ANNETTA RIBKEN (@netta50) ~ The Chariot Interview and a FAB GIVEAWAY

Get to know Annetta Ribken, one of the 22 contributors to and editor of the recently-released Allegories of the Tarot Anthology (which is already trailblazing its way up the fantasy anthology charts on Amazon!). Annetta wrote her tale, Squashfest, based on The Chariot card. You can read an excerpt of her story below.

Get the Allegories of the Tarot Anthology on Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, and everywhere else e-books are sold.  Add the Allegories of the Tarot Anthology to your Goodreads to-read shelf!

About Annetta

A professional editor of over eighty novels, Annetta Ribken has also been writing since a tender young age, when letters were chiseled on stone tablets. A precocious student, Annetta earned her Ph.D in the School of Hard Knocks, with honors, in the early Age of Disco. She lives and works just outside of St. Louis with her evil feline overlord, a rescued shelter cat named Athena.

Annetta has big plans to release the sequels to Athena’s Promise (Book One of the Aegean Trilogy) and The Trailer Park Tiara and the Goat Incident (a Sally Mae Riddley Adventure) in 2014. She is not too proud to bribe her muse with chocolate.

You can find out all about her at about.me/annettaribken including a link to her fiction on Amazon and all other fine online book stores.

Just a few questions…

What intrigues you about this particular Tarot card? The Chariot is all about victory and overcoming obstacles due to hard work and self-discipline. I’m really in touch with that feeling. Funny enough, it was also the last card left after the other writers had their pick. Coincidence? You decide.

Why did you decide to get roped into this project? Since I started the whole thing , you can read how it all began here for the long version, but the short version is it’s a cool idea and it wouldn’t leave me alone.

Have you ever had dealings with the Tarot before? I have. Obviously, or this would be an anthology about something else. I’m fascinated by the images and the meanings behind the cards, although I feel like the Tarot is more about the human experience than anything occult. But how the cards fall? Could be Fate.

What other projects do you have planned? Yoiks. I’m a full-time freelance editor, so I usually always have something going on. In my spare time (snort) I’m working on finishing ATHENA’S CHAINS, the sequel to ATHENA’S PROMISE, and the second novella in the Adventures of Sally Mae Riddley series.

How did you decide what to write about? I have this chatty wench in my head and she never shuts up. You speak as if I had a choice. I started a different story, but Sally Mae was having NONE OF IT.

How literal did you want to get with your card? I didn’t want to be too literal, but again, Sally Mae had other plans. I think the story has subtleties which involve The Chariot which might be cleared up the more her overall story comes to light.

Is your story a part of something you’ve written about previously? Yes, indeedy. SQUASHFEST is part of the Sally Mae world, set just before the events in THE TRAILER PARK TIARA AND THE GOAT INCIDENT.

Would you like to have written about any other card? Which card? Why? I actually think it was the perfect card. I’d really like to write stories about all the cards, because there’s so much rich story fodder there. Eventually, I may do just that.

If you could have the power to divine the future, would you or would you not and why? The Tarot isn’t so much a divination of the future as much as it is a reflection of the human experience and a guide to what you might face. I actually believe the future is far from certain; there are too many variables which depend on the decisions of others. That being said, I further believe everything happens for a reason, and it’s up to you how you react. It’s all about CHOICE.

I think knowing what the future holds would be a burden and scary as hell.

An excerpt from Squashfest

She settled on one side of the table and me and Becky Jo flopped to a seat on the pillows. The woman’s eyes never left my face, which I found a bit disconcerting. Like she was studying a bug on a pin. She reached out toward a covered object and moved it away. “Not the crystal ball,” she said. Squinting her eyes, she pulled out a deck of old, worn cards and placed it in the center of the table. “No, for you it will be the cards.”

I shivered. Becky Jo sat all quiet-like, her hands clasped in her lap. I wondered what she was picking up from all this.

“But first,” the woman continued, “there must be payment.”

Oh, hellfire. I hope Becky Jo din’t spend her last dime on that butternut. “How much, ma’am?”

“Give me what you have in your pockets. Both of you. Because I can see you’re closely tied together.”

I warn’t too impressed by that, considering we’d come in hand-in-hand. She’s probably nothing but a big faker.

She tsked. “I assure you, I’m the real deal.”

I pert near swallowed my tongue.

Read the rest of Squashfest in the Allegories of the Tarot Anthology!

About Allegories of the Tarot

Once upon a time, there was an editor with a fascination for the Tarot. She was struck one day by a crazy idea. “Hey,” she said. “What if twenty-two writers each wrote a story about the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana of the Tarot and were fashioned into an anthology?”

The idea would not leave her alone.

And thus, the Allegories of the Tarot was born.

Crowdfunded by a campaign on Indiegogo with the help and support of an amazing group of writers, twenty-two stories were crafted around the mysteries of the Tarot. The group includes a Pushcart Prize nominee, a Pulp Ark nominee, a former Bigfoot researcher, a journalist, an award-winning YA author, and a Rhysling Award winner. Professional writers, new talent, and a range of genres boggling the mind: Horror, Speculative Fiction, Bizarro Fiction, Erotica, Mystery, Humor, Paranormal, Epic Fantasy, Literary, Romance, and Historical Fantasy.

What has emerged is an outstanding collection of fiction, unique and mysterious. Stories that will make you cry, make you laugh, and make you think. Stories that make you feel the touch of the Universe.

Dare to step through the portal to shadowy realms and emotional journeys.

Get the book!

Allegories of the Tarot is available in e-book and paperback format on Amazon, Kobo, and in multiple e-book formats on Smashwords.

Don’t forget to add Allegories of the Tarot to your to-read shelf on Goodreads.

Connect with the Allegories of the Tarot Anthology on its website, Facebook, and Twitter.

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