Susan Wands joins The Spotlight this week to chat about her novel, Magician and Fool
Author Name: Susan Wands
Book Title: Magician and Fool, Arcana Oracle, Book One
Book Genre: Historical Fantasy
Release Date: May 2, 2023
Publisher: SparkPress
Welcome, Susan! How would you describe Magician and Fool?
Pamela Colman Smith newly arrived from New York to her birthplace of London, is received as an oddball in Victorian society. Her second sight helps her in her new job: illustrating tarot cards for the Golden Dawn, a newly formed occult group. But when Pamela refuses to share her creations with Aleister Crowley, a controversial magician, he issues a threat: give up the cards’ power, or he’ll harm her muses.
What sparked the idea for this book?
I read tarot cards in high school but the deck I used was called the Ryder Waite Tarot Deck and I couldn’t find out who illustrated the cards. It took some sleuthing to discover that Pamela Colman Smith co-created this deck, which went on to sell one hundred million copies in twenty countries, has her artwork in over half a dozen international museums, yet died a pauper in an unmarked grave in Cornwall. I became obsessed with her story and determined to bring out her creations of art, tarot and otherwise, to the world.
How long did it take for you to write the book? Did you do any research?
I first started writing Magician and Fool in 2016, after imagining Pamela Colman Smith’s story as a play, a screenplay, and a TV series. After researching her story for years, I felt that the best way to tell this epic tale was through a book series, with each book highlighting the twenty-two muses in her Major Arcana tarot deck. The Major Arcana are the first twenty-two cards, so I set about casting who would be the muses that embody the elements of the Magician and Fool. These would be people who would have been in Pamela’s orbit in London in the 1890s. This took quite a bit of time to track down who should be who in the entire 11-book series of the Arcana Oracle Series. The first printing of Magician and Fool came about in 2017 with i2iPublishing, based in Manchester, England. Due to distribution issues in the U.S., we decided to part ways and allowed me to have a reset to rewrite the book. From 2018-2022, I took on rewriting the book resulting in an updated 2023 perspective. I hired a sensitivity reader, a developmental editor, and a team of beta-readers and other writers to help give me feedback on the book and to strengthen the POV and arc of Pamela’s story. I resubmitted it to publishers and it was picked up by Brooke Warner at SparkPress, who will be publishing Magician and Fool, Book One, Arcana Oracle Series on May 2, 2023. SparkPress will also be publishing the second book in the series, High Priestess and Empress, in 2024.
What drew you to writing historical fiction?
I’ve always loved historical fiction. I started off with the Goth romance of Menefrey in the Morning by Victoria Holt as a teenager and then started reading the classics. Jane Austen, the Brontës, The Scarlet Pimpernel – you can tell I love Victorian settings. In my own book, I decided to use a Universal POV with Pamela’s third person perspective so I could portray people outside of Pamela’s world in the narration. In terms of genre, there is alternative history and magic realism, so the exact facts of the Lyceum Theatre’s world, Pamela’s employer when she first comes back to her birthplace of London, can be flexible and the use of magic realism is used to described Pamela’s second sight and the magic of the Golden Dawn, the private group which hired Pamela to create the tarot deck.
Where can readers find you?
I lecture for the Occulture Conferences in Berlin, the Morbid Anatomy online academy, and the National Historic Novel Society Conferences on the subject of tarot, tarot symbology, and tarot history.
https://www.instagram.com/susanwandsauthor/
https://www.facebook.com/magicianandfool
Thank you, Susan! Magician and Fool is OUT NOW.
Magician and Fool
Pamela Colman Smith, newly arrived from New York to her birthplace of London, is received as an oddball in Victorian society. Her second sight helps her in her new job: illustrating tarot cards for the Golden Dawn, a newly formed occult group. But when Pamela refuses to share her creations with Aleister Crowley, a controversial magician, he issues a threat: give up the cards’ power, or he’ll harm her muses.
In the midst of this battle, two of Pamela’s idols, the actors Henry Irving and William Terriss, take her under their wing. Henry, who tutors her as the leader of the Lyceum Theatre, becomes the muse for her Magician card. William Terriss, teaching her by examples of instinct and courage, becomes the muse for her Fool card. As Pamela begins to create the tarot deck, she is almost overwhelmed by the race to possess the magical power of her cards. In order to defeat Aleister, Henry and William will have to transform into living incarnations of the Magician and the Fool—and Pamela will have to learn how to conjure her own magic.
Author Bio:
Susan Wands is a writer, tarot reader, and actor. She graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in theater and women’s studies and has acted professionally across the United States and on Broadway. Her adaptation of Pride and Prejudice was produced at the Cornish Institute in Seattle. She has written plays, screenplays, and skits, produced several indie films, and was a company member in Rumble in the Red Room, an off-Broadway troupe, for four years.