What is Magick Realism? by author Sherri L. Dodd

 

 

At the age of eight, Arista Kelly was frantically swept up by her parents and whisked off to an isolated town in the California redwoods. Two days later, her parents were gone. Now at the age of twenty-three, she has settled quite nicely into an eclectic lifestyle, much like her great aunt, and guardian since childhood, Bethie. She enjoys the use of herbs and crystals to help her commune with the energy and nature around her and finds pleasure in the company of her beloved pet, Royal. Usually quite satisfied with her mundane life high in the Santa Cruz Mountains, life becomes unsettling when a new recurring vision of an ominous tattoo as well as increased activity from the ghostly presence within her own cottage invade her once-harmonious existence. But life in this mountain sanctuary takes an even darker turn when the body of Arista's former classmate is found in the nearby river. As other young women fall prey to a suspected serial killer, Arista realizes that the terror is coming to her.

Purchase a copy of Murder Under Redwood Moon

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Under-Redwood-Moon-Paranormal/dp/1685133886

Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murder-under-redwood-moon-sherri-l-dodd/

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/murder-under-redwood-moon-a-thrilling-paranormal-murder-mystery-sherri-l-dodd/21145506

You can also add this to your GoodReads reading list

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/206022905-murder-under-redwood-moon

What is Magick Realism?

Google makes defining magick realism on paper quite easy. You take the first part – magick – and realize that adding a ‘k’ to the word known for black silk hats containing plush white bunnies makes it into a reference toward occult or spiritual practice. The second word – realism – is accepting a situation as it is and being prepared to deal with it.

 “Did you say occult?” you may ask in a recoil, with either your heartrate picking up or your mind shutting down further discussion. I do not blame you. The occult has long been associated with demons and black magick. But it also consists of fun pastimes like astrology or tarot readings when you feel that random urge to meet with a mystical woman to find out about the promotion you applied for. Come Monday, all is confirmed by your generous manager. These readings are even more fun when they involve your love life, as a friend of mine found out when she visited a reputable seer. Feeling unwanted after her recent breakup, she was pleased to discover that she would soon meet her future husband and was given his profession and initials. About three months later, her and I are enjoying the late-eighties downtown dance scene when she totally hits it off with a random guy. By the end of the night, she realized that while it was not quite the profession as she had envisioned it, his career matched, as did one initial. By the next week, she found their astrology signs paired well, too. While the details were intriguing it was the actual chemistry that led to their engagement the following year. Only then did she realize his surname before adoption matched the missing initial. The seer’s premonition, complete.

 Magick realism is also rooted in contact with deceased loved ones. My favorite magickal moment happened on what would have been my revered grandmother’s hundredth birthday. Late-afternoon, I ‘told’ her how much I missed her and asked for a sign that she heard me. Not expecting the ‘response’ anytime soon, I donned a swimsuit and soaked in the hot tub with my husband. With no rain in the forecast, due to it being out of season and a drought, within thirty minutes of my request, a small shower trickled down upon us from a passing cloud, complete with that fresh natural scent. My grandmother loved rain as much as I, so it was easy for me to see the magick realism of the moment. Further, we watched the small cloud slowly dissipate as it drifted from our vicinity, giving no one else the experience.

 For me, magick realism is seeing the world beyond the mundane. Sure, we can explain away most things with dry, grounded, and scientific reasoning. But why? When there is happenstance, so flukey, that you scratch your head with a scrutinizing suspicion, why lose out on a chance for a novel experience? Yes, keep one foot on the ground, as you do not want to end up being a regular in the evaluation ward, but to work on rekindling that fantastical perspective you had as a child can bring a richness to your life that makes it just a little bit brighter.

About the Author, Sherri Dodd

Sherri was raised in southeast Texas. Walking barefoot most days and catching crawdads as they swam the creek beds, she had a love for all things free and natural. Her childhood ran rampant with talk of ghosts, demons, and backcountry folklore. This inspired her first short story for sale about a poisonous flower that shot toxins onto children as they smelled it. Her classmate bought it for all the change in his pocket. It was not long after that her mother packed the two of them up and headed to the central coast of California. She has ping-ponged throughout the area ever since.

