A beautiful curse is a concept that represents something that on the surface may seem extraordinary and enchanting, but in reality, brings about pain and suffering. It is a phenomenon that captivates and entices, drawing individuals into its allure, but ultimately leaves them trapped and unfulfilled. At first glance, a beautiful curse possesses an undeniable charm and appeal, luring individuals with its false promises of happiness and fulfillment. It may be physical beauty, material wealth, or even a captivating personality that initially captures attention and admiration. The allure is so strong that individuals become willing to sacrifice their own well-being and happiness in pursuit of this enchantment. However, as time passes, the true nature of this phenomenon becomes apparent.

Mastering Magic 3: An Urban Fantasy Slice of Life

The magical world is collapsing, and I was supposed to be running a magic store. Underneath the academy halls, a power lies dormant. A glowing purple aura, pulsing with energy, cries out for… Me. When I first approached it, I found myself floating in the air, the mana nearly torn out of me. Thankfully, my beautiful girls brought me back. No way I'm going down there again. I'm the most powerful magi there is, and something down there wants me for themself. Is it the goddess of magic, Divinity, trying to reclaim what was given? We can't afford to find out. Yet, we need to deal with it. Meanwhile, legions of regular folk are angry at us for having what they cannot. It's up to me to lead the magi and sort out this mess, but I'm not alone. Sophia's position as headmaster of the academy will come in handy, and Misty…well, she's still a hot goth babe. And then maybe we can get back to the shop. Battlebabe Blair and ginger Frenchie Charlotte still haven't seen it. There might not be a shop left when all this is through…

270 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 13, 2023

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However, as time passes, the true nature of this phenomenon becomes apparent. A beautiful curse is characterized by its ability to bring about destruction and disappointment. What initially seemed exquisite and glamorous is revealed to be nothing more than an illusion, leaving those affected feeling powerless and trapped.

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The story and relationships have increasingly gotten better with every installment. Kirk Mason has done his best work yet with this series. Every issue I have is minor in the grand scheme of things but It feels huge just because it was so good overall that the little annoyances stand out all the more.

The girls don't get equal treatment when it comes to relationship building with Pete. We spent the majority of the first book building a wonderful romance with Misty and Pete to the point that bringing Sophia in felt almost unnecessary. And don't get me wrong, I love a harem, but Pete and Misty were so good that I didn't want to ruin it. And just as I feared, Sophia didn't get an equal amount of courting and instead went from longing to being totally accepted near the end of the first book. After Charlotte got involved, Pete prioritized her more than felt necessary and with the new plot devices, it felt like she and Pete had a stronger connection than the other girls and it felt way too imbalanced. Sophia wanting a baby gave her some attention but Misty was on autopilot and it felt like Pete was playing favorites and the girls showed almost no issue with the clear imbalance of attention. In the beginning, Misty didn't want another girl even looking at him. No amount of character growth excuses what I see as neglect on his part.

My other issue is that the girls constantly rejected the notion of sleeping together. I get that it's refreshing to have a harem where the girls are just into the same guy and they don't have to sleep with each other. But, they make it very clear that they think the others are attractive, and they are all best friend (some closer than others). What I'm getting at is they have no reason to stay so resistant to the idea. They constantly take turns, getting less time with him because they refuse to have threesomes foursomes etc. despite loving to watch him with others, being comfortable with each other and clearly being attracted to each other. The fact that they constantly joke about lesbian tendencies screams to me that they are just beating around the bush. They're relationship is way too healthy for it to become an issue. They state very proudly and often how Pete is the center of them. That doesn't lessen just because everyone is touching everyone when they're in bed. It's just frustrating three books in.

I'm rambling over what was still a great story. But the writing made me more invested than the usual stories we get in HaremLit men's fantasy so it bugs me all the more. It's a great story and I think someone who hasn't read so many books in the genre would be less jaded towards little issues.

Magic Mastering™

Buzzsprout’s Magic Mastering is like an Instagram filter for your audio. It takes the audio you have and makes it better. Your episode will sound crisp, clear, well balanced, and perfectly match the industry best practices for overall loudness and true-peak. It's a crucial step in making a professional podcast that people will enjoy listening to.

The Apple Podcasts Authoring Best Practices states that podcast episodes should be "pre-conditioned in such a way that the overall loudness remains around -16 dB LKFS, with a +/- 1 dB tolerance and a true-peak value that doesn’t exceed -1 dB FS."

Apple articulates their reasoning by saying: Content that is heavily compressed and amplified might be too loud, will lack the dynamic range, and can introduce harmonic distortions. Alternatively, content with low audio levels will have dynamic range but will be too quiet, inaudible, or unintelligible in the case of spoken content. In either case, a listener might have to adjust the playback volume to a comfortable level.

Confusing right? Well, good news; Buzzsprout can automatically master your episodes to match the Apple Podcasts Authoring Best Practices, and optimize the encoding for spoken word (96k mono) or music heavy (192k stereo) podcasts - based on your preference.

