When is death not death? Or Welcome to the 2016 #OctoberFrights Blog Hop--paranormal and horror author blog hop--day 1

The month of Halloween's usually my favorite time of year. Candy and costumes and spooky stories (like just about all of mine). I have yet to set one story exactly on the date of Halloween. There was an opportunity for the LADY OF THE TAROT (which, yes, does have its spooky moments). But for real? The tarot isn't spooky.

But although some of the cards, though not trying to be spooky, have the right wake up call feel. And that worked nicely for my book LADY OF THE TAROT. You can't deny some of the cards have a very Gothic feel (case in point, Death).  Artists through the ages have depicted them in various ways, today, we have some that are laden with Renaissance imagery, some that have hippie sensibilities, some pagan, some very "inclusive"... Well, the cards come in all kinds of depictions. Heck, there's even one deck out there based on Hello Kitty. 

So, needless to say, for us there are a lot of decks to choose from; for my heroine in Lady of the Tarot, her choices were rather limited to say, the Marsailles deck, Le Tarots Marseille de Jean Dodal,(circa 1712) and others of that era. But Death is still Death, the Lovers are still the Lovers, the Court Cards, all the same. The way one reads them, also, I gather hasn't changed. Clear your mind, draw a card, take a look at it and make note of what its imagery says to you.


Maybe Death isn't death, but the ending of something you've been wanting to change for a long time. That's not bad. 

However, in LADY OF THE TAROT I did play up the dark side. :) My poor heroine, knowing absolutely nothing about tarot imagery ends up getting bombarded with it, all the same. I had fun watching, er, lament her trying to predict her way out of a paper bag, so to speak, while a revolution swirls all around, with some monsters to boot. *eg* Death may not be a "bad" card, but with some of the stuff Emilie goes through, Death gives her more anxiety than most.  Do you read Tarot? What's your favorite (or least favorite!) card?
Meanwhile, if you'd like to check out LADY OF THE TAROT, here's the synopsis:



WHAT THE CARDS FORETELL MAY BE REAL, AFTER ALL


1793: Having escaped the Reign of Terror, Emilie Maigny took refuge in England, trying to come to grips with the life and loss she left behind. When her brother, Sinjon, returns, a terrifying evil swoops down upon her. Nightmares plague her now, providing strange clues ... but to what?

Scottish-born Linton Morrison spent his entire life in luxury, whiling away the hours in intense study of the tarot and the cards' hidden meanings, but until he met the lovely Emilie Maigny, he would never have guessed how important his study might be--to his life and Emilie's survival when terrible evil strikes.

A Cypher is all Emilie needs, but what is it? Is Linton the key? He may charm her heart--and he may be her only salvation.

How does it go for her?  You'll have to read to find out. If you'd like to check out this spooky story, this Halloween, it's available at Amazon.

While you're there, if you'd like some of my other creepy titles; House of Cards, a short story, which is the precursor to Lady of the Tarot: Can you gamble with Fate? A young nobleman escapes the Reign of Terror in 18th century France to find himself dragged into an even worse fate–a hellish underworld wherein he is cajoled and put on trial by a demon tribunal for crimes he never committed. Can he thwart his fate, one worse than the guillotine?

Available at Amazon.

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Thanks for reading, and don't miss the rest of the great horror and paranormal authors participating in our October Frights Blog Hop! You can see them here. Have a wonderful Halloween.

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Juli D. Revezzo is the author of the MOURNING DOVE LOCKET, the latest in the Antique Magic paranormal series, also the Celtic Stewards Chronicles fantasy romance series, as well as the Gothic romance LADY OF THE TAROT. Her books are available at Amazon and elsewhere.