Her first real step into writing was the non-fiction fitness book, Mom Looks Great – The Fitness Program for Moms published in 2005, and maintaining its accompanying blog. Now, transmuting the grief of her father's passing, she has branched into Fiction, specifically the genre of Paranormal Thriller with generous dashes of Magick Realism! Her Murder, Tea & Crystals Trilogy released book one - Murder Under Redwood Moon - in March 2024. Book two - Moonset on Desert Sands - released in March 2025, and the final book in the series – Hummingbird Moonrise – became #1 New Release in Occult Supernatural on Amazon in October 2025!

You can follow the author at:

Website: www.sherridodd.com

Instagram: @Sherri.Dodd.Author  https://www.instagram.com/sherri.dodd.author/

10 Things You Might Not Know About One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches by Kayleigh Kavanagh

  

Powerful bloodlines tied by Fate, who can’t be free even in death...

 

Demdike and Chattox, famed witches of Pendle Forest, might be dead, but they’re not gone. Bound to their bloodline, they’ve spent the past two and a half centuries watching over their descendants, waiting for when they’ll be needed. When 14 year old Yana comes into her psychic abilities and inherits the ‘eyes of the Chattox family’, she can see the long-dead witches, as well as an encroaching evil. But even with this foreknowledge, she’s trapped by marriage interviews and being unable to see her own future, and more importantly, whoever her future husband will be. 

Demdike’s healing gifts are alive and working in Claire, a mid-30s midwife well renowned for her skills and holding her tongue. The Secrets of Pendle are safe with her and her midwives. However, when surgeons looking to make standardisation the norm encroach on her territory, she soon realises how, even a respected woman is vulnerable in a patriarchal system. The two descendants must come together to protect the ones they love from an ancient evil, all whilst balancing their lives and the cruelties of being a woman in a man’s world. Set in late 1800s NW England, this book has all the elements of the area: strong, hardy people, atmospheric horror and days as unpredictable as the weather.  

One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches is available at Amazon.

Book Excerpt

She hadn’t known what to expect from death. No one did. Still, none of her previous thoughts could have come close. This, and she was definitely having an atypical experience. For most souls, death was a release from the mortal coil. Complete separation from the life they’d once lived. She hadn't been so lucky. 

Some parts of the system had been the same. Her soul had been scooped up. Taken somewhere. She vaguely recalled going over her life and having events explained. Gaining an understanding of the why; to the point she was no longer angry about things which had once made her furious. However, the entire encounter was now a blur. 

The powers that be had done this on purpose, but the awareness lingered instinctively. Either way, she knew she'd died, gone to the other place, and then thrown back. Before they could send her along to wherever she should have gone next. There'd been an issue. A snag. One which stopped her from moving along to the happy, bliss-filled world of the nether realm. Said snag bore one name: Chattox. Even in death, her frenemy was still causing her bloody issues.

“Hey, Demdike, how’s non-life treating you?”

Demdike didn’t answer, suddenly filled with the desire to bludgeon the other woman. However, she knew from experience it would be pointless. They weren’t physical beings any longer—even if they were still tied to the physical world. Unless she was willing to destroy the other's soul, the spirit could reform. A tempting idea some days; this non-life was enough to make even the most patient saint a little homicidal. However, even in her worse moments, she wasn't willing to land the final blow.

“The same way it’s been treating me for the past two and a half hundred years,” she eventually returned. Still not looking at the other, less she finally indulged her violent impulses.

“They’re having a bake sale soon, at the local church. Gods, I miss cake.”

Demdike sighed. The sad part was she couldn’t even get rid of the other. Without Chattox, she would be entirely alone in this exhausting existence.

“Their cake isn’t anything like the one we used to have. They have more access to sugar, for starters.”

Demdike wasn’t even going to comment on the reasons why. King James I's and his ilk had done more than destroy her life. Stretching his greedy grip across the world. From the supposed lands of gold to the continent of darkness, James I's influence had impacted many. She couldn't help but feel for the poor souls stolen from these other countries. Their plights differed from the witch trials, but suffering was a universal language.

She would've liked to aid them, but she couldn't even help herself. There was no one to hear her, anyway. Well, other than Chattox, but as she was in the exact same situation. It was no different than voicing her words to the void. Except the void didn’t reply. 

“Aye, I know, but it doesn’t mean I don’t miss the little pleasures. Few and far between, though they were.”

