TAROT by Marissa Kennerson: Author Guest Post! (Blog Tour Stop)

Nina-Tala @JustAddaWordBlog Tour Stop

 

 

Now that PitchWars is over, I am FINALLY breaking my 3-month-long blogging hiatus and I am back to enthusiastically shriek about books on the World Wide Web – starting with TAROT by Marissa Kennerson!

 

Which, you know, is quite exciting. Predictably, my reading progress for the last fourth of 2018 and the first couple of months of 2019 absolutely SUCKS because apparently, it’s kinda impossible to multitask and write a big-ass novel (it’s 80K and still growing hELP) and also read novels. But that’s over (for now, even though edits are still strangling me to death) – and I’M BACK, Y’ALL.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway! I’m excited to kick off the restart to this wonderful shindig that I call a blog by being a stop on the blog tour for Marissa Kennerson’s TAROT, which includes an author guest post (!!!!!) that I am ridiculously excited for. But first – book info, to give y’all some context.

 

Goodreads | Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

 

Her fate is so much more than the cards she was dealt.

Born of a forbidden union between the Queen and the tyrannical King’s archnemesis, Anna is forced to live out her days isolated in the Tower, with only her mentors and friends the Hermit, the Fool, and the Magician to keep her company. To pass the time, Anna imagines unique worlds populated by creatives and dreamers–the exact opposite of the King’s land of fixed fates and rigid rules–and weaves them into four glorious tapestries.

But on the eve of her sixteenth birthday and her promised release from the Tower, Anna discovers her true lineage: She’s the daughter of Marco, a powerful magician, and the King is worried that his magical gifts are starting to surface in Anna. Fearing for her life, Anna flees the Tower and finds herself in Cups, a lush, tropical land full of all the adventure, free-spiritedness, and creativity she imagined while weaving. 

Anna thinks she’s found paradise in this world of beachside parties, endless food and drink, and exhilarating romance. But when the fabric of Cups begins to unravel, Anna discovers that her tapestries are more than just forbidden expression. They’re the foundation for a new world that she is destined to create–as long as the terrors from the old world don’t catch up with her first.

 

Author Guest Post – Marissa Kennerson

 

 

When Friends are Family
What a joy it was in writing Tarot, to bring the cards alive as living, breathing characters. It was
important to me to keep the traits of the cards and allow those traits to manifest in the
character’s actions, emotions, and words.
When Anna is born of a passionate affair between the Hierophant King’s BFF and his wife, he
can’t stand the sight of this new baby girl. He enlists three of his advisors to raise her. These
three, Anna’s ride or dies, are the Magician, the Hermit and the Fool. These Tarot characters are
fundamental in shaping who Anna becomes, and their chapters are some of my favorite. While
the magician is Anna’s aunt and a formidable woman, with or without her magic, and the fool is
a sparkling light of happiness that teaches Anna to never be afraid to take that leap of faith,
today I’m going to focus on the Hermit.
The Hermit
The Hermit teaches Anna how to be with herself and how to slay the dragons of loneliness and
anxiety through breath work and quiet contemplation. (Which is no small gift when one is
locked in a tower for 16 years.) He also teaches her to weave, giving her an outlet for her
bustling mind and immense creativity. Deeply devoted to Anna, he is sweet and caring but does
not wear his love and emotions on his sleeve. There’s a quiet, steady calm to him, his devotion
absolute. The Hermit’s gifts to Anna unfold as she both struggles and triumphs throughout the
story.
He Lights the Path to Our Best Selves
As a tarot card, the Hermit is pictured as an old man holding a small lantern that gives off just
enough light to illuminate his path. He’s not winning any awards for glamour, he’s got a dreary
gray robe and a Father Time vibe. But that’s kind of the whole point. He lights the way to your
best self. I gave my Hermit gorgeous amber eyes, eyes with the warmth of a roaring fire on a
snowy day. To me, he represents self-care and all the things we can do to quiet our minds to get
in touch with what is real. He is the personification of yoga, meditation, mindfulness, a good
long walk somewhere beautiful. Or sometimes just taking a deep breath and counting to ten.
That exhale moment. He is an antidote for loneliness, anxiety, and being overwhelmed.
I hope that readers, especially teen readers, will take some of the Hermit’s lessons to heart on
their own gorgeous journeys. Might his light lead them back to their true selves when they need
a little touchstone.

 

– Marissa

Marissa Kennerson

 

Marissa Kennerson received her B.A. in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley. Before earning her master’s degree in psychology and art therapy, she worked for Wired and Glamour. She’s the author of the YA cult-suspense novel, The Family, which she did not write from personal experience, since the only cult she’s ever been in is the cult of YouTube makeup tutorials. She lives in California with her husband and son. Visit her at marissakennerson.net or follow her @MarissaAlexK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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