Midweek Magic

The past few weeks have been exciting for me. Not only have I started a brand new job, but I’m the very first employee! If you’ve been reading my posts, or at least my last post, you probably have an idea that this whole career thing hasn’t been easy for me so far. BUT, from what I can tell, I think I’ve found what I need to really get started. It’s nice to be back in my element.

Got me feelin’ like

[FYI: Hope y’all like giphs! ‘Cause this post is full of ’em! I went a little giph-happy and I’m not at all sorry about it.]

I’m in the digital marketing field, which basically means I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, Tumblr, Flickr (the list goes on, yadda yadda yadda) 24/7. It is as fun as it sounds, FYI.

I mostly write content for Facebook and Twitter, take photos for Instagram, and write blogs (among other things) for my agency’s clients. Ah, the clients. The most interesting and challenging part of marketing.

In order to Tweet, Facebook, blog, etc., for a client, you have to create a sort of character to represent each business with a personality to emulate in your posts. Naturally, there’s a lot of research involved. I’ve learned more than I care to about topics such as carpal tunnel syndrome, ganglion cysts, nasal polyps, sinusitis, and now…furniture and synthetic grass! 

(Who am I kidding, though? I enjoy every minute of learning about these topics. Call me a nerd, call me whatever you want, but it’s highly stimulating for me.)

Even though I might find it all fascinating, a lot of creative thinking goes into making these topics palatable for an audience. A lot none of them are super interesting to the general public, and I take pride in making them at least somewhat engaging and relevant via social media.

…And sometimes I get stuck.

As all writers inevitably do from time to time.

And as all writers have to combat in their own manner. Then it’s all like:

I don’t have one technique in particular for coaxing the muses into cooperation; like most things in my life, I do what feels right in the moment. While that sometimes gets me into trouble in other circumstances, I’ve found it works well for curing writer’s block.

Recently, I’ve been using magic.

I SO WISH I was referring to real magic that I make with my wand, but alas, I have no magical blood in my veins. That, or my letter from Hogwarts got lost in the mail…which, no, Hogwarts would make sure I received it. With no evident magical powers, I have to make do with literary magic, which is almost as good.

But I could totally pass for a witch, right?

Magic For Beginners is the title of my favorite short story collection by Kelly Link. It is also the title of my favorite short story within the collection. Something tells me it was Kelly’s favorite to write, too. (Just speculating, of course.) It stands out to me as much more personal and full of emotion than the rest of the stories that are included in Magic For Beginners (don’t get it twisted, though: each one is excellent and all come highly recommended by yours truly).

So I’ll give you a quick synopsis and review. Hopefully I’ll convince you to add this one to your TBR list! I’m really horrible at summarizing without giving away the ending, but I promise to stop myself from going into too much detail.

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Jeremy Mars is a teenager. Jeremy has a close circle of friends (who call him Jerm, which he hates; Jeremy wishes they would call him Mars instead)  Jeremy and his close circle of friends are obsessed with an obscure-but-popular-in-select-circles TV show called The Library.

The Library is about–you guessed it–a library! But of course, it’s a badass library…a badass magical library. It’s full of forbidden books, forests and parks, villains, heroes, and a couple of main characters named Fox and Prince Wing. What is most intriguing about these two characters, to me, are the actors who play them. Fox and Prince Wing are never played by the same actor or actress twice. (But Fox is always painfully beautiful, no matter who plays the part).

There is no regularly scheduled time for The Library. So loyal fans of the cult TV show scour message boards and fan sites, whilst flipping through channels until their efforts are rewarded with an elusive new episode. Not only does The Library air at sporadic times of day and night, but it comes on different channels from one episode to the next. 

Even the commercials aren’t the regular ads for toilet paper and car insurance; they advertise products that seem to only exist within the universe of The Library. Like Euphoria:

“Euphoria is: The Librarian’s Tonic—When Watchfulness is not Enough…no one is exactly sure what Euphoria is for, whether it is alcoholic or caffeinated, what it tastes like, if it is poisonous or delightful, or even whether or not it’s carbonated…”

I’d love a nice cold glass of Euphoria; to me it sounds delightful. And I love the way The Library bleeds into main plot about Jeremy Mars and his group of self-proclaimed Goth Library enthusiast friends.

One girl in the group especially intrigued me. She’s a touch more misunderstood than the rest of the gang, and infinitely more mysterious. Her t-shirts always have something to say, though Talis herself rarely seems to utter a word. 

Then there’s Elizabeth. She’s Jeremy’s best-friend-recently-turned-love-interest, and the only girl, he claims, that he will ever kiss on the roof. Which is somehow a very romantic sentiment in the context of this story.

Anyway, lots of other things happen. Jeremy Mars inherits an (apparently) magical phone booth, along with a wedding chapel called Hell’s Bells, in Las Vegas. His father is an eccentric, giant-spider-obsessed writer who has an affinity for ugly, repurposed furniture and shoplifting from bookstores. Jeremy has strange dreams and even stranger phone conversations with Fox from The Library while he’s awake. 

I have to skip ahead or this “review” is going to get out of control and very lengthy. The end of this story felt like a great big opening to a million other ones waiting to be written…maybe a few of them by me! Who knows? Magic For Beginners concludes with Jeremy and his mother embarking their journey across the United States, starting with their newly-inherited Las Vegas wedding chapel and phone booth. Jeremy, over the course of his phone calls with (maybe) Fox from his phone booth, leaves for the adventure with a sort of higher purpose, a mission.

I can’t really explain any more about this story and do it any justice. It’s one of those things you just need to experience for yourself.

What are some of your favorite short stories? Which ones do I NEED to add to my list? Let’s discuss!