Demdike hummed. This was a conversation they’d had many times. When their new existence was mostly just the two of them, they often spoke of their past. Their past life, to be specific. A lot of it seemed funny now. Maybe it was their time in the decompression zone post life—or maybe it was simply the effect of being so removed from what they’d once been—but matters of life and death were suddenly much less dramatic and far funnier when you were already dead. Fighting over coin, linens, and food were memories they could now look back on and find humour in. 

Though she also missed cake, death was a lot simpler. Mostly. There was no fighting for survival when you simply just were. No hunger to push you forward or pain to keep you still. As much as she’d once lived with one foot in the ether, having both on death's side was much simpler. If you ignored the limited company. Or how she feared her own mind and sense of self were slowly eroding over time. As though, without a physical body, she was slowly dispersing into nothingness; it was just taking a little longer.

– Excerpted from One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches by Kayleigh Kavanagh, Kayleigh Kavanagh, 2025. Reprinted with permission.

 10 Things You Might Not Know About One Foot in the Ether:

Whispers of the Pendle Witches

1. The book was originally meant to be set exactly two hundred years after the trials in 1812, but after the author learnt more about the time period, set it later for historical accuracy.

2. Schools were a big push by Queen Victoria, and this enabled a lot of women and the poorer populous to gain an education. William was originally meant to introduce the idea of schools to the north. However, when the book had to be set later than 1812, he then became someone in support of her movement who wanted to ensure even the poorest of his community could gain an education.

3. There were several campaigns to discredit midwives, despite their having much better results (compared to the doctors). Just like Claire experienced, the women were shown as incompetent and dangerous, even though the doctors had higher death rates. Repeated smear campaigns against the midwives eventually helped institute standardisation as expectant mothers (and fathers) chose hospitals as the ‘safer’ place to give birth. I think Claire would be both happy and unhappy about this, as the NHS was a dream of hers, and it keeps her women safe, but men being involved in the delivery process is something she would still be vehemently against. 

4. The revival of the spiritualist movement in the late 1800s was key to the later Wicca religion. The two are both credited with the spiritual movements we see today, and the encouragement towards alternative healing, which is primarily focused on foods and herbs. The remedies the cunning folk (Demdike and Chattox) used to use and were accused of witchcraft for.  

5. The cunning folk were very similar to shamanic healers in that they created ‘natural remedies’ from the earth and what was available to them and helped with healing spiritual matters. From melancholy and low spirits (what we would now recognise as depression) to removing and fighting invading spirits and demons. They were a jack of all trades and considered vital to the community. Until they weren’t. Supposed demonic possessions did rise in their absence though…

6. Demdike is still believed to haunt the places she lived and died, and this occultist belief informed the book and made me think, ‘why might she still be around’.

7. Chattox and Demdike were considered rivals in life, but by modern standards, they would be considered ‘sister witches,’ and this filtered into the novel, making them more like sisters who irritated one another rather than archenemies.

8. Some people think Device was a misrecorded name, and their surname was actually Davies (a popular Northern surname). Hence, why the midwife is named Claire Davies.

9. Lord James was initially meant to be a reincarnated James Device, or Nowell, but this idea was later scrapped. Instead, James was hinted as being Yana’s youngest sibling in the epilogue who was born after the cleansing ritual, and Nowell is off suffering in his afterlife.

10. Chattox accidentally spoils big reveals because she’s terrible at reading the room despite her gifts of foresight.

 

About the Author

 

Kayleigh Kavanagh is a disabled writer from the North-West of England. Growing up in the area, she learnt a lot about the Pendle Witches and launched her debut novel around their life story. Her main writing genres are fantasy and romance, but she loves stories in all formats and genres. Kayleigh hopes to one day be able to share the many ideas dancing around in her head with the world.

Her latest book is the historical fantasy, One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches. 

You can visit her on Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads and Tiktok. 

 

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Guest Post: History is in the Hands of the One Who Writes It by Shirley Miller Kamada

Zachary Whitlock knows sheep. He knows farming and knows what it’s like to have his best friend forced into an internment camp for Japanese Americans. What he does not know much about is goats and traveling by sea on cargo ships, yet he makes a decision to go with a group of volunteers to Japan to help deliver a herd of more than two hundred goats, many of which are pregnant, to survivors of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 Black Rose Writing: https://www.blackrosewriting.com/historicaladventure/p/zachary

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Zachary-Seagoing-Shirley-Miller-Kamada/dp/1685136400/

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/zachary-a-seagoing-cowboy/7abbf249813d25c0

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/237980236-zachary

 

History is in the Hands of the One Who Writes It

Since writing Zachary: A Seagoing Cowboy, I’ve been asked why so few people know about the World War II firebombing of Tokyo and other Japanese cities. I’ve found a number of opinions, but little verifiable fact. I did not know about the firebombing until I began work on the book.  The story begins with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Then comes the question: Why did Japan’s military bomb Pearl Harbor? The answer—empire building.

