winter 2004

~Monday, December 20, 2004

It’s a day of completion, just in time for the winter solstice tomorrow. I did hand in the remaining pieces of my novel, The Lover’s Path, today to Abrams. Ten years of work, ten years of development, now out of my hands and ready to be published!

To be honest, I don’t think the absoluteness of this fact has fully sunk into my consciousness yet — that the book is done, as in fully finished, complete, finito still seems an abstract concept. I think in the next few days, it will begin to sink in. It will be strange when I get up in the morning and realize that there’s nothing remaining on my “to do” list for The Lover’s Path.

Strange but wonderful.

Not sure what project will be next, though I have some inkling of what it will be. The new year will hopefully bring certainty.

In the meantime, I will turn to making order of my home and studio, both of which have gotten ridden with the clutter that comes from working nonstop for several months. I also am looking forward to enjoying friends and family over the holiday. And, most of all, I will be leaving for Paris soon after for a much-needed vacation with my husband. I look forward to eating crepes with créme marron, pain au chocolate dipped in cafe au lait; dressing warmly for contemplative walks along the Seine; reaquainting myself with the Musée Rodin in darkest winter.

Also on the subject of completion: now that The Lover’s Path Tarot is out into the world, I’ve begun to receive the loveliest feedback! It’s so gratifying, since as an artist working alone in my private world, I’m often cut off from seeing how the public responds. Here are a few quotes from e-mails I’ve received over the past few days:

“Oh my goodness, what exquisite work, exquisitely done.  Obviously, I love it.”

” I received my special edition set on Sat and finally got a chance to open it this AM.  I am so blown away….. it is fabulous.  I am so impressed with your attention to detail and every small item.  You have outdone every set on the market.”

“I received the “Lovers Path Tarot” the other day . . . they feel holy, they are soooo beautiful. Thank you so much for pouring so much of yourself, your heart into your work. “

“I just wanted to say I received your deck today and I couldn’t be more thrilled with what I’ve received. You couldn’t have created a better deck.”

There’s also a glowing review of The Lover’s Path Tarot already posted here on a blog devoted to all things tarot. It gives a detailed description of the limited edition set.

Once again, this feedback is so gratifying — those of you who have been reading this blog from the beginning know how much work went into creating this project. Thank you for so generously sharing this gift with me!

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As I wrote earlier, I will be out of the studio (and the country for that matter) from here on until mid-January. I probably won’t be updating this blog very much until my return, though I do plan to write a last e-newsletter for 2004. In terms of sending out Lover’s Path Tarot orders, all orders placed through today have been shipped; any future orders will be fufilled when I get back from Paris and am back at work again.

In the meantime, I send all of you my best wishes to all of you for a peaceful, prosperous and creative 2005!

~Wednesday, December 15, 2004:

All the domestic pre-orders were mailed today. What a thrill to have them out and about in the world!!!! I can’t wait to hear your response to finally having the Lover’s Path Tarot in your hands.

BTW, someone e-mailed me today that there are some Lover’s Path Tarot available used (?!?) on Amazon.com. This puzzled me, since the tarot sets only arrived this week from Hong Kong. It’s clearly impossible — they’re not even in the stores yet.

After a little investigation, I discovered that it’s only the Lover’s Path deck which is being resold (not the set), these decks being remnants of a batch of advance publicity freebies. They were handed out at Book Expo America to publishing professionals to publicize the Lover’s Path Tarot set. I guess even publishing professionals need a little extra $$$. (Heck, don’t we all?) You can read more about the Lover’s Path and my experiences at Book Expo on this journal’s Summer 2004 page.

Now for me to make some order of my studio, so I can get back to tying up the last few threads of my novel. The past few days have been a whirlwind — my studio reflects it.

~Tuesday, December 14, 2004.

And the first shipment has been sent out! All the international pre-orders for The Lover’s Path Tarot regular and limited editions are now enroute to some distant place upon the globe.

(I envy their wide-reaching travel. Their furthest destination is New Zealand, I think. Though Taiwan seems awfully far off too. Both are places I’ve never seen.)

The rest of the pre-orders will be picked up early tomorrow by the USPS. As a side note, I’m glad the USPS offers scheduled pick up — I wouldn’t relish lugging what remains to the post office, especially at the height of the holiday season in NYC. I should take a photo of the many, many, many boxes currently lining the hallway outside my studio, patiently awaiting their flight from my nest. The stacks reach up to my chest, and I’m almost six foot tall!

