Katy Grabel joins the Spotlight to chat about her memoir, The Magician’s Daughter
Author Name: Katy Grabel
Book Title: The Magician’s Daughter
Book Genre: Memoir
Release Date: May 13, 2025
Publisher: Wild Rising Press
Welcome, Katy! What do you hope readers will gain or learn from reading about your experience?
We must find our own magic and don’t let anyone steer you their way. My father would have liked me to tell HIS story of the magic show but in the end, I was true to myself. The magic, for me, just wasn’t on the stage, it was backstage and the peripheral of the magic show. And I want readers to broaden their definition of magic and bring it out of the realm of the rare and supernatural. It is in our everyday lives. What thing or act or experience do you love? Romanticize it. See the awe and wonder in it. We can create our own magic. And pay attention to those moments of synchronicity and intuition, or when we transcend our limitations and become someone new. Or feel the power in connecting to someone with love — all that is magic.
What was your research process like for The Magician’s Daughter: A Memoir?
I kept journals on the road, and I referred to them often when writing the book. I filled two 200-page notebooks with my fourteen-year-old drama and inner musings. But I also was a good recorder of the daily minutiae of traveling in the magic show like the type of venues, what we did on days off, and even my father’s and Al’s jokes. I was really grateful I kept those journals because it helped me give a full picture of the road. I also learned sleight of hand, in particular my father’s original card move called the One-handed Card Production. He explained how to do it in his book The Magic And Illusions of Lee Grabel but I just didn’t understand it. Finally, I asked him to teach it to me. I can’t do it now, but for a while I could, and it helped me describe this original card move in detail in the book. I wanted to understand the effort it takes to master a card move and the feel of waxy cards cupped in my palm. I also wanted to understand the appeal in finally pulling it off and vanishing and appearing a card for someone. What I learned is that the craft of magic is very difficult, and one has to be a very good magician for an audience to feel that sense of “magic.” This is why I know, absolutely, that being a magician is a calling and not a vocation. It demands so much skill, effort and time, a man or woman must be driven to do it.
What is the hardest thing about writing?
Creating that time to write amid the busy distractions of the day. They recommend writers carve out a little time each day, no matter how small, and that’s better than not writing at all. I agree with that. I would say, “I’m going to write today!” and then if nothing happened, I’d be in the dumps. Once a friend called me upset because she had planned to write that day, but she’d been busy and now the time was slipping away. I told her to take a deep breath and sit down at her desk. “A little is still okay.” I went on to say that even if no words come, just scroll the pages and commune with the story, or read sections out loud. Some days that’s all we can do.
What’s capturing your imagination these days outside of reading and writing?
Creating a community that is sustainable and supportive. And the power of our consciousness to create a new world.
Where can readers find you?
https://www.facebook.com/KatyGMagic
https://www.Instagram.com/KatyGMagic
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/227883709
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwYTrKBgvkSIUkhaMpXLolw
Book launch event The Magician’s Daughter: A Memoir
June 12, 6pm at SOMOS in Taos, New Mexico
Thank you, Katy! The Magician’s Daughter is OUT NOW.
The Magician’s Daughter: A Memoir
Never before has the daughter of a great magician written with such candor and beauty about magic’s backstage-and onstage-world, where even the most outlandish dreams are possible.
The Magician’s Daughter-A Memoir is a coming-of-age story set within the motion and light of a traveling magic show. Fourteen-year-old Katy is the daughter of Lee Grabel, a former professional magician stuck behind a desk in the suburbs who yearns to rekindle the past fame of his old magic show. When he decides to hit the road again in a grand bid to be a Las Vegas headliner, Katy has her chance for the spotlight she yearns for as his stage assistant. With a truck full of wonderments, the Grabel family and their crew go on tour across the western states, where trouble quickly ensues along with the increasing unhappiness of her mother -The Beautiful Helene-who is disenchanted with the magic show even as she runs it with military precision from her table stage right. Setting up, performing, and packing out of town after town, tensions mount, and betrayal is in the air.
Through error and misstep, Katy struggles to free herself from the show’s intoxicating spotlight. Meanwhile, the Grabels and their crew are getting closer to their booking at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where the show’s ultimate fate will be determined.
Readers will be captivated by this page-turner where Penn & Teller meets Mission Impossible. It’s a tale that delves into the complexities of family dynamics and the enduring power of love, set against the backdrop of a mesmerizing magic show
Author Bio:
Katy Grabel is the author of The Magician’s Daughter: A Memoir to be published May 13. She is an award-winning short story writer whose work has appeared in New Millennium Writings, ZYZZYVA, She Writes and Women Writers Women’s Books.