April 2021: Tarot Cards for Writing Inspiration

What better way to celebrate April then with a dash of horror-based writing inspiration via the tarot? This hunt, I assure you, doesn’t involve pastel-coloured Easter eggs strategically placed by cute fuzzy bunnies!

So, If you are still isolating while waiting for your first (or second) vaccine, perhaps you’ll be inspired by these prompts to write about a macabre hunt of your own creation. (Hopefully, it goes without saying that this tarot reading is to inspire works of FICTION! if you have oodles of money laying around, buy, I don’t know, your own private island or something and turn it into a wildlife habitat. Or fund a no-kill animal rescue sanctuary.)

 

Character: Queen of Swords. A shrewd woman who, after she left the Armed Forces, went on to college and earned her MBA. She owned and operated her own very successful business, but has recently has taken retirement, although she still receives income from her business. When she’s not staying at one of her lavish homes, she is off on another adventurous exploration-type trip. She has wealth, status, and good health, but while she’s never been much for interpersonal relationships (or, ones that last very long) she does miss the activity and the stimulation of running her own business.

 

Setting: Two of Pentacles. She is confident and assertive, and has always known what she wants, but she is a little at loose ends with her time and energy since her retirement. The expedition-type vacations she has been going on have gotten stale, and even with her ample funds, travelling has become a hassle with the pandemic restrictions. She is looking for something else to fill her time; something that will rid her of these unfamiliar feelings of loneliness and emptiness that have begun to creep up on her with both the retirement isolation and that of the pandemic. The long period of isolation has started to affect her mentally as well as emotionally. She misses being in charge and in control of things, and desperately needs a new challenge to fend off this ennui she feels.

 

Theme/Development: King of Pentacles. The manager that has handled her money over the years is also retiring, and the firm would like her to meet the new money manager they hope to assign to manage her estate. She likes him better than the previous manager; he’s quite a bit younger than she is, and his personable, respectful manner appeals to her. As well as his eager charm and his innocent boy-next-door looks. To the firm’s surprise and relief, she agrees to have the new money manager handle her investments and accounts, and makes plans to invite him out to her estate to further discuss the management of her estate and her money.

 

Conflict/Climax: Five of Rods/The Chariot. What the young money manager doesn’t realize is that his new client has more on her mind than just a meeting over the management of her money. Instead of going out on an expedition-type adventure vacation, she’s brought the adventure to her, with the help of her trusted, discreet (and very well-paid) staff. This time, her quarry is not museum tours or archaeological ruins or animals shot through a photo lens or seen from a ship’s bow, it’s the young man himself. She’s discovered that he’s not married, has no kids, and is not close with his family. No one to miss him, therefore he’s the perfect target. And her remote, sprawling estate surrounded by a thick forest is even more perfect. All she needs is a refresher course in firearms and other weaponry, since she’d let those areas lapse shortly after she got out of the military. But she’d kept up with her physical fitness training over the years.

Let the storytelling games begin!

Venture over to Willow Croft’s own pandemic refuge at https://willowcroft.blog.