Please welcome Michelle this morning! I definitely believe in magic, so please join us.  And for even more fun, Michelle is hosting me over at her site today – http://michellegflye.com/2013/04/26/special-guest-donna-steele-talks-about-inspiration/  so double your pleasure!

Do I Believe in Magic?
By Michelle Garren Flye

My most recent novel, Close Up Magic, is very much about magic, but not in a mystical, fantastical sense. I’m writing about performance magic, a craft I respect wholeheartedly. Performance magic is a combination of illusion and misdirection intended to amaze and delight an audience, and I’m usually the first to ooh and ahh at a good show.

Obviously, magicians are mysterious, but are they magic? Even David Copperfield says the secret to magic is in the performance.

Real magic is far more everyday for me. I’ve seen it in my children, in the flight of a bumblebee (how do they do that?), in azaleas (how are they all the same?) and in a gentle summer rain. If you can see magic the way I do, all you really have to do is walk outside—hell, just open your eyes—to be astounded.

So what’s the draw of performance magic? I love the artistry of it. Magicians, like all artists, really, are men reaching for divinity. They seek the ability to amaze us the same way a beautiful flower or a lightning strike does. No artist can ever achieve that, but with magicians, the fun (for the audience, anyway) is in the journey.

Here’s the blurb for Close Up Magic:

Reporter Stacey Matthewson has made a living writing sensational stories that knock celebrities off their pedestals. Now she’s got a hot lead on an even hotter magician who’s mystifying Las Vegas with his new show–the problem is, she’s had a crush on him for years. How can she write a story that might ruin him, especially when he proves himself to be so much more than she’d ever dreamed?

Magician Andre Hawke has a knack for making things disappear, but when it comes to his brother’s drinking and gambling, he’s got a problem. Hiring the sexy reporter who threatens to blow away his carefully wrought illusion might be the answer to his problems…or she might bring on a whole new set of them.

Stacey’s never believed in magic, and Andre doesn’t know who to trust anymore. Can passion overcome their inhibitions, or will betrayal stem the tide of love?

So now for the fun part.

I’ve been posting a lot of the tidbits I’ve learned on a Facebook page for Close Up Magic (https://www.facebook.com/CloseUpMagicFlye), and the great thing about it is, if you like that page, you’re automatically entered to win a Kindle Paperwhite I’ll be giving away on my blog (http://michellegflye.com). Also, I’ll enter anyone who comments on this page in the contest, but please leave me a way to contact you! If you want even more ways to enter to win, check out the rules here: http://michellegflye.com/2013/04/13/having-fun-with-magic-wanna-join-me-contest/.

Now, you tell me what you think about magic and magicians. Do you believe?