this message was meant to find you

revealing the tarot cards based on my novel

Fate. Fortune. Serendipity. Bashert. Kismet. Lucky girl syndrome. Destiny.

As challenging as it is to write a book, it’s also a practice that can put you in the path of magic.

In Still Writing, Dani Shapiro writes:

If beginnings are leaps of faith, and middles are vexing, absorbing, full of trap doors and wrong turns and dead ends, sensing an ending is your reward. It’s better than selling your book. It’s better than a good review. When you’re in the home stretch, it seems the universe reaches out to support you. It meets you more than halfway. Whatever you still need in order to finish your novel…appears is if by the decree of some literary deity who understands just how hard you’ve worked, just how much you’ve struggled, and will now give you a break. A strain of music overheard on the street. A few sentences of dialogue. An interview on the car radio that solves a problem you didn’t even know you had.

In February of 2023, I was reporting on a BookTok event at the Union Square Barnes & Noble.

At lunchtime, I queued for a table at a nearby Le Pain Quotidien. Another woman in line complimented my white winter coat. We decided to split a table and have our meal together.

She was a past life regression therapist (!) based in Los Angeles.

I told her about the novel I was writing, set inside the Ennis House.

“I love Frank Lloyd Wright,” she said. “You know about his method, ‘compression and release’?”

“No,” I said.

“Look it up later,” she said.

I did. And then I used it in my novel’s designing principle: a house that exerts as much influence over its inhabitants’ behavior as the algorithm.

I expected a grand entrance, but instead found myself following Craig up a dark, claustrophobic staircase and through a narrow hallway to the main floor of the house. The living room was two stories tall, framed by huge columns of stone blocks, and lit up with natural light from the large picture windows that overlooked the dizzying city below. An enormous wrought iron chandelier hung from the ceiling. I didn’t know anything about architecture, but the dramatic contrast between the choked entrance and the vaulted heights of the living room seemed like a mistake—and because I was so young that I thought I knew everything, I said so.

“It’s called compression and release.” Suddenly his hands were on my shoulders, his thumbs kneading and dissolving the tension below my neck. He took his time. His hands were warm and strong. I couldn’t move.

“The architect wanted you to feel constrained,” Craig said, squeezing, “before the relief.”

Then he let go.

And with that touch, the atmosphere changed. Craig was someone else inside the house than he was outside of it. So was I. I couldn’t wait for him to touch me again.

This house will make you do things, I thought.

---

Last year, my client Betsy Lerner knew that I was writing a novel about a tarot card reader and sent me a Princess Diana tarot deck as a gift.

Then destiny led me to the same holiday party as Jennifer May Reiland, the painter who created the deck. She introduced herself to me—she’d read Self Care.

What were the odds?

We have to do something together, I thought.

Jennifer read my tarot cards and then she read my novel. We started collaborating on a series of cards based on scenes from the book, which follows the mystery of a tarot card reader who disappears from a TikTok hype house. The last card she ever posts is the Eight of Swords and her online fandom becomes obsessed with understanding how the card is connected to her sudden disappearance, when she’s at the height of her powers and influence.

Art by Jennifer May Reiland

We turned the tarot cards into stickers

For three months, Jennifer has been working on these cards, sketching, drawing, and painting each one.

We turned them into a collectible sticker sheet that is exclusively available to readers who pre-order If You’re Seeing This It’s Meant for You from Madison Street Books in Chicago, my hometown.¹

You can put these stickers on your laptop, your Stanley cup, or your Moleskine. The best part is that they’re Easter eggs—they take on additional meaning as you read the novel.

I’m announcing this to you, my Substack readers, before I announce it on any of my other channels!

There are only 150 of these sheets and there are 13,000 of you, so if you want one of these sticky works of art, click the button as soon as you see it:

The rabbit in my novel is named Owen Wilson

After you pre-order from Madison Street, can you leave a comment on this post to let me know? That will encourage others to do the same!

Connecticut social scene

I got to meet my client

Martha Hall Kelly

in person this week at her Fairfield Public Library launch event for The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club! One hundred and sixty people came, the highest turnout the library has ever had. If you’ve read Martha’s novel Lilac Girls, you know how deeply researched her novels are, and her new book is about two sisters on Martha’s Vineyard in 1942. There’s a mystery! A romance! And history! I had no idea that the army used the island to rehearse their landing on the beaches of Normandy, because of the similar shoreline. It’s been extra fun to work with Martha because we share a publishing imprint (Ballantine!) You can order a copy of Martha’s book here and don’t forget to subscribe to her Substack The Joys of Hidden History.

I also celebrated the launch of my friend Annabel Monaghan’s new novel It’s a Love Story at Athena Books in Old Greenwich, with my friends Avery Carpenter Forrey, Jessica Saunders, Amy Poeppel, Sam Woodruff, and Lynda Cohen Loigman. You should follow Annabel on Substack! Next time, I need you guys to send me the memo about what color we’re supposed to wear.

Photo from Lynda’s Instagram

Upcoming Events

I have a thrilling double-header for you this week! First up literary agent

Danielle Bukowski

who writes the Substack

Just Reading All Day

. Here’s her wishlist:

I’m looking for literary fiction, upmarket fiction, nonfiction and SFF (although I’m more selective about the last two). I particularly want to hear from writers traditionally overlooked by the publishing industry, as working on books that represent the world is important to me. My favorite novels balance a unique hook and well-paced plot with strong writing and a distinctive voice; are entertaining and thought-provoking; have a strong sense of place; are stylistically bold; speak to our current moment or are set in a historical moment that resonates with our own.

My favorite nonfiction books expand my view of the world; provide an unconventional perspective on a conventional topic; are rigorously reported and researched; weave in personal interest; read like a novel.

The next day, I’ll be chatting with Simon & Schuster editor Olivia Taylor Smith, who cofounded Unnamed Press (remember when A Certain Hunger, that cannibalism novel published by Unnamed Press, went viral on BookTok?). You can see Olivia’s list here.

I’ll interview Danielle and Olivia for thirty minutes each and then open it up to your questions. This is a rare opportunity to speak directly to a publishing professional about where you’re stuck in your career.

Diamond medallion members will receive the Zoom link on the morning of the conversation. There is nothing you need to do to register for the event.

1. If you already pre-ordered If You’re Seeing This from a different retailer, thank you! I have set aside some additional sticker sheets for you. Just email your receipt (and your mailing address) to stickers@leighstein.com and I will personally mail you stickers at the end of August.