This Fall I have two new books coming out, one fiction, one non-fiction. This recalls for me the very beginning of my book publishing, when 78 Degrees of Wisdom, my first Tarot book, and Golden Vanity, my first novel, both appeared in the summer of 1980. Now here are books 29 and 30 (yes, you read that right) and I am very excited about both of them. In 1980 neither had the word "Tarot" in the title (though 78 Degrees  was subtitled "A book of Tarot").  Now both new books do.

TAROT OF PERFECTION is a collection of eight stories in the form of fairy tales and fables, though four take place in the modern day.  The title comes from the first story, in which a great sage, Joachim the Brilliant, finds his life altered forever when he comes upon a crude Tarot deck at a street fair.  Will he end up as Joachim the Baffled or Joachim the Blessed?  The deck he seeks to create, the Tarot of Perfection, appears and reappears in the tales.  Though the form is fairy tales, they are not for children.  They contain headless women and talking heads from dead children and fallen angels.  In them you'll find an honest orphan told to become a thief by the Goddess of Destiny, a young girl who must rescue her father from a Devil who collects souls on his hard drive, and a father who must rescue his son from a child-devouring psychiatrist.

Read more about TAROT OF PERFECTION at www.magic-realist.com.

TAROT WISDOM is quite simply my most comprehensive card-by-card book on the cards since 78 Degrees of Wisdom.  I like to say that it's what I've learned in the past thirty years, but of course it's more focused than that.  It looks at the cards from many perspectives, including the way the meanings have developed and changed over the past 230 years.  There are explanations of Kabbalah in the cards, and the hidden meanings of numbers.  Most of all, TAROT WISDOM looks at what the cards teach us about life, their spiritual message, and the stories that lie within them.  At its heart, my writing is always about stories, and the Tarot has always fascinated me with its connections to myths as well as the wisdom traditions of many cultures.  In TAROT WISDOM  you will discover how such figures as Hermes, the god of magic, Persephone, the goddess of the dead, and the mysterious fallen angels of Genesis weave through the cards.  And readings--there are individual spreads inspired by every card in the Major Arcana and each of the four suits of the Minor.  There are spreads about relationships, including "Court Card Confrontation," a unique spread for dealing with a difficult person in your life.  There are spreads for spiritualty and spreads for work.  TAROT WISDOM is a big book--over 500 pages--for a big subject, how to read Tarot cards with wisdom and wonder, justice and joy.

Read more about it at www.llewellyn.com