Hope you’re all getting into the Halloween spirit by watching scary movies (or It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown – it’s a must watch every year for me), carving pumpkins, or eating all the candy and then going out to buy more before the trick or treaters get there tomorrow – whatever works for you. Today’s author regularly uses tarot cards – but not in the typical way. If you’re a writer, you may want to adopt her technique. I know I’ll be looking into it. Welcome Paula Cappa!
Have you ever had a tarot card reading?
Not exactly. I have had psychic readings. I do like the tarot. I have a stack of tarot cards on my bookshelf over my writing desk and often use the book “Tarot for Writers.” I pick the cards out with a question in mind, and it triggers my creativity. Kind of like brainstorming with the inner self, exploring my subconscious to deeper creativity. It’s very exciting and I’m often surprised how well the tarot directs me and the character in my story. Word out there has it that John Steinbeck used tarot cards to inspire his creativing writing process too.
If you watch horror movies, are you the person who yells at the characters, covers your eyes, or falls asleep?
I’m not fond of hard core horror. I’m more the quiet horror type. I like the supernatural to be so mysterious that you have to find out what truth is coming through the action. Hauntings attract me and that’s why almost all of my fiction deals with ghostly presences. I consider my work supernatural, not horror, because it’s the spirituality of those existing in the beyond who fascinate me. I want to get to know them and bring them into our physical world.
Do you ever see figures in your peripheral vision?
Oh yes. Often when walking in nature, the woods, or in cemeteries (I frequent a local cemetery near my home) there are shadows and light flashes that catch me. They are not figures exactly, but presences that draw my eye and my thoughts. So I spend time listening. In my novel The Dazzling Darkness (which takes place in a cemetery in Concord, MA) I spent weeks in cemeteries, walking through the statuary and headstones to get a sense of the dead. Gray rainy days are especially inspiring. Rain ghosts!
What do you do to get inside your characters’ heads?
I spend time being them by eating the food they prefer, dressing like them, speaking in their tone of voice and performing their jobs. In my novel Greylock, the central character is a Russian concert pianist. I don’t play piano, but I spent hours listening to Rachmaninoff concertos (volume turned up) and played an imaginary keyboard on my desk. This experience gave me a deep feeling of what it’s like to feel the music inside my hands and mind, letting the music fill me. I became Alexei Georg for the two years I spent writing Greylock, a mystery with a music phantom.
How would you describe your book’s ideal reader?
My ideal reader is someone who loves to explore the spiritual side of ghosts in fiction. Why do the dead come back to us? Why do they hover in our lives? Learning from ghosts is a lifelong endeavor of mine and my readers aren’t afraid to go into the world of fiction to find a ghost come forward on the page. There is a truth in that we are in the midst of the spiritual world all the time. If you believe spirit is everything and life is indestructible, you will enjoy my supernatural mystery stories.
What are you working on now?
I am half way through a novel about a rain ghost who haunts a windmill in Bedford, NY. A poet, a sketch artist, a shaman, and murder by magic.
The force of nature, force of death, force of consciousness. A short story of Agatha Ashfield who explores the spiritual realms of ghosts. Come meet Falling Water, the ghost beneath the hickory trees on Mohawk River.
Agatha Ashfield, a wise woman in her late years, has long been fascinated by the power of Nature. She meets a ghost called Falling Water who dwells beneath the hickory trees by Mohawk River. As Agatha seeks her destiny, she struggles to overcome fears of her impending death, find a way to trust goodness, the power of Nature, and release her everlasting consciousness. This is a short tale of mystery, love, passion, and spirituality. If you enjoy exploring the spiritual world and its realms, you will enjoy entering Agatha’s mysterious Wild Darkness. Wild Darkness was originally published at ParAbnormal Magazine, March 2020.
Amazon reviewer: “Imaginative and creative story. The narrator places you firmly by Agatha’s side and you feel like you are taking that final journey with her.”
Purchase Link
Author Bio and Social Media
Paula Cappa is the recipient of a Chanticleer Book Award and American Book Fest’s Best Books Award Finalist for her novel Greylock. She also earned the prestigious Eric Hoffer Book Award, Silver Medal Winner at Global Book Awards, The Readers’ Favorite International Bronze Medal for Supernatural Suspense, and is a Gothic Readers Book Club Award Winner in Outstanding Fiction. She is the author of Greylock, The Dazzling Darkness, and Night Sea Journey—print editions published by Crispin Books, Milwaukee WI.Night Sea Journey was featured as an on-air reading at RiverwestRadio, Fearless Reader Radio in Wisconsin.Cappa’s short fiction has appeared in ParABnormal Magazine, Coffin Bell Literary Journal, Unfading Daydream, Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine, Whistling Shade Literary Journal, SmokeLong Quarterly, Sirens Call Ezine, Every Day Fiction, Fiction365, Twilight Times Ezine, and in anthologies Journals of Horror: Found Fiction, Mystery Time, and Human Writes Literary Journal. She is a freelance copy editor and writes a short story blog, Reading Fiction, at paulacappa.wordpress.com. Paula Cappa is Co-Chair of the Pound Ridge Authors Society in Pound Ridge, NY.
