Q&A with Susan Wands

 

 

Susan Wands is the author of the new novel Emperor and Hierophant, the third in her Arcana Oracle series. Also a tarot reader and actor, she lives in New York City.

 

Q: What inspired the plot of your new Arcana Oracle novel, Emperor and Hierophant?

 

A: In a tarot, the progression of the first 22 cards, the Major Arcana, tells a story of the journey from the Fool to the World. In my series, I pair tarot archetypes as muses for my protagonist, Pamela Colman Smith.

 

We are now on to the fifth and sixth cards, the Emperor and the Hierophant. It was a great challenge to cast who would join Pamela's battle to own her magical tarot deck.

 

Q: How do you see your character Pamela Colman Smith evolving in this new novel?

 

A: In this episode, Pamela is struggling to finish her tarot deck while on tour with the Lyceum Theatre in her childhood home in Manchester, England.

 

She is taken hostage by Aleister Crowley, who wants to own the magical promise in her tarot deck. In captivity she must learn to communicate with her mute keeper, and learn to harness her growing mystic abilities. 

 

Q: What do you see as the role of Bram Stoker in the novel?

 

A: Bram Stoker as Pamela’s Emperor sets the role of a muse, one who knows how to take charge and change structure, aspects that are lacking in Pamela’s life as a freelance artist and free thinker.

 

Bram fills the role of a tough-love uncle, who provides opportunities with rules and order attached. Bram also has to come to terms with his own limits as an aspiring author of Dracula.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the novel?

 

A: I hope readers experience comfort and succor in Pamela’s journey, as she escapes the confinement in her mind and body. Pamela must educate and challenge herself to come into her power as a seer and channeler in this rite of passage story.

 

The world feels bleak right now and I want readers to find hope and inspiration to go up against big forces that may be holding them back.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Book Four! The next two cards in the Major Arcana are the Lovers and the Chariot, so I am researching and plotting the next installment of Pamela’s adventures.

 

Casting the muses for this book breaks the mode on pairing muses, as the Lovers will be two characters and the Chariot will be one, so there will be three muses in the third book. One of them might be a controversial choice for some.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’m excited to introduce Ethel Barrymore, Drew Barrymore’s great aunt, as a character in the next book. The Barrymore family, known as “The Royal Family of the American Stage,” was a clan of actors, rebels and icons.

 

Ethel was a talented force of nature, dazzling theatre audiences and suitors alike, and in Lovers and the Chariot, she sets the stage for romance and trouble. One thing I’ve learned from researching the Barrymores: fame and notoriety are fleeting, but art remains.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Susan Wands.