Magical Realism

The Locksmith’s Secret

The Locksmith’s Secret
Title: The Locksmith’s Secret
Published: April 8, 2016
Author's Twitter: @TahliaNewland
Ella’s boyfriend Jamie seems to be her perfect match until a death in the family calls him back to England and it becomes clear that he’s hiding something. Can their relationship survive the revelation of something so astounding that it completely changes Ella’s perception of him and his place in her world? While Jamie struggles with family responsibilities, Ella’s steampunk murder mystery develops a life of its own, raising disturbing memories of her time as a striptease artist and a past life as a sexually abused Italian nun. She also dreams of an ephemeral city, where she seeks to unravel the locksmith’s secret and find the key that opens a door to other realities. All these, together with a lost brother, a desperate mother, a demanding cat, and a struggle to live up to Buddhist ideals, weave together in a rich tapestry that creates an extraordinary work of genre-bending treansrealist fiction    

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Worlds Within Worlds

Worlds Within Worlds
Title: Worlds Within Worlds
ASIN: B00PMPNSIO
Publisher:
Published: November 28, 2014
Author's Twitter: @TahliaNewland
Imagine living in a multi-layered reality of separate but complimentary worlds—physical, mental, spiritual and technological—when a bully you thought safely tucked away in the cyberworld suddenly appears in your physical world looking suspiciously like your worst nightmare. Can you stuff him back into your computer? And if not, can the Magan Lord’s daughter from the fantasy book you’re editing, your dreams of a rabid beast, your visions of a Tibetan Yogi and your reawakened memories help you maintain your sanity and survive the darkest night of your life? Find out in the double award-winning metaphysical thriller Worlds Within Worlds when all this happens to author, editor and reviewer Prunella Smith. This inspirational, transrealist work—a mix of psychological thriller, fantasy and romance—has been awarded the Awesome Indies Seal of Excellence and a BRAG Medallion of Excellence in Independent Fiction. Worlds Within Worlds has a unique perspective on the nature of creativity. Its touch is light, its humour distinctive but it reaches deep into the nature of human experience.

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The Evolution of Reptilian Handbags and Other Stories

The Evolution of Reptilian Handbags and Other Stories
Title: The Evolution of Reptilian Handbags and Other Stories
ASIN: B00I3Q9Y6E
Published: 24 Jan. 2014
Author's Twitter: @mlamaga
An unhappy housewife flees with her lover as civilization collapses in a tsunami of trash. A bank teller aids invisible thieves. A welder learns she has the power to kill with a kiss. A hive of women transforms tourists with arcane sexual rites. A Korean War sniper stalks his doppelganger: a children’s television host. Amnesiac goddesses-turned-farmers struggle for survival in war-torn, post-apocalyptic Iowa. By turns emotionally resonant and irreverent, surreal and sexy, these ten stories swirl with unseen currents, blending the fantastic and the mundane to get to the deeper truths of our existence.

Assessed for Awesome Indies

Equilibrium

Equilibrium
Title: Equilibrium
ASIN: B008U66T6U
Publisher:
Published: August 6, 2012
Epiphany and Martha are sisters with a stage mediumship act in Edwardian London. When they are asked to give a private spiritualist reading at the home of Lady Adelia Lyward to find out the truth about her brother's death, Martha must face up to her past. For two years ago, her affair with Lord Rafe Lyward ended in pregnant disgrace, and her attempted suicide in the River Thames. But there is more at stake than Martha's anonymous return, for Epiphany bears the burden of restoring the equilibrium, not just to the Lywards but to her sister and ultimately to herself.