Website and Reading Fiction Blog: paulacappa.wordpress.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paula.cappa.94
Goodreads URL: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6553133.Paula_Cappa
Twitter https://twitter.com/PaulaCappa1
Instagram @paula_cappa
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Paula-Cappa/e/B009P2HZ7A/
Buy Links for novels:
The Dazzling Darkness https://www.amazon.com/The-Dazzling-Darkness-ebook/dp/B00CJH944U
Night Sea Journey, A Tale of the Supernatural https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009ONWSC2
Greylock https://www.amazon.com/Greylock-Paula-Cappa-ebook/dp/B0168XVNZS
Books and Such 
I admire Paula’s method of getting inside her characters’ heads, immersing herself in their personalities. I’ve read Wild Darkness. It’s an eerie and full of symbolism, good story!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Priscilla. Wild Darkness was a real challenge for me to write. I did struggle with it for some time. Dealing with death—that mysterious journey we will all take—is haunting in itself. When ParAbnormal Magazine published it, I was thrilled.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Pingback: #BadMoonRising – Post 30 Featuring Paula Cappa | The Write Stuff
A very interesting and entertaining post today, Teri! And Paula, I’m fascinated by how you get into your character’s heads like that. I’ve never tried “being” my characters before. I always imagine myself walking along behind them, taking note of what they do and say. This could be a whole new approach for me.
Love your use of tarot cards for idea sources, too. And Wild Darkness sounds right up my alley. Will be checking it out, for sure! Best wishes for continued success with your books! Super post! 😊💖
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Marcia, thank you for your thoughts and best wishes. It’s really fun to “be” the character in your story and I’ve no doubt that it will enhance the characters in your writing.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Pingback: Bad Moon Rising Interview for Halloween | Paula Cappa
Hi Teri. Thanks to you and Paula for this delightful visit.
I enjoyed the tarot answer. It looks like Paula uses tarot cards in one of the several ways that I sometimes use them.
Horsefeathers! That is some intense character-channeling for getting into their heads. I wish I could do that with my Hullaba Lulu character… although I’d end up even fatter and most likely arrested toboot! 😀
Happy Halloween hugs!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Teagan, that’s so funny. I love Tarot!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was using them in a way similar to my “3 Things” method, when I was working on the “Wheel of Fortune” books, letting a card each day inspire part of the story. I still hope to finish that one. Cheers.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Teri – thanks for introducing us to Paula and her book Wild Darkness. I think I can relate to seeing figures in my peripheral vision, although I haven’t hung out in a cemetary. Happy Halloween!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Book Club Mom, I absolutely recommend hanging out in cemeteries. There is something going on in the silence and among the power of nature.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Like all the commenters, I’m impressed by your way to get into the character´s heads, and because I love to walk through cemeteries, I can imagine what an intense experience you must have had researching your novel. I like the tarot card method as well. Thanks, Paula, for sharing your writing methods and good luck!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Olganm, glad to hear your comment. Cemeteries are the best place for story writing and to get that creative energy flowing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve often thought about writing in a cemetery or mausoleum, just for the quiet. Of course, I also have a plot that deserves to get written beside the Lion pen at the zoo. You never know. I might actually do it one day.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Coldhandboyack, I agree that writing or even just exploring creative thinking in a particular setting to be inspiring. Kind of like sitting on the beach with ocean waves and letting nature roll through you. I find ocean waves and big sky to be cleansing for creative writing.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Same here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great to see you here, Paula. Thanks, Teri.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Interesting use of the tarot. I’ll have to try that some time.
LikeLiked by 2 people
A fascinating way of getting into your character’s heads, Paula. I’m in agreement about supernatural over horror. Your book sounds fascinating.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Joan, yeah, the horror genre is too hard core for me. I’ll take an old fashioned ghost story any time. I like to read the classic authors like Algernon Blackwood and M.R. James. Edith Wharton is another go-to ghost writer I love.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I can relate to much of this! I also prefer supernatural to gory horror, and find tarot cards interesting. A rain ghost sounds intriguing. Nice to meet Paula here!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Audrey. Thanks for your comment. Tarot cards are the best when writing and looking for a path.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Great interview, ladies! I love how Paula gets inside of her character’s heads. I’ve never thought of doing that. Thanks for sharing, Teri!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Same here, Jill, but it sure is a great idea. I may have to try that for the next book.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is a powerful book description. So cool to learn about your submersion into Greylock and the Russian classical music. I think divining multiple senses is paramount to a good story. It was a pleasure to read your responses, Paula!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hey Chuck: I hadn’t thought of it that way … “divining multiple sense” but yes, you are right.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Another fantastic interview! I love that Paula uses Tarot Cards to inspire her writing. Thank you for sharing, Teri, and Happy Halloween! Now take a deep breath. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
I thought of you when I read that, Jan. What a cool idea. Seems like it might help with writer’s block also.
LikeLike
I’ve grown more towards the supernatural than to horror, too. It always used to be the other way around, but I find ghost stories far more satisfying now.
Paula, your use of tarot cards is fascinating. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that before. I’m guessing you stick to the cards when they are drawn and don’t draw another one? Does that mean that when the death card is drawn, you kill off the character?
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ve always been partial to a good ghost tale, Hugh. I’m a sucker for haunted house novels.
LikeLiked by 1 person