Gwendolyn Womack

Author of "The Memory Painter" and "The Fortune Teller"

General

The Kaleidoscope Express September Signup! A Giveaway Drawing for Subscribers

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This month I’ll be randomly drawing a name from my list of newsletter subscribers and sending the winner a dreamstone and several tarot card prints I painted, which were all inspired by my latest book The Fortune Teller.

Signup for The Kaleidoscope Express here or on the right banner of my website and you’ll be automatically entered for a chance to win. I send out my newsletter every few months with updates about my books and writing journey.

These drawings are my way of saying thank you. Here is a picture below of the dreamstone and cards. And above is a photo I took of one of my kaleidoscopes, something that I collect, hence my newsletter name. The winner will get an email from me in October. Good luck!

The Fortune Teller Launch Party

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Yesterday was the launch of The Fortune Teller & I’m thrilled to have the book out into the world. Thank you for all the good wishes online and for everyone who came to the party & to Book Soup for hosting. It was a wonderful day. Here are a few pictures to share the evening.

Love the Wonder Woman poster looking down on the store!

I was tickled to pull into the lot and find this sign. A first.

Here is Jennifer from Book Soup – many thanks to her and the Book Soup team for being such wonderful hosts.

We put these balloons by the front door. Love that smiling Sun!

A view through the window on the street and then inside while I’m reading the first few pages of the book.

The book cookies were a hit & they did look like cards.

Here I am signing a book and wearing a bright yellow Tarot t-shirt with The Fool on the front. I couldn’t resist that t-shirt. In Tarot, The Fool marks the beginning of a journey and yesterday was definitely a beginning.

And here is Vanina, the wonderful tarot reader from The Green Man store in Hollywood who came to give everyone a reading. I had the chance to sit with her at the end of the night and she read my cards. If you’re in LA go see Vanina at The Green Man!

Cheers & many thanks! I hope you enjoy The Fortune Teller.

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: The Fortune Teller ARC Giveaway!

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Saturday 4/22 I’ll be at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books doing a signing for The Memory Painter and a giveaway of advance reader copies for The Fortune Teller. 

I’ll be at the RWA Los Angeles Chapter Booth #937 from 12-2pm and then the SoCal Mystery Writers of America Booth from 4-5pm. Stop by and say hi and grab an advance reader copy. 

If you aren’t in the LA area but would still like a peek at an early copy of The Fortune Teller, there are a few Goodreads Giveaways that will be happening between now and June 6. Picador is holding one this week for 10 advance reader copies. The giveaway ends 4/15. Click here to enter.

Behind the book: Writing Tools – Using Pinterest

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Inspiration Boards for The Memory Painter and The Fortune Teller

I wanted to share my experiences using Pinterest, because I love it so much. There are a million ways to use Pinterest. I use it as a visual inspiration board as well as for research while I’m writing a novel. I started doing it with The Memory Painter several years ago to find images that inspired me and it became a valuable writing tool.

When I began working on The Fortune Teller, I used Pinterest even more because I started a board right away at the beginning stages of creating the story. I would plug in search words like “tarot,” “divination,” and “ancient oracles,” for example and get a ton of images to sort through. Anything that struck me in a powerful way I would save to the board. I also found some great websites and resources on ancient maps and libraries, as well as historical pictures for some of the lifetimes I was writing, particularly with the Romani. The wonderful thing too is when you’re all done you can look back at your board and see your writing journey. It’s like a personal visual scrapbook you can share.

Here’s my journey on Pinterest while writing The Fortune Teller.

One other neat feature that I accidentally stumbled on is you can create secret boards! So I’ve got one for the next book I’m writing that already has 104 pins. Now whenever I start researching a story I’ll create a Pinterest board right away. It’s like my official greenlight to get going. I look forward to sharing that board too in the future.

So if you’re a writer and you’ve stumbled on this post and are looking for some added inspiration I do recommend trying Pinterest out.

Copyright © 2026 Gwendolyn Womack. All rights reserved.