Kids & Family

Manalapan Author Travels Cross Country Promoting Debut Novel

"Lifting the Wheel of Karma" is Paul Magid's first book.

Paul Magid has the bug. The bug that only artists know about. The bug to inspire, teach, create, and express through a work of art and the desire to have people appreciate it. After writing his debut novel about a young man’s spiritual journey, Magid has just embarked on a journey of his own promoting his debut novel at over 600 bookstores across the country.

Magid, who grew up in Manalapan and currently lives on a horse farm in Englishtown, has been welcomed with open arms by the bookstore owners so far on his trip; promotion has lapsed into poetry readings at some stores with patrons gathering around him while he reads the Epilogue Poem to his novel, “Lifting the Wheel of Karma”.

The spiritual novel follows Joseph Connell, a 17-year-old with an incredible athletic gift, who loses the ability to walk after a car accident. Joseph seeks out refuge and answers in India where he stays with an old man believed to have supernatural healing powers. As the novel unfolds, Joseph learns and accepts his ultimate purpose in life.

Magid began hand writing this story in a notebook while attending The Peddie School, a private high school located in Hightstown, NJ, as a junior in 1986. Magid was inspired to write the story right after he read “An American Tragedy” by Theodore Dreiser in an English class.

“The use of the language was so engaging,” Magid said of Dreiser’s work. “That was the moment I realized I wanted to be a writer.”

But writing a novel wasn't as easy as he thought. Magid wound up putting the pen down and did not pick it up again until 1993. Then, Magid worked on the story throughout the 90’s, but he said he could not give it the depth it needed at that time. In 2001, Magid picked up the pen again and worked on the novel some more, but it wasn’t until 2010 when he decided it was time to complete the work.

“This was a story that just wouldn’t let me go. There was a power and a depth to it and a purpose and a meaning,” said Magid. “I came back to it, but I really never left it.”

Magid is a true artist at heart, or a “gypsy” as he likes to refer to himself. The George Washington alum graduated with a degree in finance and started his career path with a solid job on Wall Street with an impressive paycheck. But Magid “couldn’t kick the bug to want to write” so he quit his finance job to become a waiter and write in his spare time, which he loved.

Eventually, Magid relocated to Hollywood where he worked in an entry-level position at ICM talent agency, and soon realized that that didn’t quite fit either, citing the networking lifestyle as a partial reason for why it was not right.

Magid then went to film school in New York City and made some independent films, including an autobiographical documentary titled “A Life Unfinished”, which he wrote, produced, filmed, edited, directed and narrated. The film was selected and screened at the Hamptons International Film Festival.

Despite all of the hard work he has put into film, Magid said that writing a novel is much more difficult than a screenplay because the novel is the finished product whereas a screenplay is simply a tool for the director to use to create the piece of art on the screen.

While “Lifting the Wheel of Karma” is a novel, Magid said he has always intended it to be a movie which he dreams to direct one day. While writing the work of fiction, Magid planned out the visuals, frames, and even the type of music that will play in the film.

Although fiction, a lot of the book is based on Magid’s personal experiences. The author suffered a gymnastics accident in 8th grade which left him paralyzed from the neck down for 10 hours. Magid has also suffered from four autoimmune conditions and has undergone multiple surgeries over his life.

It is these hardships that have helped shape Magid’s philosophy on karma, a leading principle of his book. He said he thinks of karma as an ideal, but does not believe that destiny is predetermined. Living a good and purposeful life and having a solid perspective on the world is important to be happy, according to Magid.

“Karma is about teaching people and about learning from the past and your mistakes,” Magid said, adding that he does not believe that karma is a punishment from God.

While not a religious person, Magid is spiritual and mostly follows the tenants of Hinduism and Buddhism. He has thoroughly studied Eastern religion and applies that knowledge in this book.

“The question of a purpose driven life is a universal question,” Magid said, and a fundamental concept of “Lifting the Wheel of Karma”.

After 25 years struggling to write this novel, Magid’s story comes full circle as he will be coming back The Peddie School this fall to speak to the students during Chapel, a time when the student population gathers twice a week in the Chapel on campus to listen to a speaker.

Magid said he is grateful to give back to Peddie, as it is here where he felt he flourished as a writer. At Peddie, the author was in every AP and honors class at the school, except for AP English because “his writing wasn’t strong enough”. Instead of taking this feedback as an excuse to give up, it encouraged him to learn more and work on his writing.

While on his cross-country trek, Magid has already completed his Chapel speech for the fall - citing the open road, a lot of hours, and a clear head as the reason for the quick and prolific writing. Now that’s good karma.


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Be sure to see Paul Magid at the Barnes & Noble, located on Rt. 9 in Freehold, for his local author event scheduled for Sept. 12 at 7 p.m.


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