Flashes from the Other World - Magic Realism Style Collection of Stories from Author Julie Ann Weinstein

Online, October 2, 2010 (Newswire.com) - The author is widely known for her magic realism style prose, a Pushcart Nominee and has been a semifinalist in various literary contests. With over ninety published stories under her belt, this book reflects the author's distinct style, a mix of paranormal, magical, mysterious and wacky all rolled into one stellar collection and which will be available in November on Amazon.
From the jacket copy of Flashes from the Other World: "Magic without the hocus pocus, these stories explore the ethereal blur between reality and not, between dream and sleep, between love and other than love. They present relationships with a tender wackiness. Tossed into the mix are mischievous ghosts, who give the talking plants and even the seductive and vocal grains of sand a run for their money. Quirky and offbeat, these stories will touch your heart, although they may tug at your funny bone first."

Earlier readers of the collection have cited:
"Here is an author whose words are pure magic. From the paranormal, to relationships, to the surreal, these flash stories will delight readers ...." -Salvatore Buttaci, author of "Flashing My Shorts"

"With a keen minimalist eye and a knifelike accuracy of just where the edge is ... these stories are disturbingly correct, commanding and gorgeous."
- Traci Foust, author of "Nowhere Near Normal"
"As a child I loved to walk in spring snows, to lose self and reality in powder puffs of possibility and anonymity. The daydreams of those walks - filled as they were with calm beauty and dangerous momentous-ness - were long ago lost to time and age. Now, in this gracefully written book of short fiction, I have been able to regain that wonderful sense of life. " ~Kenneth Weene, author of Memoirs From the Asylum and Widow's Walk
"Julie Ann Weinstein writes in a refreshing, sharp style that is perfectly suited to flash fiction. Her stories are filled with haunting scenarios and wildly funny characters, who are as unpredictable as they are endearing. Flashes From the Other World is aptly titled-the stories offer pure escapism in short form. " ~Jen Knox, Author of Musical Chairs and To Begin Again

In the words of the author from the introduction to her book, Flashes from the Other World: "The collection itself is in the vein of magic realism, which is a style of fiction that first became popular in Latin America with writers like Isabelle Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I think of magic realism as reality that is slightly bent as compared to science fiction which stretches the bounds of reality exponentially. In my writing it's often a surreal landscape where the question of what is a dream and what is reality blur. It can be a place where the intangible becomes tangible, whether it's a ghost or a flower, vegetables, grains of sand or even a snail talking. In a world where things are often perceived as black and white, I see the shades and layers in between, finding new colors where the human emotions and the senses come alive." Julie Ann Weinstein

More about the author:
Julie Ann Weinstein has published over ninety short stories and is a Pushcart Nominee. Recently the author was profiled in the San Diego Union Tribune - North Coast edition. Two of her stories were semifinalists in A Word With You Press, Ain't That Quaint Contest and Julie's second novel was also nominated as a semifinalist in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Contest.

The author is an editorial consultant and a flash fiction workshop leader in the Southern California area. Julie is also published under the name Julie Ann Shapiro. Julie lives in Encinitas, California where she is working on short story collections and other larger bodies of work. To learn more about author Julie Weinstein visit her website at http://www.juliewrite.com, http://www.julieweinstein.com, and her blog, http://flashesofmagicrealism.blogspot.com.