Japan was a small nation with big ambitions stymied by a lack of resources, especially oil. In their quest to procure such resources, their sea route was contested. The U.S. refused to allow Japanese ships to pass. By bombing Pearl Harbor, Japan’s military expected to both cripple the United States Navy and intimidate the country into negotiating a settlement. Japan’s military miscalculated. The U.S. declared war on December 8, 1941, a day President Franklin D. Roosevelt termed “a day which will live in infamy.”

While it does not excuse Japan’s methodology, one factor must be understood. At that time, Hawaii was not a state but a territory, and it was a key U.S. military outpost. Americans were in shock. Termed “war hysteria,” people felt a need to subjugate or eradicate Japan and everything it represented, unable in their minds to separate the military from civilians—even children. Many saw the whole of Japan as a war machine. This form of hate was misinterpreted as patriotism. Japanese forces were famously determined. At Iwo Jima, bombardment by U.S. troops had relatively little effect on the twenty-one thousand Japanese troops who were, quite literally, dug in. Their defense included eleven miles of tunnels and underground rooms for command and control and other functions. U.S. Marines sustained more than twenty-five thousand casualties. The prospect of further such battles steeled U.S. commanders to consider more severe weaponry. Hence, in 1942, napalm was developed in a secret laboratory at Harvard University.

Tokyo was a city built of wood. Streets were narrow. Small manufacturing enterprises were situated between houses. The mission on March 9 and 10, 1945, was to level broad swaths of urban areas, snuff out manufacturing, and terrorize and demoralize the populace. Japan’s Emperor was expected to surrender, which didn’t happen. Operation Meetinghouse, as it was called, wiped out only light industry. People were burned alive or grossly disfigured as napalm stuck to human skin. While it wasn’t hidden from the American public, it was not trumpeted. Still, it is estimated to have killed a hundred thousand and rendered more than a million homeless. Then, on August 6 and 9, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, overlaying all other news, and the napalm-laden air raids remained in the shadows. 

Katsumoto Saotome, remembered as “The Man Who Won’t Let Us Forget the Firebombing of Tokyo,” was a writer who, at twelve years of age, survived the firebombing. As an adult he formed a group to gather accounts of survivors and artifacts. Saotome is said to suspect that “people do not want to see or know.” He raised private donations and established a modest museum, known as The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage.

 For further reading:

Neer, Robert (2013). Napalm: An American Biography. Cambridge: Harvard University Press

Japanese Homeland: Firebombing · Narratives of World War II in the Pacific · Bell Library Exhibits

The Man Who Won’t Let the World Forget the Firebombing of Tokyo – ICMGLT

 

About the Author

 Shirley Miller Kamada grew up on a farm in northeastern Colorado. She has been an educator in Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, a bookstore-espresso café owner in Centralia, Washington, and director of a learning center in Olympia, Washington. Her much-loved first novel, NO QUIET WATER, was a Kirkus recommended title and a finalist for several awards. When not writing, she enjoys casting a fly rod, particularly from the dock at her home on Moses Lake in Central Washington, which she shares with her husband and two spoiled pups.

 You can follow the author at:

 https://shirleymillerkamada.com/

https://x.com/shirleymkamada

https://www.instagram.com/shirleymkamadaauthor/

https://www.facebook.com/ShirleyMillerKamada

https://www.facebook.com/shirley.miller.1042032

https://bsky.app/profile/shirleymkamada.bsky.social

Book Spotlight: Soul Matters by Yolonda Tonette Sanders

 

Understanding that answers to our prayers may not look like we expect, but they are what we need…

 

Title: SOUL MATTERS

Author: Yolonda Tonette Sanders

Publisher: Yo Productions LLC

Pages: 360

Genre: Contemporary Christian Fiction

Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle

With a successful husband, a fulfilling teaching career, and a baby on the way, Wendy Phillips seems to have it all. She’s certain God is on her side. After all, the woman she’s become wouldn’t exist without the strength of her close-knit family or her own determination to be a model daughter, sister, and wife.

