I’m lucky enough to have a very special guest today. Arjay/R.J. Lewis has won awards for his screenplays and is the author of three novels. He is also an accomplished actor who has appeared on Broadway, in film and on television. And he’s a professional magician who I’ve actually seen in action, so having him on my blog today to help me celebrate the release of Movie Magic is a tremendous event for me.

Before I get to Arjay’s actual interview, though, I’d like to give you a little background about how our paths crossed this past August.

I’d been looking forward to the first week of August for the better part of a year. We all had because we were going as a family on a cruise to Alaska. That doesn’t happen every day, right? Little did we know what that cruise had in store for us.

R.J. Lewis, magician, in action on the Ruby Princess. This is from the kids’ fair, not the show we saw earlier in the week.

On the second day of our cruise on the Ruby Princess, all three kids went off to do their own thing, my husband had a meeting, and I decided to use the afternoon to write. I sat on my balcony looking out at the water speeding past and began a new novel, which I’d already titled in my head, Magic at Sea. I knew it was silly to write this already. I have plans to write the next Sleight of Hand novel during National Novel Writing Month. Magic at Sea would be the one after that one. But I write what I write when I write it and always have, so I began Magic at Sea, created characters I fell in love with and started the quest to get them together.

A few hours later, my daughter came back from her youth club glowing and chattering about her afternoon. “There was a magician and he picked me to help him. And I don’t know how he did it. He told me to hold the ball in my fist and he held one in his hand and then it disappeared and I opened my hand and it was there!”

I couldn’t help but smile. I have a working knowledge of some simple magic tricks, so I have an idea of how it was pulled off. But I also know most of the magic is in the presentation, so I figured this guy must be pretty good, especially when she said, solemnly, “I think it was real magic.”

No way was I going to kill that. Especially when my teenage sons joined us for dinner, also talking about the same magician and a trick he did with a big penny. “He was hilarious!” said the middle one.

Understand that I collect magical experiences, all starting with that magic carpet trick when I was a little girl. I hired a local magician for one of my kids’ birthday parties. I’ve seen David Copperfield and Mac King and Penn & Teller. I never pass up a chance to see a magician in action. It’s kind of my thing. So naturally, I asked, “What’s his name?”

“R.J. something,” my oldest said. “He’s going to be in one of the lounges this week.”

His name, as it turned out, was R.J. Lewis, and he had two shows scheduled in the Explorers’ Lounge. We got there in time to stand in the back for the first one. I could tell it was very good, even from that distance. So when the lounge emptied out from the first show, my kids and I got right up front for seats for the second, and ended up thoroughly enjoying it.

He kicked it off with a song sung in a splendid baritone voice. He continued with some card tricks and even called my middle son up to help with one of the better performances of the Chinese linking rings that I’ve seen.

At the end of the show, R.J. introduced us to the fact that he is also a writer whose book The Muse would be out later that week under the author name Arjay Lewis. How cool, I thought. A magician who’s also a writer. And I write about magicians. Maybe I should introduce myself.

So…I approached him, half intending to do so. But I chickened out and just took the signed postcard he offered and told him we’d enjoyed his show. I decided, in my usual introverted way, to read his book and then tweet him if I liked it.

I did like it. I read most of it on the plane ride home. The Muse is a dark, twisted, addictive journey through the lives of some pretty compelling characters. I recommend it to my horror fanatic friends.

And that’s the story of how I met Arjay Lewis. Now that you know who Arjay is and how I met him, I hope you’ll join us for the interview that’s coming up in the next hour.