S.M. Blooding is still learning to play the piano and guitar and is getting better every day. She currently lives in Colorado with her pet rock, Rockie, and Ms. Jack, who is a real bird.
She has dated all sorts of individuals, including vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, weapons smugglers, and US Government assassins. But her one true love is her stories. Yes. She has stories.
Her latest book is the YA steampunk, The Hands of Tarot.
Thank you for this interview, SM. Could you please tell us a bit about your book?
The story is about Synn El’Asim and the Seven Tribal Families. The four queens of the Hands of Tarot have control of the latest technologies, and the most powerful queen, Nix, wants control of the world. The Families are content to allow the Hands to live however they wish in their parts of the world, but as the Hands encroach on parts of the world where only the Families had been able to travel before, they soon realize the time of hiding has passed.
It’s not until Synn’s father is killed while protecting a Family that isn’t his, and Synn is Marked while trying to save him that the fight becomes personal. Queen Nix sees a powerful tool in Synn and she decides to use him against the Families.
The Hands of Tarot is about him, his friends and the Seven Great Families finding the courage to fight back and protect what’s theirs.
How did you come up with the title and how much say did you have on the cover design?
I was playing with a new tarot deck and my brain was just exploding with ideas! I was playing around with different plot lines. I mean, this isn’t unique. This is a pretty common approach, but I said to myself, “Self, let’s not go the really traditional route and have a monotheistic society try and decimate the world. What’s the safest ‘religion’ we have here? Well, there’s Buddha, but can you really see Buddhists up in arms trying to take over the world? No. Who else?”
Then it just hit me, with the tarot cards in my hands. LOL! So the Hands of Tarot were created, with the same hierarchy as the tarot deck. I love tarot. It’s amazing and beautiful. There’s a lot of intricacies there that are just amazing, yet simple.
Article comments
1 - Kurt Chambers
Frankie, you are such an awesome author. You're an inspiration for all of us!