Guest Post, Mysteries

Guest Chick: Lina Chern #Giveaway!

Let’s give a warm Chicks welcome to Guest Chick Lina Chern, author of tarot card mysteries PLAY THE FOOL and TRICKS OF FORTUNE. Lina is giving away a copy of PLAY THE FOOL to two lucky winners! Read on, and leave a comment before midnight April 25 to enter. May the cards fall in your favor.

Take it away, Lina!

Book Cover: Play the Fool by Lina Chern

Do Tarot Cards Work?

I get asked this question a lot. It’s an occupational hazard of writing a mystery series starring a tarot-reading amateur sleuth. The answer depends on what you’re asking.  Here’s a list of possible translations: 

Do tarot cards predict the future? 

Don’t be silly, we have perfectly good and not-at-all predatory AI-based tools for that.

Are tarot cards Satan’s playthings? 

Yes, absolutely. My dimwit of a parakeet, whom I sometimes call Satan, likes to pick them up and carry them around in his beak, so that’s a big yes.  

Are tarot cards magic? 

No. Maybe. You mean, do they have supernatural powers of their own that do not come from you, a totally normal human being with no supernatural powers? 

Is that a real question or a rhetorical question? 

No, the cards are not magic. Next question.

If they are not magic, then why do they seem to work?

‘Work?’ We’re moving in circles here. 

Why do their interpretations often seem to match life events, even when the tarot reader doesn’t know about those events?    

Oh, yeah. They do tend to do that, don’t they? I taught myself to read the cards years ago, long before I even suspected I would someday write a tarot card-related mystery. I read the guide the deck came with, I picked up a library book or two, I learned the patterns, and what I didn’t learn I made up. Invariably, the strangers I read for would have a Moment, accompanied by much surprised blinking, when they saw the familiar staring at them from the cards: Is this magic?

Was it? Where was the magic coming from? From me? It certainly didn’t feel that way. From the cards? From all of the above plus something else? 

Here’s the real answer: The magic comes from storytelling, a thing humanity rigged up to explain an existence that too often feels frighteningly inexplicable. The cards are story elements: plots, characters, situations. They seem familiar because we made them up out of necessity and have been passing them around and down through the generations ever since.

Here’s your idiot cousin Pat who can’t keep ten dollars in a checking account but will give you the shirt off his back and tries to adopt every dog he sees:

Here’s an action photo from today’s sales meeting:  

Here’s who you think is making you binge one more episode, order one more drink than you need, text them even when you know they’ve moved on: 

So, yes, of course the cards “work.” You use the tools they represent every day to explain and understand your life. It’s not magic, but it’s real. Sometimes, the familiar tossed back at you from an unfamiliar angle can feel like magic.

Go ahead, ask what you’re really thinking (this is one question I don’t mind answering over and over again):  

Is the human mind a majestic thing at once unfathomably mysterious and totally predictable?  

Yes.

Readers:

Got a “magic” moment to share, tarot card-related or not? Share your favorite stories of serendipity in the comments. A lucky two (selected by random non-magical means) will receive a signed copy of my award-winning tarot card mystery Play the Fool. If you like it, I hope you’ll check out its follow-up Tricks of Fortune.

About the Author:

Lina Chern is most recently the author of Tricks of Fortune, the follow-up to her Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning, Lefty and Anthony-nominated debut Play the Fool. Lina has also written trivia questions, word puzzles for a TV game show, paranormal romances, dialogue for your favorite comic book characters, award-winning movie reviews, and poems that have been published and read by up to dozens of people. Find her at www.linachern.com, or on Instagram at @linachernwrites.

33 thoughts on “Guest Chick: Lina Chern #Giveaway!”

  7. I love this post because it’s what I’ve always said about “magical/mystical” things in general (religion, mythology, mysticism, etc.), that it’s all metaphor for human history and existence. We make up the stories to match our collective experience. (Any Joseph Campbell fans out there?)

    Thanks for this lovely post and for visiting the Chicks today, Lina, and I loved PLAY THE FOOL!

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    1. Thank you so much, Leslie! I absolutely agree with what you’re saying about mysticism in general and will absolutely bore anyone to tears on the topic when prodded. It’s a good thing this blog post had a word limit, is all I’m going to say.

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  8. Thanks for the smiles this morning, Lina! Looking forward to diving into your series!

    Riffing on Leslie’s comment, the human experience is magical and mysterious and our need to make sense of the universe is unlimited. Exploring all forms of mysticism is healthy – and fun – soul food!

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  10. Okay, here’s some serendipity for you! I’m headed to Malice Domestic this weekend. The other night I was staying in a hotel in Maine, where I was visiting in advance of the conference. I noticed a book on the bookshelf in my room called The Murderer’s Compendium. I was going to look at it, but I was sleepy, so I went to bed instead. The next morning, I had my suitcase packed and I was about to walk out the door, and the book was just screaming at me from the shelf to pick it up. I opened it to a random page, and at the top of the page was the title of a short story:

    MALICE DOMESTIC

    I need to learn to listen to my intuition more!

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  11. Many years ago, when I was deeply unhappy in my job, I was shopping at Powell’s Books here in Portland when I saw a job posting. It directed applicants to send a resume to “Box 151.” I dutifully mailed my resume to Powell’s Books, P.O. Box 151, not realizing that the Box number was an internal one. By some miracle, the Post Office delivered the resume to Powell’s, even though the address was incorrect. I ultimately was hired and worked at Powell’s for 13 very happy years.

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  12. OMG, what an awesome post! The book sounds great and your cover is gorgeous.

    I’ve had a number of “magic” moments. But I also have a weird and completely useless superpower. If I think of a celebrity who hasn’t been in the news in a while – like, “Hmm, I wonder what so-and-so is up to?” – they will appear in the news within 2-3 weeks. It doesn’t always happen. But it does almost 9 out of 10 times.

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    2. That is a pretty spectacular superpower – the wooing of celebrities out into the spotlight. I’m sure they appreciate it. Unless the publicity is bad, in which case they are probably cursing your name. Oh well.

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  13. I think magic and mysticism exist to the level we allow them. For me, I think intuition and observation along with a bit of consideration have a lot to do with it.

    Best of luck with the new book. Sounds like a fun read!

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    1. Thanks for the kind words, Marcia! And yes, intuition is a huge part of making things feel “magical” because it is subconscious, which makes revelations feel like they’re coming out of nowhere.

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