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The Imagination Thief

Imagination Thief, The
Title: Imagination Thief, The
ASIN: B074CJGM42
Published: July 27, 2017
Author:
Author's Twitter: @RohanQuine
Alone in his skyscraper office one night, Jaymi undergoes a transformation that changes his life: he acquires the power to see into others’ minds, and then to control and project their thoughts.  Realising the power of this, he hypnotises a media mogul into broadcasting an electrifying extravaganza of sound and vision emanating from Jaymi, the like of which has never been witnessed before. However, one of the mogul’s underlings has more subversive plans for milking Jaymi’s talent, involving the theft of others’ imaginations and intimate memories for commercial gain.  This huge broadcast plunges Jaymi and his friend Alaia into the underbelly of Asbury Park – a seaside town once thriving but now half-forgotten, whose oceanfront is almost a ghost town. Ruled by gangsters and drug dealers, headed by Lucan, it is populated by lost souls and the beautiful who have fallen on hard times. Blackmailed into thieving the most private and primal parts of their imaginations, Jaymi discovers a web of secrets and provocations simmering beneath the surface of the town, about to explode.  Delving into the most extreme possibilities of imagination, personality and love, The Imagination Thief explores the universal human predicaments of power, beauty, happiness, hopelessness, good and evil.

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You Can’t Shatter Me

You Can't Shatter Me
Title: You Can't Shatter Me
ASIN: B008DME8PA
Publisher:
Published: November 13, 2013
Author's Twitter: @TahliaNewland
Sixteen-year-old Carly is set to become top of her art class until bully-boy Justin gives her a vicious payback for standing up for one of his victims. Her boyfriend, karate-trained nerd Dylan, wants to smash the guy’s face in, but a fight at school means suspension, losing his chance at school honours and facing a furious father. Carly is determined to find a more creative solution to her problem, but will she sort it out before Dylan’s inner caveman hijacks him and all hell breaks loose? Justin might be a pain, but his harassment leads to a deepening of Dylan and Carly’s romance, and Carly finds an inner strength she didn’t know she had. The magical realism style provides a touch of fantasy in an otherwise very real story that offers heart-warming solutions to bullying. You Can’t Shatter Me is food for the soul. It has received a BRAG Medallion for Outstanding Fiction and an AIA Seal of Excellence in Fiction.

Assessed 

July, 2013

Ripple

Ripple
Title: Ripple
ASIN: B00NHAW4PE
Published: September 10, 2014
Author:
Author's Twitter: @tuiallen
The twenty million year old story of how one dolphin was inspired by love to an intellectual achievement that changed the universe. Twenty million years ago, powers of the universe allow an ancient spirit one final chance to achieve a mysterious intellectual purpose, by incarnating it as a dolphin on the planet Azure (Earth.) The spirit is born as Ripple, a vulnerable female with a seeming tendency to insanity. She falls for the scarred fighter-dolphin Cosmo and love inspires her to achieve her purpose. But before she can communicate her discovery, she must overcome terrific odds among the terrors and tragedies of the ancient oceans. If she can succeed, the universe will change forever, and allow dolphins to profoundly affect the yet-to-evolve human race.

Assessed for Awesome Indies

Shadow on the Wall

Shadow on the Wall
Title: Shadow on the Wall
ASIN: B007V98F4Q
Published: April 17, 2012
Author's Twitter: @PavartiKTyler
Recai Osman: Muslim, philosopher, billionaire and Superhero? Controversial and daring, Shadow on the Wall details the transformation of Recai Osman from complicated man to Superhero. Forced to witness the cruelty of the Morality Police in his home city of Elih, Turkey, Recai is called upon by the power of the desert to be the vehicle of change. Does he have the strength to answer Allah’s call or will his dark past and self doubt stand in his way? Pulling on his faith in Allah, the friendship of a Jewish father-figure and a deeply held belief that his people deserve better, Recai Osman must become The SandStorm. In the tradition of books by Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie, Shadow on the Wall tackles issues of religion, gender, corruption and the basic human condition. Beautiful and challenging, this is not a book to miss.

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A Hole in the Pavement

A Hole in the Pavement
Title: A Hole in the Pavement
ASIN: B006IJWMJO
Published: December 5, 2011
Author's Twitter: @TahliaNewland
Every morning, Norris watches his goddess walk to the bus stop in front of him, the gap between them far wider than the physical distance. This morning, she stumbles. He wants to run and help her, but finds himself stuck in a hole that appeared along with his self doubt. By the time he gets out, she’s long gone. He vows that if it happens again, he won’t hesitate, but when she falls the next day, he has more than his own hole to deal with. Can he find his heroic self before she walks away?

Assessed for Awesome Indies