SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — During a stop on “The Magic & Karma Tour” at the Sandy Springs Library Feb. 27, Southern fiction writers Love Hudson-Maggio and Jennifer Moorman shared their stories, processes and inspirations.
Both say the genre has exploded in popularity since the pandemic.
Several themes tie together both books, including magic and karma, community, cultural cuisine and destiny.
“If you’ve read a lot of other Southern authors, everyone writes about the South differently,” Moorman said, “because every perspective about the South is different.”
Moorman’s “The Magic All Around,” published in January by Harper Muse, details a series of tasks that Mattie Russell must complete after the death of her mother.
In the genre of magical realism, which allows fantastical elements to slip into contemporary life, readers follow Russell as she discovers the secrets her mother left behind.
The 11th stop on their tour of the Atlantic Coast brought Tifton-native Moorman and Sandy Springs-native Hudson-Maggio to the Fulton County Library branch on Mount Vernon Highway.
“Talking to one of us is like talking to both of us,” Hudson-Maggio said. “It has worked out beautifully, because we have used our networks and our contacts, and we keep each other uplifted and love each other’s work.”
Her first book, “Karma Under Fire,” follows two star-crossed lovers from different corners of the globe.
The chapters alternate narration between Harlow Kennedy, an aspiring jewelry maker from Atlanta, and Tej Mayur, the son of a wealthy East Indian family and prominent chef at an Indian restaurant in Atlanta.
The journey from Atlanta to India and back again compares contemporary Indian and American culture, Hudson-Maggio said.
“I discovered parallels between caste systems and color systems, which can happen in the United States and…
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