty comprehensive synopsis to keep away the people who went to that category looking for vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, and other deviant shit like Tentacle Romances and Sex with Dinosaurs. 

Yeah, I'm judging. That is some fucked up stuff and they should look into therapy. 

Anyway, those who have read the entire serial know that something else is going on. I just wasn't sure what to call it. I had heard the term "magical realism" before and the only context I had was "One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez which I read years ago and liked. 

Now, add to that "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie, "The House of Spirits" by Isabel Allende, and "Beloved" by Tomi Morrison. Some pretty high-powered company I find myself in. Magical Realism does not look like a genre for the faint-hearted writer or the reader who's only looking for a little Lizard Porn.

So this article popped into view the other day. It's kinda wordy so I'll cut to the chase for you.  The four pillars of Magical Realism are:

A real/contemporary setting.  No elaborate world-building. Prophets Tango is set in the Mid-'70s in the tri-state area from Manhattan to Mystic and points in between, both real and concocted, but not out of place. 

Magical Phenomena and creatures. A couple of people with different telepathic abilities and a pair of ghosts and some stuff I don't want to put here because, spoilers.

Magic's unknown origin and lore. Little to no explanation of how Jack or Anna came to have their abilities or why. 

Realistic presentation. Things happen that most people don't even notice.

    Jack shrugged. “So that only means you looked twice. Most people can’t be bothered. They see what they want to see. A beautiful woman,” he tipped his head back and winked, “and a party animal and that’s how it needs to be. And nobody’s gonna believe a fuckin’ word you say if you try to cash in. In fact, you could end up dead or something.” Jack’s face turned hard. Aged twenty years. “But worse, if you shoot your mouth off, Anna could be locked up, institutionalized. Experimented on. Dead. Think it through.”

So what I've come around to is that the right genre slot for Prophets Tango is Magical Realism (in the service of) Romance, as if Amazon will ever offer that! Time to go wide.

What do you think? 





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