But one phone call shatters Wendy’s illusion of perfection, turning her carefully crafted life upside down. Suddenly, everything she believed about herself, her family, and her faith is called into question.

As her marriage crumbles and her faith wavers, Wendy finds herself needing more support than she ever imagined. Her journey to healing will require a sister’s unexpected strength, a mother’s surprising honesty, and a truth Wendy never saw coming.

Now only God’s grace can help her confront the pain she didn’t expect and discover the soul-deep freedom she never dreamed possible.

Soul Matters is available at Amazon and Walmart.

Book Excerpt

Shaking and short of breath, Wendy wiped her sweaty palms on her clothing and dialed the number. “Hi, this is Wendy Phillips,” she said, trying to hold back tears. “I’m returning a call to Dr. Korva. Will she be able to see me today? I can be there in about half an hour?” She altered her traveling time, hoping to increase her chance of being seen. 

“Oh,” she said solemnly when the receptionist said Dr. Korva was running behind schedule. Wendy couldn’t be seen until Monday morning. “Well, can you tell her I’m on the line? Maybe she can just tell me the results over the phone.” She crossed her fingers, praying that she would be transferred to the doctor. No such luck. Dr. Korva preferred to talk in person. “Okay, I’ll be there at nine on Monday,” she said, confirming the time of her appointment before hanging up the phone in despair. 

How am I going to make it until then? She dreaded going back to the office and arranging for a substitute through Ms. Burchett. Forget it. I’ll just call in, she opted. Sure, not submitting a request for a substitute beforehand was inconsiderate and unprofessional, but she didn’t care at this point. Her main concern was finding some way to make it through the weekend without losing her mind. 

– Excerpted from Soul Matters by Yolonda Tonette Sanders, Yo Productions LLC, 2025. Reprinted with permission.

The Inspiration Behind Soul Matters

I appreciate reading material that supports my spiritual growth. Yet, I have at least a half-dozen daily devotionals on my bookshelf, and I have never finished a single one. The problem I have with 365 daily devotionals (especially when also committing to daily Bible reading) is that it’s easy to get behind schedule if one day is missed. One missed day easily multiplies to twenty, and then it becomes impossible to catch up. Or, if catching up is possible, reading becomes a checklist item to get back on par, and the spiritual nourishment becomes secondary or gets lost completely.

My goal was to create a yearly devotional that was both practical and applicable. It’s much simpler to commit to reading a weekly devotional than a daily one. Plus, the devotionals will not stand in the way of daily Bible reading. Let’s face it. Sometimes we don’t always get devotional lessons during the first read-through. I didn’t want anyone to feel rushed to complete each devotional just to keep a up with a daily schedule. I want the lessons to stick!

There are 18 authors, including me, who contributed to this project. The 52 devotionals are broken down into 12 over-arching themes. I challenged everyone to be real. I didn’t want any pie-in-the sky stories, but real-life accounts with which others could identify and find encouragement. As the editor, I’ve read each devotional more times than I can recall, and yet, each time I read something, it’s like I’m seeing it for the first time . . . even the ones that I wrote. This collection of works contains a level of transparency that is rarely displayed by authors. I hope that readers will enjoy Connecting with Christ. It’s raw, encouraging, and transformative.

About the Author

Yolonda Tonette Sanders, Ph.D., is a storyteller at heart with a passion for both words and people. She is the co-founder of the Faith and Fellowship Book Festival and the author of numerous works, including novels, poetry, short stories, and academic publications. Her writing blends authenticity, emotional depth, and spiritual insight, often drawing from her own journey of faith and resilience.

Yolonda earned her doctorate in organizational leadership from Indiana Wesleyan University and is certified in emotional intelligence. She enjoys teaching, mentoring, consulting, and helping others discover their own voices through writing. When she’s not creating or consulting, you’ll likely find her spending time with her husband or enjoying heartfelt moments with loved ones.

Her latest book is the contemporary Christian fiction, Soul Matters.

You can visit her website at www.yoproductions.net .

Watch her YouTube channel!

Connect with her at  X, Facebook, Instagram and Goodreads.

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