If you’re one of the people who pre-ordered The Lover’s Path Tarot from me, you’ll be receiving a shipping confirmation e-mail from me tomorrow, containing your package’s Priority Mail delivery confirmation number. According to the USPS, you should receive everything within a few days — two to three for domestic deliveries; four to five for international.

It amazes me that soon the sets will be in your hands! I can’t wait to hear everyone’s comments upon finally receiving the real, physical object, after the many months — heck, years — since I started work on The Lover’s Path Tarot.

Because of the popularity of the pre-orders, most of the sets I ordered from US Games are already sold. I think there’s less than five left in stock. But I’ll be getting more in after the New Year, along with the rest of the limited edition components. These will be sent out upon my return from Paris, in mid-January.

Thank you for your support of my work!

~Friday, December 10, 2004

You would laugh if you saw my studio right now. It is packed SOLID with boxes and boxes and boxes of Lover’s Path Tarot sets, packages containing the limited edition components, and rolls of packing materials. There is just a small walkway cleared, so I can inch to my desk to work. It’s chaos, but the happy productive kind.

It’s exciting to finally be sending out the pre-orders!!!!! They all look so lovely. Can’t wait to get them into your hands.

BTW, I should mention that I will only be sending out orders until December 21st — and then I will be on vacation until mid-January. All orders placed during this period will be filled upon my return to NYC.

On the Lover’s Path the novel front, I’m working on the book cover right now.

It all feels so, well, real.

~ Tuesday, December 7, 2004

The Lover’s Path Tarot sets have arrived safe and sound!!!!!!!!!

All preorders will begin to ship this week. I’m so thrilled to share my latest with you, after so much work and time.

And I did turn in the final mechanicals for my novel, The Lover’s Path, to Abrams Books. As of yesterday, all that remains is for me to do is to touch up four oils paintings, and to finalize the cover design. In other words, I’m practically done.

It’s a good week. Plus I feel so much better, now that my bronchitis is history.

~Saturday, December 4, 2004

You know you’re sick when your doctor prefaces his comments to you with, “I’m going to try to treat you as an outpatient. But if you don’t feel better within 48 hours, you must go into the hospital.”

Yes, I was that sick.

That bad cold was bronchitis, as I suspected, with a hefty side dish of acute bronchial irritation. Fortunately, it wasn’t pneumonia or flu. Fortunately, I did respond to the heavy duty meds they gave me, and I didn’t have to go into the hospital. Fortunately, I’m back in my studio after missing two days of work, and taking several days very very easy with a half schedule. Now that I’m feeling so much better, looking back I know that I’ve never felt so sick in my life. It was scary — especially since I’m going on six months pregnant.

Confession time: Yup, my husband and I are expecting a little girl in April 2005. Being the superstitious sort (at least when it comes to pregnancy), I was too nervous to say anything for some time. But now that I’m well into my second trimester and on the brink of my third, I’m fortunate to know our baby is a very healthy little girl. She’s also very active (she’s kicking as I type this).

So it’s been a dramatic week. I’ll be handing in the final mechanicals for The Lover’s Path monday, about a week behind schedule. But some things can’t be planned.

Right now, I’m almost finished with all of the 26 interior spot illustrations. Most of them have been scanned into the mechanical; most of the mechanical pages have been printed out. I’ve also been burning cd-roms of the book — can’t believe how many files there are! They will take up eight to ten cd-roms of data.

At this stage of finishing up a book, it’s all details. And there are lots of them.

On the Lover’s Path Tarot front, the schedule remains the same. The sets are expected in this week from customs (yay!). As soon as they arrive, I’ll begin to send out pre-orders on a first come, first served basis. I can’t wait to share them with you!

~Monday, November 29, 2004

When it rains, it pours: I now have a bad cold, which I think may include bronchitis. I sound like Violetta in a bad road production of La Traviata. But I’m doing my best to finish up the final pieces of The Lover’s Path. It’s a good distraction from physical woes, even if I am moving slowly in the studio.

