Why the Calliope?
Greetings and thanks for checking out the blog tour for You Can Do Magic: Carnival of Mysteries! I’m Ro and I’m your guide through the world of Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries as well as the 2018 Warped Tour…Wait, what in the world could these two events possibly have in common?
Let’s back up.
My history with carnival-type events includes annual visits to the county fair, frequent trips to Great America, and memorable visits to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. My best memories all involve music, of course, whether it was my dance performances, cheerleading competitions, coaching my show choir kids, and concerts including Smashmouth, Tesla, Rick Springfield, and Peter Murphy? Yeah, that one was wild. But what I thought of first when I was invited to join in this project was the sound of the calliope.
Calliopes are large instruments that use compressed air to activate whistles and can be heard for miles. The patent for this instrument was established in 1855 by Joshua Stoddard and by 1872 these instruments were used for traveling circuses and carnivals across the country. There are calliopes still in use on steam-powered trains and boats in the United States. Oftentimes folks will use calliope and pipe organ interchangeably, and oftentimes, the music you think of when you imagine creepy carnival music is actually from a pipe organ with mechanical orchestration.
I was likely first introduced to this music at the Looff carousel on the Boardwalk. I’ve ridden the carousel there countless times, always attempting—and failing—to get the ring in the hole in the clown’s mouth. The intense music coming from the three Wurlitzer Organs in the building takes over your soul, the addition of percussion to the keys playing pounds into you until it’s the only thing you can hear. Here is a famous scene from The Lost Boys of that very carousel to give you an idea of the kind of fever dream Ryan experiences when he first sees the carousel at the Boardwalk.
Like me, my hero in the story, Ryan Wells, had intense memories involving the old-time circus music in Santa Cruz. Here’s how describes how enamored he was with the mechanical wonders he heard on the Boardwalk:
The place had three intricately designed antique organs playing the same kind of music as they’d had at a carnival I tried to forget from my childhood. I stood in front of that damn thing watching all of the gears, the xylophones, the little angels with their drums, the pretty ladies hitting the bells. The music was so intense it shook my insides and made my teeth rattle.
I leaned my forehead on the Plexiglas that enclosed the cabinet and the kid working the ride yelled at me not to touch. I ignored him and let the vibrations take over. I had a nice buzz going and the sensation was almost enough to lull me into a pleasant state. But then I heard my uncle’s voice in my head and—
Whether you love the simplistic pipe music or prefer the percussive xylophone and snare added for that full sound, you can’t help but admit that the child in all of us can easily be lured by the music. In the early 20th century, the sound from the pipes brought children running from all around. The ice cream truck even adapted the same tunes to blast as they cruise through your neighborhood hoping to reel you and your wallet in. I’m sure there are some psychological explanations about the allure of this particular type of music to us, but I prefer to let the kid in me out to play whenever I hear it.
I hope my book adequately captures the feeling you get whenever that music plays, whether it’s exciting and thrilling, or makes your skin crawl and sends you running for safety, either way, it’s music that has enthralled us for well over a century. I included some examples of the music I love in my playlist for the book, so feel free to have a listen!
Thanks for checking out You Can Do Magic: Carnival of Mysteries. I hope you enjoy! For more fun, check out the other stops on the blog tour and pick up the books in my adjacent series, Summer of Hush and Brains and Brawn, both in KU for a limited time. And Stay Tuned for More…
From the author of Foreword Indies Finalist Summer of Hush and BookLife Prize Quarterfinalist Brains and Brawn comes a new installment in the series, a contemporary gay romance with a side of time travel and magic.
Musical prodigy Kallos Alexandrou has played his calliope for countless visitors at Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, but his one-year residency has come to an end. Scars from a terrible tragedy in his past are the only explanation he has for his loss of speech and memory, but it’s time to move on, so when a music festival sets up next to the carnival, Mr. Ame sends him off with identification, a bottomless billfold, and a set of new clothes. Outside the carnival’s perimeter, Kal finds himself in an unfamiliar world surrounded by strange instruments and vibrant people like nothing he’s ever seen.
Ryan Wells is the troubled and celebrated lead singer of the metal band Backdrop Silhouette. He’s brought more than his share of baggage on the last cross-country Warped Tour, including harsh restrictions placed on him by his parole officer and the band’s label, but it’s the treatment from his bandmates that have him feeling unsettled. After a tough morning, he spots a strange young man playing carnival music on a keyboard backstage, and the sound takes him back to a particularly vulnerable time in his youth. Intrigued, Ryan asks the young man’s name, but he flees only to appear later as a replacement stagehand for the tour.