Beyond that, Buzzsprout will also apply an adaptive leveling process to correct for any distracting volume differences between multiple speakers or segments in your episode and it can fix some minor problems like noise and hum reduction.
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What's included with Magic Mastering?

1. Smart Adaptive Leveling Have you ever listened to a podcast where one person was louder than the other(s)? How about a podcast where the intro music is super loud and then the people start talking and you can barely hear them? This fixes those problems.

Technically, It corrects level differences between speakers, music, and speech, and applies dynamic range compression to achieve a balanced overall loudness.

2. Perfect Loudness and True Peak Targeting Since listeners move from one podcast to the next, and may even mix in some music, it’s important that your podcast is mastered at the correct loudness.

Apple states that podcast episodes should be "pre-conditioned in such a way that the overall loudness remains around -16 dB LKFS, with a +/- 1 dB tolerance and a true-peak value that doesn’t exceed -1 dB FS. Magic Mastering does this for you.

3. Audio Sweetening (Filtering + Noise, Hiss, and Hum Reduction) It’s hard to keep every unwanted sound out of your recording. Sometimes these noises are easy to notice (A/C or power line hums), and sometimes it just sounds bad and you don’t know why (electromagnetic interference). This can help.

By classifying regions with different backgrounds and removing the noise in each region then cutting disturbing low frequencies, we often have great success.

4. Optimize for Spoken Word or Music By letting us know if your podcast is mostly spoken word or music, we can better optimize the encoding. Spoken word podcasts can benefit from reduced file sizes, which means faster downloads. For music heavy podcasts we will prioritize audio fidelity.

Why is there an additional charge for this?

Ensuring an audio file is correctly leveled, filtered, pre-conditioned, and encoded requires significant processing power since the audio file must be analyzed multiple times. Additionally, Buzzsprout has licensed advanced algorithms from Auphonic to provide the best results possible. For these reasons, we must charge a small fee to cover these additional expenses.

Can I try it for FREE?

Yes! You can test it out on an episode for free! If you haven't used the option yet, then when you upload an email you should see a prompt to try it for one episode. Then just upload the audio file and Magic Mastering will be applied automatically! If you don't like the results you simply delete the episode and upload it again without Magic Mastering! You won't be billed for Magic Mastering unless it's enabled for your account at the time your monthly cycle renews.

How is Magic Mastering Billed?

When you add Magic Mastering to your account don't expect to be billed right away. We bill Magic Mastering at the end of each cycle. So unlike your subscription, Magic Mastering is billed after it is used.

That means that you cannot turn it off mid-cycle. If you have any episodes in your current cycle that were magically mastered then you will not be able to disable the feature in your account. Just wait until your cycle ends and you get the Magic Mastering charge. Then go to your Magic Mastering settings and turn the feature off!

Is Magic Mastering an Auphonic alternative?

Buzzsprout has licensed the Auphonic algorithms to power much of what you are getting with Magic Mastering. If you're using Auphonic to get the correct loudness, true-peak, adaptive leveling for your audio, and for noise/hum reduction - then Magic Mastering can serve as a suitable replacement. If however, you are using Auphonic for one of its many other capabilities (intro/outro, speech recognition, etc.), you'll want to continue with your existing workflow.

Is Magic Mastering a FixMyLevels alternative?

Yes. In most cases, Magic Mastering will produce a better result. Plus Magic Mastering has the added benefit of a simplified workflow (just upload to Buzzsprout and you're done).

Why does my episode sound louder/softer?

One of the main things Magic Mastering does is set the loudness of your audio file to match the Apple Podcasts Authoring Best Practices. So it's very possible that if you upload an episode that's too loud, Magic Mastering will reduce the overall volume. Conversely, if you upload an episode that's too soft, Magic Mastering will increase the overall volume.

Our targets are -19 LUFS for a mono (single channel) recording and -16 LUFS for a stereo (two-channel) recording - both with a -1 dB FS true-peak value. Not sure what that means? You don't have to. That's why we built Magic Mastering. 😉

Should I choose Spoken Word or Music Heavy?

We understand that almost all podcasts have some music in them. Mostly it's in the intro/outro and occasionally there are subtle music beds throughout the episodes. Even if a podcast contains some music, when it's mostly people talking, we would consider that a Spoken Word podcast.

Music Heavy podcasts are the complete opposite. These are shows that feature more music than talking. It would also include shows like audio dramas, that use the stereo effect as part of the production (like someone entering a room and that sound effect only plays through the left speaker). These shows need to be encoded in stereo, which is the main benefit of selecting Music Heavy and enabling the 192k stereo encoding.

IMPORTANT: Please don't think that even though your show is Spoken Word selecting Music Heavy will be a better choice. This will needlessly double the size of your episode files which consumes additional bandwidth, increases the time it takes your listeners to download episodes, and takes more storage space on their devices.

Can I run Magic Mastering on my past episodes?

No. Magic Mastering is something you’ll want to turn on, set your options, and then use moving forward. It’s not designed to be a process you run on your back catalog.

What happened to the 192k Stereo encoding option?

