About the Book:
This story is a 30 page fictional comic, suitable for all ages, set in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in the fall of 2022. It is about an Italian girl who wishes to reconnect with her roots, and learns more about her family and what is important in life along the way. The summary that is written on the back of the book is as follows:
“Anna embarks on a road trip to visit the site where her Italian grandparents arrived for the first time in Halifax many years ago. But the adventure proves to be riskier than she had expected as Hurricane Fiona crashes in. Through dreams and lessons she learned while playing cards with her Nonna, she finds the strength to move on after the hurricane, and experience the true beauty of the East Coast.”
 
Each scene in the story is based on a real place, and each dream sequence blends actual events from Moonspade Magic’s Italian-Canadian upbringing with her grandparents as well as real historic events from her home town in Italy. 
 
About the Author & Illustrator:
This is Moonspade Magic’s longest comic project. We have authored and conceptualized the entire story “In the Cards” and have now become an experienced grant writer, essayist, and aspiring novelist. The illustrations in the story are all original watercolour paintings, and the entire story was completed on one pad of 9x12 watercolour paper after 6 distinct drafts. We are quite proud of this project and have started writing our second book in March of 2025. 
 
About the Designer:
Brittany Pickrem assisted Moonspade Magic in the scanning, font creation, and layout design of In the Cards. She was able to bring beautiful, original watercolour illustrations to life with careful attention to detail carrying out our artistic vision using photoshop and helped us create a print ready file, get our ISBN number, and supported us by encouraging us to apply for other funding we were eligible for. Moonspade Magic would like to sincerely thank Brittany for her work.
 
Support for In the Cards:
We would like to thank Villa Charities, Invest Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Loyal Program for their financial support of the In the Cards project. Claire Tatangelo a.k.a. Moonspade Magic was the recipient of the Young Artist Grant, 5000 dollars was awarded to her from Villa Charities to Author and Illustrate a graphic novel. This award was given to one artist, 30 and under, with a connection to Italian Canadian Heritage. Claire was selected as the winner in October of 2023 and completed the project in February of 2025. After the completion of the book, Moonspade Magic submitted an application to partner with Nova Scotia Loyal, a labelling program which supports products produced in Nova scotia. Through the support of Invest Nova Scotia in partnership with Nova Scotia Loyal we were able to print a second run (the first printed run of In the Cards sold out within 2 weeks) of 500 copies with the Nova Scotia Loyal seal proudly printed on the back cover of In the Cards.