Do You Believe in Magic? follows a bullied 13-year-old boy who discovers a magical waterfall and embarks on an epic adventure as a wizard. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I grew up on the shores of western Florida and spent much of my childhood swimming in shark-infested waters long before the movie Jaws put a scare into everyone. At the time, I was too skinny to attract a shark’s attention. About ten other boys my age lived on my same street, and we hung out morning, noon, and night playing the usual sports that young boys love — football, baseball, “kill the carrier,” etc. — but as a group, we also played fantastical games that contained magic, monsters, and superheroes. It was in this setting that my imagination as a writer of magical fantasy was born and nurtured.

I moved from Florida to Upstate South Carolina about twenty years ago and drove from Tampa-St. Pete to the Clemson area on Interstate 75 many times. It’s about a 10-hour drive, which is quite wearisome. And the traffic around Atlanta can be horrendous. I’ve always found the rest stops to be a bit spooky, especially at night. My MC Charlie Magus also found them to be spooky. If you read Do You Believe in Magic?, you’ll get the picture.

The world you created in this novel is brimming with possibilities. Where did the inspiration for the setting come from, and how did it change as you wrote?

My first home in SC was on forty wooded acres that included a creek that wound through a forest to a waterfall. It wasn’t as magnificent as described in the book 😀, but it did serve as the inspiration for the story.

Plus, I am the author of The Death Wizard Chronicles, a six-book epic fantasy for mature audiences. I did a ton of hands-on research and world-building for that series, which came in handy for this one.

Finally, I am at home in the mountains. It’s where I now live, and I do long hikes at least three days per week. Characters in fantasy novels tend to wander around a lot in the wilderness, so I feel comfortable writing about natural surroundings.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

I have written Dark Circles with young teens in mind. I tell potential readers that it is appropriate for 13 and older, though readers as young as 10 and as old as 80 have enjoyed it. When I say appropriate, I mean that there are no sex scenes and only very limited profanity. But like most epic fantasies, the series has its violent moments — sort of like the later Harry Potter books.

But just because a series is appropriate for young teens doesn’t mean that it has to be sophomoric. To the contrary, Dark Circles is a sophisticated work with a lot going on between the lines in terms of themes, allegorical elements, symbolism, foreshadowing, literary tropes, etc. My newsletter (Jim Melvin’s Realms of Fantasy) goes into extensive depth about this.

Some of the themes in my series are obvious: bullying, good vs. evil, coming of age, heroism. But in the end, the most important theme of all is the idea that only the best among us are willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good — the literary equivalent of a soldier throwing himself on a hand grenade.

All this said, if you only read books for pure pleasure and don’t really care about the literary stuff, my series still fits the bill. It’s a lot of fun!

When will book two be available? Can you give us an idea of where that book will take readers?

Book Two (Do You Believe in Monsters?) debuted in late October 2023. Your excellent review of Book One mentioned that the early portions of Do You Believe in Magic? contain some deliberately slow pacing, and that was well said. In contrast, the pacing of Book Two is deliberately faster. To describe the second book as action-packed would be accurate, IMO.

The third book of the trilogy (Do You Believe in Miracles?) will debut on April 22, 2024. This concludes the series.

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