Exploring magic in the real world
"Improbable Magic is categorized under fantasy, but I consider it contemporary because it is realistic, and the magic in it is real magic," she said. "I think sometimes it's hard for some people to wrap their minds around what that means.

"There's nothing supernatural about the book. All the magic is based in reality and is based in ritual and it's sort of — I don't know how to describe it other than 'realistic magic,' which makes sense to me. I think because it involves magic and because it involves witches, it was sort of listed and categorized as a fantasy."

While authors of all genres typically have a lot of research to do behind the scenes, Scelsa's background in practical magic meant she already had a vast knowledge of her subject matter when she began writing a book about modern witches. "Well, because it's been something that I got into in the past ten years, it's all based on my experience. I've had a lot of experience with different ceremonial circles and magical practices and especially tarot," she said.

"I'm happy to talk about the magic of it, I'm interested in magic and witchy things, and tarot and astrology. Those are all things that I have come to later in life in my thirties. It was something I enjoyed as a young person and kind of lost for a while, then came back to recently. I didn't pursue all that stuff as a teenager, so this is a little bit my version of letting my teen self have those things and ...the perfect witchy coven and the perfect relationship to that kind of magic."

Following the arc of the tarot
More recently, Scelsa has found fascination in the art of tarot. After learning more about it, she decided she wanted to incorporate tarot into her book in a unique way. "So, the book is structured around the narrative of the major arcana in tarot," she explained.

"In the tarot deck, some of the cards are called the major arcana cards," she continued. "Those cards are the story cards... that often show up in movies when people do a tarot reading, like Death or the Lovers. They are ordered in a certain way that follows this narrative arc, starting with the Fool and ending with the World. That's kind of a hero's journey narrative arc.

"So, I studied the major arcana with this group called the Brooklyn Fools, where every week we learned about a different card. I structured this book around that narrative of the major arcana, and in the book, each chapter is preceded by a description of one of the major arcana cards and goes deep into that. So actually I did very little research, because it's something I love so much that I just kind of let my own experience with it guide how I wrote about it."

Inspired by the pandemic
Scelsa's inspiration for Improbable Magic came at the perfect time for her. Just as she was starting to write her first drafts, the pandemic hit. "I came up with the idea in the fall of 2019, and actually, it ended up being really good timing, because it gave me a project over... the first year of the pandemic."

With that backdrop, she could dedicate more time to writing, and finished her draft for Improbable Magic in record time. "I found out it helped me write productively, because there wasn't much else to do. I was just home. There weren't any excuses.

"I also just let myself have fun with it and enjoy it. We were in such a serious time and things felt so dire, I wanted to let my enjoyment and my passions lead the way. It felt indulgent to write about witches and magic and tarot, just because that's stuff I enjoy. It happened, and it came pretty quickly. I would say I wrote a draft in about six months, which is sort of unprecedented for me, but it was fun to find out that I could write quickly... The hard lesson is that I do well when all distractions are removed and there's nothing else to do."

Straight out of Salem
"I was looking at what would be fun for me to write, what I would enjoy writing," she said. "Even beyond witches, I have been fascinated by Salem, so the book takes place in modern-day Salem and especially... in October. It becomes a crazy Disney World theme park in October, just overrun with tourists, so I was thinking okay, what would be fun to write about, where should I put these people that would give me the most fun to play with these themes? So I decided to set it in Salem in the fall."

While she didn't have to do much research on witchcraft, she did have to explore what the setting of the story would be and learn more about modern-day Salem. "I did a lot of research about modern-day Salem, and watched a ton of YouTube videos of people who take videos on Halloween of everybody's costumes, people who would do video tours of the different Salem attractions — which are mostly really dated wax museums and run-down, cheesy places."

She was just as enchanted by the culture of Salem as she was by the magic of it. "I love all that stuff. As much as I sincerely love magic and witches and take all that stuff seriously, I also really love cheesy, campy, run-down stuff that maybe people would enjoy ironically. I love that sincerely. That was where the inspiration came from.

"It sort of started with the idea of modern-day Salem and tarot, and once I put those ideas together, along with the idea of Lesbian romance, those all sort of stirred together to create the plot."