Some good news: The Lover’s Path Tarot sets are in the United States! Right now, they’re in Chicago, waiting to be cleared through customs. Hopefully just a few more days until they’re at US Games’ warehouse — the middle of next week? That would give me plenty of time to pack up all the pre-orders with plenty of time for holiday delivery.

Otherwise, the holidays were quiet and lowkey. I did go to the movies with some friends to see The Incredibles. I knew very little about this film going into it, so was pleasantly surprised. Very clever and well constructed. The Pixar animation was its usual skillful brilliance, but the main thing I appreciated was the wonderfully funny and incisive writing in the script, especially with its astute observations of midlife, suburbia and the concessions people make to “fit in”.

The Incredibles is one of those films that the more I thought about it, the more I liked it — lots of well-observed moments, and throwaway lines which grow more resonant and funny in retrospect. That’s my mark of a good film: I’m still thinking about it several days later, and not in a “what a waste of time” way.

~Tuesday, November 24, 2004

Have been sidetracked by a nasty stomach bug. (And of all times, with so much work to finish up on The Lover’s Path!) I’m going to have to push myself to make up the missing time — am supposed to hand in the final book mechanicals next week. (!) And this is a holiday week too, so there’s distractions galore. I’m feeling a little better today, and managed to eat some solid food (which I hope will stay down). I hate being ill.

Before I got too sick to work, I did manage to get all of the 26 spot illustrations sketched out and transferred onto watercolor paper. I even starting painting a batch of them. It was going fairly quickly, so I hope this bodes well.

I’m not going to be able to update things on the site until everything is off to my publisher. In the meantime, prices will stay the same on the Lover’s Path Tarot limited edition set (which were due to be raised yesterday). Too much to do on this book deadline!

BTW, the tarot sets should be arriving any day from Hong Kong now. In terms of the other components, I received the Beatrice and Amor prints two days ago. They look just lovely, very renaissance-inspired. The printer did an accurate and beautiful job!

~Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Frivolous and mundane as it sounds, I guess it’s back to business — the business of art, that is.

Here’s where I’m at with everything (since it’s been a while since I’ve updated):

~ Am currently working on 26 spot illustrations for my novel, The Lover’s Path. Inspired by Renaissance manuscript paintings, these small watercolor and gouache paintings will be inserted into the text of the book at the beginning of each section. Will post a sample one later!

~ Fnally signed the contract for The Lover’s Path about two weeks ago. It takes a while to negotiate all the little details involved, but my literary agent did an amazing job!

~ Handed in cover comps for The Lovers’ Path. Click here to see one of my favorites. (Note that type is only for placement.) The plan is to have the cover be a three piece case; this means that the spine area would be a separate construction, made out of another material, such as a faux leather or velvet. Very cool!

~ Received first proofs for the Lover’s Path Tarot limited edition extra card. The printer is going to do a beautiful job — I’m using the same printer who did the prepress for the tarot set itself. Also received other materials for the limited edition, including the plum colored organza sleeves for the card and accompanying lwb. I also designed a special stamp, which will be dipped in gold paint. I want to make the limited edition as special as possible!

It feels like there are a million other things going on, mainly small details. But this is enough for now. I have to hand everything in to Abrams by the end of the month. So time’s a wastin’.

~Monday, November 8, 2004

I just couldn’t post last week — too heartbroken by the election results. It seemed superficial to post a cheery entry about how well things are going in the studio when the world seems so upside-down scary.

I don’t like to talk politics with people, since I know how difficult it is to change others’ minds once their opinions are set. You may as well get blood from a turnip. I prefer to use my time productively, to try to live up to my highest humanist ideals as best I can, to live by example (if that isn’t too grandiose!). I hope my art and this website reflects this as well. But right now, I feel so disenfrancised, so misrepresented by the arrogant and short-sighted administration in Washington. They do not reflect my beliefs — or 48% of Americans. On a purely domestic level, their records on the environment and women’s rights are truly terrifying. I fear for our daughters’ futures as well as for our earth’s.

I can write more, but the facts speak for themselves for those who seek them out.

In the studio side, things are going well. But I’ll write more about this another time, when it feels less frivolous.

~Saturday, October 22, 2004

I’m finally ready to accept pre-orders for The Lover’s Path Tarot! Click here to learn more. The set is available as both a limited and regular edition. You can also look inside a Lover’s Path Tarot limited edition set, to get the full experience. Let me know what you think!

