Portable magicband

Books are magic Lance knows this which is why he wants to be a writer His stories however never seem to quite capture that sorcery until his uncle buys him an antique typewriter for his fifteenth birthday When Lance sits down to create stories on the machine he finds himself touching parts of his imagination he never knew existed Tales of grief and loss forgiveness and redemption mortality and immortality and above all the overwhelming power of stories He begins to think of the typewriter itself as a magical relic the muse from which the tales spring. Portable magic book box Is he right or has the typewriter merely helped him access the magic in himself And ultimately does the distinction even matter Portable Magic Rewind or Die Book 37 Portable Magic is a multilayered tale a love letter to what it takes to be a writer It s sentimental but not overly so I ll admit to catching feels esp with Garth and Franklin and any Dad involved stuff and moves along quickly through a series of interlinked vignettes These examine things like growing up as an outsider being queer family relations and how writing can take over your life eclipsing all other loves I enjoyed all the unexpected twists and different characters and though it became momentarily confusing at times lots of character names it felt like the story held together through to the end It s an engaging book with subtle overtones of magical realism and some good insight Will have to seek out of Gunnels work Mark Allan Gunnells 4 stars I loved this book. Portable magic device fohoway Other reviewers have already summarized the book so I won t do that here The thing I really want to add to the discussion is that this book has the gee whiz sense of wonder that you d find in a Ray Bradbury book There may or may not be magic in the typewriter but for sure there is magic in stories Portable Magic was a delight to read Mark Allan Gunnells Unusual nearly experimental but captivating lIt s not often that I find myself at a loss for describing What a novel is about and that s not the novel s fault because it knows exactly what it is it s that I can t find the right words but I ll do my best Portable magic isn t a single narrative with a beginning middle and end as one would expect It s like a series of small stories that interconnected Tell you what the creative process that goes in writing is down to how people outside the writer perceive each step of the process I particularly felt I could relay to when someone made little of the work that goes into writing and what it actually is as if it were some hobby that we do for fun only. Portable magnifier for visually impaired It s a quick read and a fascinating glimpse into the mind of those of us that getting to this storytelling business because we feel like we have something to tell Is the magic in our minds In our hearts In the keys that we use to type Or is it something that piques our curiosity and suddenly awakens when we actually start doing it like some kind of magic spell that we didn t know we cast I love it when authors start playing a little and growing outside the lines and that s what Gunnells is doing here This feels cozy and interesting and uplifting all at once. Book Portable magician Very recommended Mark Allan Gunnells In his new story collection Portable Magic Mark Allan Gunnells explores a wide range of genres including a post apocalyptic tale a ghost story tales that blur the boundaries between reality and fiction such as when a grieving fan at the mausoleum of his favorite writer meet a grieving character a journey into a dream among others. PDF Portable magic kingdom Gunnells who is best known for his horror fiction does not disappoint in this new collection which crossed than one genre boundary I especially liked that this story collection is about stories and storytelling Gunnells sets this up with a frame story Fifteen year old Lance receives as a birthday present from his uncle an antique manual typewriter When Lance an aspiring writer sits down to write he feels an almost electrical jolt when he touches the typewriter keys His stories change It seems as if he has accessed imagination he didn t know he had His stories acquire a new power and he is surprised at the stories that seem to be flowing out of his fingertips He seems he has found his muse or rather the typewriter is helping find his own interior muse. Book Portable magical I want to look a little closely at three of Lance s unexpected stories The first The End is the Beginning is a tale of a high school student Kyle waiting for that all important letter has he or has he not been accepted into the college he desperately wants to attend The letter comes but the letter has only has only two words The End Kyle is devastated he wants to go to the school and find out what this means His mother shakes her head and tells him their story is over You can t leave this room she tells him You can t even leave this moment We re in a short story not a novel Her face goes blank She no longer seems human but rather a mannequin These are not the characters one expects They know they are in a story the reader has been invited into the story s backstage Kyle refuses to accept his ending and challenges his Creator Malek demanding a longer script a bigger part In essence the reader is invited into the process of storytelling The House That Dreams Built takes the reader from story as theatre story as the act of storytelling to story as dream Keith comes home to find an unexpected gift from his husband Gene Inside the package he finds a tiny two story house brown shingled roof two attic windows a replica of the home of Keith s favorite writer Bradley Raymond The replica was carved from a brick of Raymond s home now torn down Raymond s fiction was Keith s escape from bullying and parental abuse The gift triggers dreams dreams of the real house and Raymond upstairs writing and again Keith has a gift from the writer Yes Bradley Raymond is meant to be a homage to Ray Bradbury whose fantasy and science fiction can be said to be akin to dreams This story is also about dreams as story as the stuff of story That Raymond s stories helped Keith survive is a testament to the power of stories. Book Portable magic 8 As much as we all dream and have to dream the last story I want to talk about asks us to consider how much we need stories The Library takes place after the apocalypse Books are rare as many were used as fuel Lowell and Dru are on the run seeking a haven from the chaos They come across The Community where stories are be bought by making a trade As Avery a member of The Community tells them no one knew how badly they missed stories until they were hard to come by People gotta have stories They make their deal and are invited into the library There are no books Instead they find a man a writer whom Lowell recognizes He tells them the stories they bought This living library is being kept prisoner What should Lowell and Dru do if anything Answering this question proves less straight forward than they imagined This story attests to the power of stories and how essential they are It reminds us that stories were oral first told by people like this living library who tells stories he knew by heart When I finished this gem of a collection I found myself thinking of Walter Fisher 1931 2018 Professor Emeritus at the USC Annenberg for Communication and Journalism and his idea that humans should be reconceptualized as Homo Narrans Humans are the animals that tell stories We are all storytellers He argues in Human Communication as Narration Toward a Philosophy of Reason Value and Action among other things that all forms of human communication must be seen as stories Granted the idea of stories here is a broad one but it speaks to what Gunnells is exploring in this collection the art and process of storytelling storytelling as a creative act We tell stories to entertain yes and we also tell them to make sense of and interpret human experience This collection celebrates this essential human act That these tales are told through a queer lens adds to the power of these tales I do find myself wishing the stories were longer which again attests to their power Highly recommended Mark Allan Gunnells