Avoiding Queer clichés
Writing a Queer romance was at the forefront of Scelsa's rough drafts as well. "I did from the beginning know that it was going to be Queer. Most of what I write is Queer. That's just my own experience and what I enjoy writing about, so my work tends to go in that direction...

"This was my second book with my same editor, and we had been talking for a while about me writing a Lesbian romance," she said.

When it comes to writing LGBTQ+ romances, the most important thing to Scelsa is making sure to avoid tired tropes. "You want to make sure you avoid clichés as much as possible, which interestingly enough — even when it's your own lived experience — doesn't mean that you don't fall into clichés sometimes.

"I had an interesting conversation with my editor about a character who is Bisexual and whether or not she was out. We had a conversation about making sure that one character wasn't forcing another character to come out of the closet, because that's sort of an old cliché... around complicated sexuality that I think — even though it's my own lived experience — when it was on the page, read as [clichéd]."

"It is important to tell stories that feel true to real life but aren't falling into cliché traps," she continued. "I'd much rather write something original, so honestly, that's an answer that is more about writing in general than writing Queer characters. I'd much rather write something that someone hasn't read before, or met characters exactly like these before. For sure, I must want my characters to feel true to life and original and interesting and do things that you wouldn't expect."

Writing for modern-day witches
Aside from seeing realistic and original depictions of queerness, she also hopes her readers can take away lessons about what real magic looks like. "I do hope there's a better understanding of this idea of a realistic relationship to magic and what modern-day witchcraft can look like, and what a relationship to tarot — and tools like tarot — is," she said of her book.

To Scelsa, magical practices are less like fantasy and more like tools that can help people cope with the taxing realities of life. "I think a lot of people have a misunderstanding around how these tools can be used as therapy and ...toward self-understanding and self-help, even," she said.

Scelsa is so dedicated to changing the way people see magical practices that her latest book is a guide for those interested in exploring the practices as ways to live more clearly. "Luminary is a self-help book about all these tools, about tarot and astrology and energy work. For me, these tools have been so helpful and provided alternative ways of working with mental health. Beyond even the fun fantasy element, which I enjoy too, I find that they're really helpful tools for self-knowledge.

"So, I hope that as the characters in the book sort of come to that conclusion around letting this idea of okay even if you don't believe in magical forces, maybe you still see that there's something here that can be helpful when it comes to trying to figure out your life."

Scelsa's newest projects
Her latest book takes many of the practices and ideas readers were introduced to in Improbable Magic and further explains how they work, and how readers can practice them at home. "It's a magical guide to self-care. It's about using mystical tools to help with depression and stress. It's for young adult readers, for teen readers, but I think anybody can enjoy it," she said.

"It also includes a bunch of different views with different practitioners, my favorite tarot teachers, my favorite astrology teacher, and some cool people that helped me put these tools into a framework that makes them really practical tools that you can use in your daily life. We end up with a conversation about how to build futures for ourselves that look a little different and are maybe less based on arbitrary expectations and more based on our hearts and our own needs and hopes and desires.

"It's secretly kind of an anticapitalist rant, [in which] I want to empower young people to make decisions that serve them best. But also it's a fun read."

Aside from Luminary, Scelsa has several other projects in the works and plans to explore genres and mediums outside contemporary fantasy literature. "I've always written in a bunch of genres. I also write plays, and I'm currently working on an opera with a friend of mine," she said.

"One of the things I'm working on is a graphic novel. I like writing in different forms, even beyond different genres. I think because I like having lots of different kinds of projects, I can switch between them. I also have a band called the Witch Ones that I write with, and my songwriting partners and I just came out with an album in June. You can listen to it on Spotify.

"All my stuff tends to be a little witchy and a little magical. I just change the format every once and a while," she said with a laugh.

While Scelsa has an endless number of projects at any given moment, she's going to be stepping back for the time being to focus on her latest work of art: her new baby, who she welcomed in late August. However, she promises to return to writing soon and guarantees that she will continue creating Queer stories, no doubt with more elements of real-life magic.