As an additional thank you for your support of my work, I’ve decided to offer my new 2005 Goddess Tarot Datebook as a special premium. Purchase a Lover’s Path Tarot set and receive a Goddess Tarot Datebook at a steeply discounted price of $9.99 — 33% off the regular price of $14.99 — and without shipping charges. It will be shipped with all Lover’s Path Tarot sets at the beginning of December, just in time for the holidays.

It’s been a lot of work getting everything up and running. I hope you like what you see!

~Thursday, October 21, 2004

And the Lover’s Path Tarot set is here!!!!! I have it serenely perched on the table next to my computer. It looks gorgeous — very sumptuous. QP Printing, the Hong Kong-based printer, did a lovely job. It’s an amazing thing to see all of my work compressed into one elegant 8 x 8 x 2.5 inch package.

So this means that the sets will be shipped within the week, to arrive in the US in about a month’s time — in other words, time to begin accepting pre-orders. Right now, I’m still finalizing the PayPal system to accept orders from all around the globe. It should be up and running any time now. I’ll post when I’m ready to go!

I also plan to include a Goddess Tarot Datebook offer for all Lover’s Path Tarot pre-orders — a special “thank you” for your patience.

~Saturday, October 16, 2004

The first Lover’s Path Tarot sets will be here on the 18th — this Monday! They’re being shipped via overnight from China, so we can see how everything looks before the rest of the press run goes ahead. I’m very excited!

In order to share the total experience with you, I’m planning to create an interactive webpage, where you can “virtually” experience the entire Lover’s Path Tarot set. You’ll be able to open the set box, look inside the book, and more. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Look for this page to be posted by October 22nd! In the meantime, I’m still setting up the PayPal payment system for the limited edition — lots of details to take care of, mainly on the international shipping options. I’d like to have the interactive webpage and the PayPal page ready to go at the same time. This way people can see exactly what The Lover’s Path Tarot set will be like before they purchase it.

On the novel front, I’ wrote and handed in my author’s note. Writing an author’s note is always a slightly bittersweet experience — usually they’re written when you’re at the end of a project, almost as a final summation. Though I still have some details on the art to finalize, this act reminds me that it’s almost time for The Lover’s Path to leave my hands and go to press. I’ve loved this book so much, and can’t wait to share it with you. Still, it’s a strange feeling to think of how quiet it will seem after ten years of development.

~Monday, October 11, 2004

I have a delivery date for The Lover’s Path Tarot!!!! As I mentioned earlier, it will be shipped from China on October 25, 2004. Since it will take four weeks to arrive at US Games’ warehouse, I’m figuring I should be able to start sending out by the first week in December — in time for the holidays.

Right now, I’m figuring out shipping options for outside the United States. So far, I’ve gotten the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan covered. Is there any other country I need to set up shipping for? Let me know by e-mailing your information to e-comment@artandwords.com.

And thanks for your interest and patience!

~Sunday, October 10, 2004

The latest: I fedexed the manuscript revisions off to Abrams yesterday. Still have to work on the book’s author’s note/afterword — my editor suggested that I include information about the true stories and sources which inspired The Lover’s Path. (Yes, my novel is inspired by historical events, a la Memoirs of a Geisha. More to come on that later.) Otherwise, the book is entirely laid out to the new-and-improved trim size, with all the fpo, or “for position only,” graphics in their final places.

Now to move onto painting the art spots and touching up the art. Otherwise, the digital files are pretty much ready to go, except for some resizing here and there.

And I did get a delivery date for The Lover’s Path Tarot. It will be shipped from the printer in China on October 25th — just over two weeks from now! So they will be here most likely sometime in mid- to late-November, in plenty of time for the holidays.

To be extra careful, I e-mailed the printer for confirmation of EXACTLY when the deck and book sets will arrive in the US. Once I have this answer, I’ll be ready to accept pre-orders for the limited edition set. So many people are on the wait list right now, I hate to disappoint with an inaccurate arrival date. BTW, I plan to accept payment via PayPal, so people from all over the world can easily purchase The Lover’s Path Tarot any way they prefer: bank check, credit card, and more. In the past, it’s been difficult for me to accept international payment without having to deal with inconvenient bank charges. Leave it to PayPal to find a way around this obstacle. . . .

Amost there! Stay tuned!

