Books
Professional Magician and Former Pastor Reveals How Tricks Invented for Entertainment Have Been Turned Into Weapons in New Book
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LOS ANGELES, December 19, 2023 (CarryOnHarry.com)
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Fool proof your life and learn how to recognize illusion from reality. In his new book, Misdirection: A Magician’s Guide to Spotting and Avoiding Manipulation in Your Life (WonderFull Entertainment, February 13, 2024) former pastor and professional magician, Taylor Hughes, shows how to spot manipulation, evaluate its harm, and move forward with hope.
“Misdirection has found its way off the theatrical stage and into our businesses, politics, and even churches,” writes Hughes. “In some cases, the people utilizing these techniques of distraction are unaware of the harm they are causing. However, in more scenarios than we would like to admit, the motives are much more intentional and detrimental.”
As a professional magician, Hughes has spent decades studying how to deceive people. In the book, he covers ways misdirection can be recognized and avoided at work, at church, in the voting booth and at home. He will reveal secrets to incredible magic tricks followed by a discussion of how those techniques are at play in our everyday lives.
Hughes is available for interviews, as well as performing a trick or segment on a show, and can speak to:
- How misdirection can cloud your path in life and work
- 3 tips leaders can follow to avoid manipulation in the workplace
- 3 ways not to be misguided at the voting polls in 2024
Hughes is currently on a west coast swing of his national tour. His new comedy magic special “Enjoy The Ride” is streaming now on YouTube. For more information on the tour, or the special, visit www.taylorhughes.com.
Taylor Hughes
Comedian/Magician Taylor Hughes left his life as a former megachurch pastor 10 years ago and now uses his skills of storytelling and prestidigitation to entertain and encourage audiences around the globe. His comedy magic specials ‘Chasing Wonder’ & ‘Enjoy The Ride’ are streaming worldwide and his memoir ‘Road To Wonder’ is available at your favorite retailer.
Taylor is married to his high school sweetheart, Katie. They make their home in Southern California with their two daughters, Madelyn and Kennedy.
His new book, Misdirection is available for preorder nationwide and releases February 13, 2024. To learn more about Hughes and his work, please visit www.taylorhughes.com.
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SUGGESTED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Misdirection by Taylor Hughes
- What led you to write Misdirection?
- What led you to become a magician?
- How can misdirection cloud your path in life and work?
- What are some tips you can share with leaders on how to avoid manipulation in the workplace?
- With the 2024 presidential election taking place within the next year, what are some ways voters can avoid feeling misguided as they head to the voting polls in November?
Source: WonderFull Entertainment
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Books
Scottsdale Author Joe Reina’s New Novel Follows a Killer Who Gets Away With It
Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk
Joe Reina has published a new novel, "Shadows over Scottsdale: An Unsolved Murder Mystery," built around a scenario true-crime statistics make uncomfortably familiar: a man commits a devastating crime and simply disappears, leaving investigators and a grieving community with no resolution.
The book follows a character named Robert, who flees the country using forged documents and a cargo ship after an act of destruction that leaves behind, as the publisher describes it, charred remains and an unanswered investigation. The case goes cold. The novel, according to its publisher, is less concerned with the mechanics of the escape than with what happens afterward, to the people left waiting for answers that never come.
Reina, now retired in Scottsdale, spent decades in international business across apparel, footwear, and real estate, with extensive time in Europe and a particular connection to Italy that shaped two earlier books, "The Goat Sleeps in the Kitchen" and "A Love Affair in Tuscany." "Shadows over Scottsdale" marks a different direction, built instead around the real scale of unsolved homicide in the U.S. The publisher’s materials cite roughly 346,000 unsolved homicides since 1965, with more than a dozen occurring unresolved each day. Separate reporting on the book has cited a figure of about 7,778 murders in 2023 alone, which it similarly frames as more than a dozen a day going unresolved.
"Writing ‘Shadows over Scottsdale’ forced me to confront uncomfortable questions about justice itself," Reina said, according to the announcement. "Too many crimes go unsolved, too many families wait endlessly for answers. I wanted readers to understand that behind every cold case statistic is a real story, real suffering, and real questions that may never be answered."
The publisher positions the novel as an examination of institutional limits as much as a crime story: the toll of a case gone cold on the people who can’t move past it, and what it means for a community when accountability simply never arrives.
"Shadows over Scottsdale" is published by Covenant Books and is available in paperback and hardcover through the publisher’s website and major retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books.
Cold-case statistics tend to get cited and then forgotten. Studio CarryOnHarry is curious whether fiction built directly around that number does more to stick with a reader than the number alone ever does.
Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.
Are you an author with a new release? We’re always looking for books to cover and authors to interview — tell us about yours here.
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Books
Joe Reina’s ‘Lost Masterpieces’ Imagines a Fictional Farewell Among Renaissance Painters
Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk
Joe Reina has published a new novel, "Lost Masterpieces: Three Paintings, 500 Years A Journey Through Time," built around an imagined scene from Renaissance history: the night before Leonardo da Vinci leaves for Milan, when three fellow painters each hand him a small work carrying a private message.
According to the announcement, those three gifts come from Sandro Botticelli, Titian, and Andrea Mantegna, each painting standing in for a different kind of counsel. Botticelli’s piece is described as layered with allegory and coded warnings about power and patronage. Titian’s is framed as warm and sensual, suggesting reinvention and a break from convention. Mantegna’s is austere and classically precise, encoding discipline and endurance. According to the announcement, these three paintings form a wordless exchange between masters, transmitting wisdom, mutual regard, and assurance across generations through visual means.
Reina comes to this material from outside the art world. His career was built in apparel, footwear, and real estate development in Chicago, and the publisher’s materials trace his interest in European history, and in Italy specifically, to years of international business travel. He has published several previous books, including "The Goat Sleeps in the Kitchen," "A Love Affair in Tuscany," and "Shadows over Scottsdale," before turning to this account of a fictionalized moment at the hinge of the Renaissance.
"I wanted to capture that extraordinary moment when masters speak to each other across time through their work," Reina said in the announcement. "These paintings represent not just gifts, but a conversation about what it means to pursue greatness while remaining grounded in purpose and principle."
The book is published through Covenant Books and is available in hardcover and paperback, as well as through Apple Books, Amazon, Google Play, and Barnes & Noble.
Studio CarryOnHarry is intrigued by novels that build fiction around real historical figures at a specific, dramatized turning point rather than attempting straight biography — the approach succeeds or fails based on how seamlessly the fictional moment integrates with documented historical fact.
Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.
Are you an author with a new release? We’re always looking for books to cover and authors to interview — tell us about yours here.
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