That option still exists, it's just undergone a name change and it's now bundled with Magic Mastering. Spoken Word files are encoded at 96k Mono and Mostly Music files are encoded at 192k Stereo. If you have been using the 192k Stereo encoding add-on for some time, you will now see a MM icon next to those episodes. That does not mean they have been re-encoded; it's just an updated icon since Magic Mastering now includes Automatic Mastering and/or High Bitrate Encoding. The icon indicates some aspect of Magic Mastering has been applied.

What if I don't want Buzzsprout to alter my file at all?

That's not a problem at all. Without Magic Mastering enabled, you simply upload an MP3 encoded at 96k or less, mono (1 channel). Buzzsprout will NOT re-encode these files.

With Magic Mastering enabled this doesn't make much sense unless you want your episodes encoded at 192k stereo. In that case, you would simply uncheck the Automatic Podcast Mastering box, and then switch the slider to Mostly Music (192k stereo). Now when you upload an MP3 encoded at 192k (or less) stereo, Buzzsprout will NOT re-encode these files.

Did we cover everything?

If we missed anything please feel free to email our amazing podcaster support team at [email protected]!

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Magic Tricks

Today, when you order "Mastering the Art of Magic by Eugene Burger - Book", you'll instantly be emailed a Penguin Magic gift certificate. You can spend it on anything you like at Penguin, just like cash. Just complete your order as normal, and within seconds you'll get an email with your gift certificate.

Mastering the Art of Magic by Eugene Burger - Book

In response to overwhelming demand, Eugene Burger's, the long out-of-print, Mastering the Art of Magic Book has been reprinted. It is an oversized hardcover with dustjacket, printed on quality acid-free paper and contain oodles of great tricks (enough for your entire repertoire) as well as thought-provoking and educational essays by Eugene, widely recognized as one of the greatest thinkers and teachers of magic in our lifetime.

The seven small booklets written by Eugene Burger and published in the early 1980s, Secrets and Mysteries, Audience Involvement, Secrets of Restaurant Magic, Eugene Burger on Matt Schulien's Fabulous Card Discoveries, Intimate Power, The Craft of Magic and Rediscoveries have been out of print for years. Thanks to Richard Kaufman, they are now available in a new 230 page hardcover book, with almost 200 illustrations by Earl Oakes. These hard to find booklets have been collected in a completely re-typeset format with new essays by Eugene commenting on his past writings, his current thoughts on his tricks and routines, as well as updated tricks. Many feel these are the best books Eugene Burger ever wrote.

Pages 228 - Hardbound

Featured Magic Tricks

The reason behind its classification as a curse lies in its ability to create a never-ending cycle of longing and dissatisfaction. As individuals strive to attain this beauty or possession, they realize that it remains forever out of reach or fails to bring them the happiness they desired. This constant yearning becomes a torment, an unbreakable spell that engulfs their lives in sorrow and discontent. It is essential to understand that a beautiful curse is not limited to material possessions or physical appearances. It can manifest in relationships, careers, or any aspect of life where the pursuit of something alluring leads to detrimental consequences. The curse lies in the deception and the cost that individuals pay for chasing after what they perceive as perfection. Despite the suffering it brings, a beautiful curse continues to captivate and mesmerize individuals. It creates a paradoxical situation where the very thing that causes pain also brings fleeting moments of joy and excitement. This duality can make it difficult for individuals to break free from its grasp, as they cling to the hope that the next pursuit will be the one that finally fulfills their desires. In conclusion, a beautiful curse represents a phenomenon that deceives individuals with its charm and allure, only to bring about suffering and disappointment. It is a cycle of longing and dissatisfaction that holds individuals captive, leaving them trapped in a never-ending pursuit of unattainable perfection. While it may possess moments of fleeting happiness, the curse ultimately leaves individuals yearning and unfulfilled..

Reviews for "The Curse of Beauty: Breaking Free from Superficiality"

1. Jane - 2 stars - I was really excited to read "A Beautiful Curse" based on all the positive reviews, but I have to say I was extremely disappointed. The story lacked depth and the characters felt one-dimensional. The romance between the main characters, which was supposed to be the highlight, felt forced and unrealistic. The whole book just fell flat for me and I couldn't connect with any aspect of it.

2. Mark - 1 star - I absolutely hated "A Beautiful Curse". The writing was terrible and the plot was predictable from the very beginning. The characters were unlikable and their actions made no sense. I couldn't bring myself to finish the book because I was so bored and annoyed with everything about it. I don't understand how anyone could enjoy this book, let alone give it positive reviews.

3. Sarah - 2 stars - I had high expectations for "A Beautiful Curse" but unfortunately, it didn't live up to them. The pacing was slow, and the story lacked originality. The author seemed to rely heavily on clichés and tropes, which made the whole reading experience feel tedious. The main character was also incredibly frustrating, making irrational decisions that were hard to relate to. Overall, I didn't find anything remarkable about this book and wouldn't recommend it.

The Curse of Beauty: Struggling with Self-Worth