IndieView with Susan Wands, author of Emperor and Hierophant |

My ideal reader is curious about Victorian London, magic, the history of tarot, dueling magicians and earning your place in the world by hard won lessons.

Susan Wands – 6 May 2025

The Back Flap

Emperor and Hierophant is the third book in the Arcana Oracle Series, following the journey of seer and tarot deck artist Pamela Colman Smith, as she battles Golden Dawn magicians to own the magic of her tarot deck.

At this stage, Pamela has been kidnapped, imprisoned, and is fighting to protect her tarot deck from Aleister Crowley once again. On tour with the Lyceum Theatre in Manchester, Pamela Colman Smith is kidnapped by a mysterious force. In captivity, she begins a relationship with her mute keeper, a strange creature at the beck and call of her nemesis, Aleister Crowley. Experiencing visions and visitations from other ethereal beings, Pamela works to escape her prison before Aleister harms another one of her muses over the ownership of her magical tarot deck.

Meanwhile, her guardian and mentor, Bram Stoker, tries to find her as he tours with the stars of the Lyceum Theatre, Pamela’s muses for the Magician and Empress cards. Alerted to Pamela’s plight, Ahmed Kamal, Pamela’s Egyptologist friend, joins Bram to come to her aid. Plotting against the mysterious forces who abducted her, Pamela must outwit and out magic Aleister, as he tries to destroy her muses and tarot deck. In learning the lessons of her Emperor and Hierophant, she must free herself and command the power manifesting from her tarot deck.

About the book

When did you start writing the book?

I was presenting pages to one of my writing groups in 2020. The first two books were already in the works, and I knew that I wanted Pamela’s story to be a series, so it has taken some time to knit the bible of this series together.

How long did it take you to write it?

It has taken four years and then some to finish Emperor and Hierophant.

Where did you get the idea from?

In tarot the Major Arcana is a set of twenty-two cards. I’ve paired each one of these cards to be the major muses for Pamela in her journey to create her iconic Waite Smith Tarot Deck. The first book in the Arcana Oracle Series is Magician and Fool, followed by High Priestess and Empress, and now, my current book, Emperor and Hierophant.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

Pamela is imprisoned but she has important lessons to learn from each one of her muses in order to free herself. Some examples are: The Magician conjures, The Fool takes risks, The High Priestess tunes into intuition and wisdom, The Empress creates. For Pamela to experience her magic while she is captive was hard to write, as the scenes needed growth and variety. From her exploration of her magic she learns how to escape and find her muses.

Let’s just say: there were a lot of prison cell scenes that were cut.

What came easily?

As an author you fall in love with your characters and it was so much fun to write about the relationships between Bram Stoker, Ahmed Pascal Kamal, and Pamela. Ahmed, the Egyptologist, has become one of my favorite characters to write because he is an outsider to the British culture and he learns, as we do, about the mores and dictates in society. Bram is struggling with his work relationship at the Lyceum Theatre with Sir Henry Irving but his angst over not publishing Dracula is relatable. His struggles as an author were very identifiable and easy to write. Pamela understands the conflicts both men face and their friendship shines a light on how difficult it is to make your way in the world when the odds are stacked against you.

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

I write in an “Alternate Universe” historical fiction/fantasy genre, so Pamela and Bram were real people and they did have a close relationship. But I make up a lot of what happened and who was in their inner circle. Ahmed was one of the first Egyptologists but he never lived in England or knew Pamela or Bram. Sir Henry Irving, Dame Ellen Terry and of course, my villain, Aleister Crowley, are all based on real people but I embellish who they knew and what they did. I don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story but try to weave it in enough to spark a good throughline.

We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?