~Sunday, October 3, 2004

I did receive the manuscript edits from my novel’s editor earlier this week. To my delight, they’re done with a lot of love and a lot of care — the line edits really do serve the book. I know how close I am to these words, which is why it’s so useful to have another person’s eyes. Susan’s editorial suggestions revealed to me the small threads that need to be more carefully woven, the underlying motifs which could be amplified to better serve the whole.

Also, from a purely pragmatic “art of the book” viewpoint, I can now move onto finalizing the spot art for The Lover’s Path. Unlike the art spreads which open each of the novel’s seven chapters, the spot art is incorporated with the text itself — I couldn’t work on it until I knew exactly how the text would fall on each and every page.

So I’ve been hard at work. I’ve reached what I call the “tunnel vision” stage of finishing a book, where anything else feels like a distraction pulling away me from my goal of getting this book to press. It’s a sharp focus, unyielding and inflexible. But the end is definitely in sight!

Still no “official” word on the delivery date for The Lover’s Path Tarot. My art director for that project is supposed to call me soon with it — I’m getting a little anxious that there will be a delay with getting the final products to the US. I’ve had production delays before with books and such — an entire year for Sacred Animals, for example — but it’s always a bit of a disappointment. As an artist who works in publishing, the project doesn’t really feel complete to me until I hold the final printed version. After all, printing is part of the process.

And on a totally unrelated note, I want to break from my usual theme of publishing’s trials and triumphs to move onto the world beyond. There’s less than a month before the United States’ presidential election. If you haven’t registered to vote or aren’t planning to vote, please know that your vote is more important then ever in this election! If you’re uncertain of the issues, and where the candidates stand on them, watch the debates, read the papers, check the candidate’s past records.

I know that most of the people who visit my site and read this blog are women — and women’s voices desperately need to be heard at this time. This election offers women the opportunity to shape our futures:

~Our future reproductive rights;
~Our future right to breathe clean air and protect the environment;
~Our future standing in the global community as members of a respected nation who does not indulge in capricious pre-emptive wars based on suspect evidence; who does not back away from important global agreements designed to create a safer and healthier world for all of humanity.

There’s much more I could write here. You don’t have to agree with me — that is your right which you are fully entitled to, and which I will gladly defend. But I do hope you will vote! If nothing else has been learned from the election of 2000, we now know that elections really are decided one vote at a time.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. . . .

~Thursday, September 23, 2004

And it’s officially autumn, as of 12:30pm NYC time yesterday! So time for a new journal page. It’s difficult to believe that summer is truly over. This summer was the most splendid one I can remember in terms of weather — warm, sunny days full of delicious breezes, with only a few days of humidity and heat to break the idyll. I’ll miss it, though today is equally as gorgeous. It makes staying in the studio a test of will. But there’s just over three weeks until my Lover’s Path novel deadline. . . .

And the work has been all-encompassing. Even though my novel was mostly completed, save for some spot art here and there (which I have still to work on), finalizing the digital files is taking a long time — longer than I thought, though to be fair, it is moving along. The reality of creating a book is that there’s always so many details to be aware of, so many threads to weave into the whole!

To help me keep track of everything, I have a checklist — it’s a long one. Right now, I’m focused on getting the art which opens each of the novel’s seven chapters ready to go. Since the book dimensions were changed, I have to resize and reformat all the art for consistency. One this is done (I hope by this weekend), I’ll move onto resizing the rest of the art, as well as checking that all the digital file formats are correctly saved and the correct dpi. The last thing you want is for the printer to have problems with your files, just as the book is going on press!

In many ways, it was easier to create books when I first started working as a book illustrator (and I know I’m showing my age here). All I did was hand in the art and the text. I didn’t worry about file formats and dpi and corrupted fonts. But I have to admit that I like the way I work now better! For all the picyune details and computer issues and such, there’s so much more creative control and artistic possibilities.

And that is just intoxicating.

Other news in the studio: Still waiting on a final delivery date for the Lover’s Path Tarot. I know that a completed deck and book set was sent to US Games for approval, but that there were some small design issues — nothing major, but things which must be taken care of before the press run can begin. Hopefully we’re still on track with the scheduled delivery of late October — I’d hate to wait any long to see the final product! But in the meantime, here’s my latest publication, the 2005 Goddess Tarot Datebook.

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