An invitation from the band Hush to ride on their bus gives Ryan and Kal a welcome distraction. They find the camaraderie and support they’ve both been craving…as well as a little magic and a fresh new romance. But the music business makes personal relationships difficult to maintain, and when the tour ends, Ryan and Kal will have to make a choice: move forward together on an uncertain path, or let fear keep them from trusting that sometimes you really can have everything you desire.
You Can Do Magic is part of the multi-author Carnival of Mysteries Series. Each book stands alone, but each one includes at least one visit to Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, a magical, multiverse traveling show full of unusual acts, games, and rides. The Carnival changes to suit the world it’s on, so each visit is unique and special. This book contains a Depression-era calliaphone, a Ouija board with a purpose, and tour bus hijinks that will warm your heart and make you gigglesnort. Reading Summer of Hush and Brains and Brawn before this book will give you the full Warped Tour experience, but You Can Do Magic can be read as a standalone as well as the other books in the shared universe. Recommended 18+.
Warnings: Mention of prior sexual abuse, off-page, no descriptions
About the Series
Welcome, everyone, to the Carnival of Mysteries! In this shared element multiverse, we invite you to partake of an array of stories by an eclectic group of authors. You’ll find action, intrigue, mystery, danger, sweetness, and sorrow, but, above all, true love! So grab your ticket, indulge in some treats, experience a few thrills, maybe have your fortune read… there is something for everyone at the Carnival!
Get It On Amazon
R.L. is giving away a $30 Spotify gift card with this tour:
Kal
Under the blue skies above
A new crowd waits
All they need is a little shove
The Carnival is here
With mysteries galore
To satisfy your cravings
To leave you wanting more
We’re here today, gone the next,
Taking along our magic and song.
Come inside, take a peek
Surprises like these won’t wait long
Here we have the fantastical calliope,
come dance with our talented Kal
His music will delight and seduce you
With the power of the siren’s call
So step right up, and don’t be shy
For his time is coming to a close
Come shimmy and shake with this talented guy
And celebrate the last of his shows…
I’d memorized the ringmaster’s introduction, though it was more sensational than I deserved. And last night’s version had a new ending, one I’d been expecting, but hearing it brought a sliver of anxiety to my bones.
The instrument I played was actually a calliaphone—a more efficient and portable version of the forced-air organ—and I’d built it myself, that much I knew. It was my voice. It spoke all I knew to say, my own words lacking. I possessed the ability to speak, but I’d mostly forgotten how, therefore I preferred to let my music speak for me. I played for the crowds. I smiled for them, but I was transparent to the onlooker.
One year had passed in this way, one year of my life, and I had nothing of my own. No friends to help, no family to love, and no safe place to lay my head away from the carnival. What would I do, where would I go, and would someone see me for me?
The boss, Mr. Ame, told me soon it would be time to move on to the next phase. I’d no clue what that meant other than I would no longer travel with the carnival. There was nothing to pack, nothing to carry, only the clothes—and the scars—I wore on my body. I would miss my calliaphone and the crowds, but I knew it was time. My stay had been healing, educational. My time taught me plenty. The carnival would go on without me and my music, on to the next place to entertain…and seduce the locals. They’d fall under the spell of my fellow travelers. Some might even be chosen to come along.
I remembered little from my time before I, too, had joined the carnival. Humiliation and regret reverberated within the structures of my cells, but I didn’t recall more than that, much less the reason for the debt that forced me into servitude. The boss took me away from the darkness, and promised to set me free one day. But what was free, what would it mean, who would I be? A musician, a man, alone? I’d forgotten my past. I’d learned all I could in this place. Would I survive what lay ahead?
I took my questions to the man in charge, the one they call Errante Ame, and he confirmed that my time with the carnival was at an end.
“My dear, Kallos,” the boss said to me. “The world has done you wrong, not the other way around. You have been a part of something important here, and we shall never forget the joy your music has brought to our clan and our guests. But now it is time for you to move on, as all in the crew must do.
It is your choice where you’ll go once you leave the perimeter, what you will do with the time you have left.
“You have been invisible to our guests for so long, adored for your playing, of course, but who you are remains unseen, unspoken. A blank canvas, a puzzle. Only you can solve the riddle of your life. The time is near when you will set out on your greatest adventure, the journey to find your purpose. Being reborn can be frightening. You will have questions, but the answers you seek can be found within yourself. All you must do is follow your instincts, and your heart’s desire. Do what you feel is right and true. Be good to yourself and your fellow creatures, and walk the path of least harm.
“When the next sun rises, you will step outside the bounds of the carnival. You will have all that you need to begin anew. By the following sunrise, our carnival will have moved on. A traveling music festival will share these grounds with us tomorrow. Perhaps you can start there.”
I knew down deep in my bones that he was correct, that something momentous was about to occur.
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