As a teenager, I started out reading the prolific works of gothic romance novelist Victoria Holt, whose over 200 novels used a historical setting. My sister and I still tease one another with passages from Menfraya in the Morning. I then went on to the more academic historical novels of Edward Rutherford, especially his novel Sarum and London. They really inspired my love of English history. For modern historical novels my tastes run the range from Alice Hoffman and her novel Practical Magic, which reveals a sense of a magical universe among witches that is very sexy and empowering, to Deborah Harkness with her Discovery of Witches has her protagonist on an intriguing learning curve of coming into her supernatural powers. Susan Clarke created a wonderful fantasy world with her two male magician leads in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell. Alaya Dawn Johnson wrote a compelling magical love story in her award-winning Trouble the Saints which incorporating a compelling chronicle of interracial tension, set in a dangerous underworld in Manhattan. Alaya knows how to drop in a big moment that is unexpected so nothing in her universe if taken for granted. Stephanie Cowell writes lush traditional historical fiction, I especially loved her novel Marrying Mozart, but her other books have with subjects ranging from Monet to Shakespeare. Stephanie is excellent in building an arc in a character’s voice, the yearning and aspirations to be more are keenly felt in her novels. Fiona Davis writes novels that incorporate iconic Manhattan locations such as The Chelsea Hotel, The NYC Library on Fifth Ave. I learn so much about using environment as a character in writing from her works and in her latest book to be released in 2025, The Stolen Queen, is set in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Do you have a target reader?

My ideal reader is curious about Victorian London, magic, the history of tarot, dueling magicians and earning your place in the world by hard won lessons.

About Writing

Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?

I research for months at a time. I love digging in and figuring out how each muse is going to relate to Pamela and the time period of Victorian London. I write in a program called Scrivener, so I copy and paste photographs, links to articles, lists of TV or Film that might be in the same genre and start to put a cast of characters together. I also subscribe to a network of academic papers called Academia, so I pull together the history of magicians. It’s been especially helpful in tracking where magic was first attached to tarot cards and how John Dee figures in all this. He was Queen Elizabeth’s mathematician, astronomer, teacher, astrologer, occultist, and alchemist, and it’s been important to know how he set the scene for magic in England.

Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?

Once I have my main characters’ background established, I’ll write chapter titles for three acts. This is the part of the process where I’m a plotter. Then I’ll start in on the first chapter and “pants” or follow the flow of the story that I want to write.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

I belong to writing groups, so I submit my writing and get feedback as I go. It’s important to me to get feedback that my plotting makes sense since I tend to go wide with my worlds of imagination.

Did you hire a professional editor?

I hire a developmental editor and a line editor. My editor, Sparkpress, does a copy edit once the final book is turned in to them.

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?

When I’m editing, I listen to music, when I’m writing I need to hear the words in my head.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to Agents?

When I was first writing in 2017, I wrote about 76 agents and then realized I wanted to work on my writing, not query letters. I may go back to finding the right agent but I want to concentrate on my Arcana Oracle Series, I have plans for eleven books and I’m working on book number four now!

What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?

I submitted to Sparkpress, a hybrid press, after I had an unfortunate experience listing my first edition of Magician and Fool with a British publisher, who basically just listed it on his website. Lesson learned, do your homework on what publishers will actually do for your writing before you sign on. The good news was that I needed to rewrite my first book, so I revoked the rights after a year. I realized that I prematurely published it, so I was able to re-edit the first book, and restart my series, which I know is not always doable.

Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?

Lindsey Cleworth, the artist hired by Sparkpress, has designed all three of my book covers in my Arcana Oracle Series.

Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?

A marketing plan takes real work, connections and money to execute. I’ve hired the PR firm Booksparks for marketing for my books as I want to concentrate on writing the next eight books. I still have to find my own bookstore events, participate in posting on social media, and find some podcasters, but as far as making a six-month plan, they’ve been great. I have an idea of what events and how I’d like to do this next phase of marketing for my third book. Some of it is still in flux.

Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?

There’s a lot of talk about having an author’s platform before you launch a book, and I think it’s a good idea to investigate what is your platform is before publishing. What subjects in your book are associated with people you know? Are there organizations and groups who would be interested in your topic? It’s never too soon to reach out to people who are experts or top lecturers on your subject.

About You

Where did you grow up?

I grew up all over, my father was in the military and we moved constantly.

Where do you live now?

I live in NYC.

What would you like readers to know about you?

I hope to bring more awareness to the exceptional artist Pamela Colman Smith, and the wide variety of art that she created. Pamela is accredited as being the “mother of the modern tarot deck,” yet she died destitute in 1951, and is buried in an unmarked grave in Bude, Cornwall. I want people to know her name and her story.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on my fourth book in my series, Lovers and Chariot.

End of Interview:

For more from Susan Wands visit her website and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Get your copy of Emperor and Hierophant from Amazon US.