The Literary Tarot 100 Words Daily Starts Tomorrow

100 Words Daily Continues...

I’ve been waiting for nearly two years now for this Kickstarter package to arrive. When I first discovered it the Summer of 2021 I knew I had to have it. The idea was too cool not to. Also, I have a bit of a collector problem. I enjoy collecting random things. Such as my rather large collection of Nutcrackers (I blame my mother who got me one every year for as long as I can remember for Christmas) or the 5+ boxed sets (an additional two I’m currently working on completing as they are not yet out) of the Harry Potter series. I also realized I have a large collection of decks of cards. I just picked up an Agatha Christie deck of cards that I’ve only looked at once before carefully placing back in the box. Why do I collect things like this? No idea. I just do. Circling back around to the tarot deck. I have my mother’s original deck that she used most of her life as she would read the cards for friends and co-workers and I remember sitting close by listening very closely as she spoke their story. I think it was a combination of that and the many books she bought me that made me want to be a storyteller.

Fast forward to today with my Literary Tarot deck, courtesy of Brink Literacy. They are a non-profit organization that does some really amazing things to promote literacy in classrooms as well as prisons. They also work to put together F(r)iction. An anthology that produces a really high quality hard cover collection of sci-fi and fantasy stories written by some big names in the community of literature. I finally managed to subscribe to it recently as well.

What makes this deck so unique to me is the fact that they asked 78 living authors to take one tarot card and pair it with 78 works of classic literature that fit together perfectly. They then got illustrators to make the magic happen. The list of both authors and books is so vast I won’t list them here but I will tell you about each an every one as I take a journey through all 78 cards.

My intention is to use each card as inspiration (a prompt, if you will) to writing a 100 word story. At the end of each story I will then discuss the author assigned to the card and give some background about the classic book they paired with the card.

I’m going to start with the Major Arcana in June. 22 days worth of tarot stories! The rest of the deck I will break up throughout the rest of the year, but don’t worry, I’ll have them all in one easy to find location if you miss them at all.

This will be an exercise for me in using tarot as a prompt for the first time and an opportunity to learn more about classic literature as well as other authors whose work I may want to read as well.

So, whether you enjoy tarot or have never encountered it a day in your life, starting June 1st, prepare to learn just a bit about it all. And if you want, feel free to join me with your own interpretation of the pairings in the comments.

Oh, and of course, I’ll include the card from this Literary Tarot deck as well.