adieu GiGi

I finally did hand in my manuscript to Abrams for The Book of Goddesses — and just in the nick of time! For the next time I started up GiGi, my usually trusty G4, it had passed on to the great junkheap in the sky. No amount of coaxing would resusitate it, though I tried all the usual remedies. I even attempted to reinitialize the hard disk, but without success.

I’m now typing this from a new, sexy Mac Mini and flatscreen monitor. It’s about one-tenth the heft of my old system, yet more powerful. Now I have the task of getting everything to work again just so. It’s aggravating when you feel the press of time. I could have been accomplishing so much — and there’s so much to do to promote The Lover’s Path right now, as well as The Book of Goddesses. This experience is akin to moving to a new home. Nothing’s where it should be, though you know it’s around somewhere.

Of late, I’ve been working on the calendar designs for The Book of Goddesses calendar. I’ve been able to get Quark and Photoshop up and running. This blog update is my maiden voyage in Adobe GoLive. Hopefully I’ll be able to upload it. If I get lucky, you can expect some changes in the Lover’s Path website shortly — that is, if Flash will cooperate.

Adieu, GiGi. We made some beautiful books together. Thank you, and bonne nuit!

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a lot going on

I’m still in the midst of expanding and editing the text for the new-and-improved Book of Goddesses. The book is now 176 pages in length (originally 64); and one hundred, count ‘em, one hundred goddesses (originally 26). The entire text manuscript is due to Abrams by the end of this week, to give the copy editor time to shift through everything; final art and design due in September.

The work is moving along — meaning that I’m keeping to my daily quotas as planned (knock wood). But my mind is still churning with ideas for promoting my novel, The Lover’s Path. I wake up in the middle of the night, thinking about what to do. I mean, I worked on this project over the past decade, and now this is it. Though I know that Abrams is really behind the book (see my last entry), I’m terrified that f I don’t make an effort to promote it, The Lover’s Path could quickly pass into that void known as the remaindered stacks. And that would completely break my heart.

I do have a promotion plan in my head, which I love. And so did my husband when I confided it to him. It’s really fun and mischievous and beautiful, I think. But in a good way — almost a conceptual art piece onto itself. I hope my publisher agrees it would work.

I’m promising myself that once I hand in this part of the new book, I’ll take a few days to at least get this promotional plan together. It involves overhauling this site. Fortunately, most of the content for it is ready to go, since it’s adapted from the novel.

For now, I must get back to my writing. In the meantime, The Lover’s Path Tarot received this lovely review on Tarot Passages:

“The Lover’s Path Tarot comes to us from the creator of the Goddess Tarot, Kris Waldherr, and while the highly acclaimed Goddess Tarot is a tribute to the talented painter and storyteller, Waldherr outdid her own formidable reputation with this latest. She had to be immersed in the creative artists’ “zone” every minute of the 10 years it took to create The Lover’s Path Tarot.

My head can’t stop saying, “how wonderful!” and my heart echoes, “how beautiful!” when I look at these cards. I can’t help myself — I am in book-lover’s ecstasy, too, over the find of a new “Precious” for my substantial hoard. . . “

Click here to continue reading review.

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travels with Thea and more

Where does the time go? Well, I do know — but it still amazes me that the year is already halfway through its orbit around the sun.Since my last update, I’ve gone back to work in my studio full time (or as close to full time as baby permits). It’s bittersweet that my maternity leave is now officially over. To be honest, I spent most of it in a sleep-deprived state of in between the worlds — not quite awake, not quite asleep. I didn’t do all the things I’d hoped with Thea. My energy was low, and sometimes it was just too hot out; babies are sensitive creatures when it comes to heat, I’ve learned. They also spend a lot of time nursing and napping. But nonetheless, there was a lot of bliss in it . Thea is such a sweet little girl, and so alert! I feel fortunate to be a WAHM (Work At Home Mom), so I can see all of her changes as she grows day to day. Though it’s challenging at times to balance it all, I wouldn’t have it any other way. As well, she’s starting to sleep through the night, so I’m more rested — ie: able to think in coherent sentences again.

I also took a week off to visit my family on the west coast, most of whom had not met Thea yet. My sister and I are very close, so we conspired together to surprise my mother, who was visiting her. The look on my mother’s face when she saw me with baby was simply priceless, and well worth all the secret planning. As well, Thea got to meet her cousins, Colton and Daisy. As you can tell, there was a lot of joy in this family gathering!

Right now, I’m working on the updated and expanded anniversary reissue of The Book of Goddesses for Abrams Books. But there’s still lots going on with The Lover’s Path, and will be for some time. I received my first printed copy hot off the press, and it looks lovely! Abrams did such a nice job with the production; I’ve always thought that a book is made or broken by its printing. I’m very fortunate.

I’m starting to make plans for the Fall publication date. Vox Pop, an independent bookstore/coffee house close to my home, often hosts author events. It’s also a great community resource to meet and greet folks in my neighborhood. (Holley, the proprietor, has a cute baby named Coleman just a little younger than Thea.) I recently spoke to a few people there tentatively about planning a signing. Now that I have a final copy of the book, I feel more confident about striding forth and asking to plan something.

I’ve also spoken to Shakepeare’s Sister, a welcoming retail space in Cobble Hill (close to Brooklyn Heights) about an author event. They’ve featured my tarot decks in their store in the past. To make the event special, I’m thinking of asking a few of my orchestra friends if they’d be willing to play some early music (meaning fifteenth century-composed, not early in the morning). This would tie in nicely to my novel, since my protagonist is a musician from that era. The location of Shakespeare’s Sister is also great, since many of my friends live in Brooklyn Heights and Manhattan.

I have other ideas, besides signings. I love the idea of giving out thousands of free and beautifully designed buttons which say, “Follow the Lover’s Path” and this website url — sort of a viral marketing campaign. My husband suggested offering them on college campuses, since college-age women decorate their backpacks with buttons. I also need to update this site to include additional content about the book — imaginative, fun content will will tease people with its mysterious beauty. It would also be fun to have a Venetian costume ball to coincide with Carnivale next year, which is conveniently close to Valentine’s Day.

Ah, so many ideas. So little time. And I’ve still to tell you about Book Expo.

It was sort of a mixed bag for me — I found BEA tiring due to my sleep deprivation. What saved it for me was meeting up with friends and colleagues w hom I don’t get to see very often these days. I did have a productive encounter with an Abrams sales rep, whom I introduced to my art director at US Games; hopefully they’ll hook up to get some promotional stuff moving. I also saw the Faeries artist Brian Froud and Robert Gould, who is now a book packager for Brian. That was unexpected, since I haven’t seen them since I lived in England so many years ago. But it was a nice encounter.

But I had an uncomfortable encounter with a publisher who owes me several years of back royalties for a book that I’ve reverted the rights for. (They broke our contract by non-payment, never responding to inquiries spreading out over three years’ time.) The whole situation really put a bad taste in my mouth, and led to my decision to work with a literary agent. (And, as you know, I adore my literary agent, Theresa.) Though said publisher claims they’ll be paying me soon, frankly I’ll be surprised if I ever see a dime; last year at BEA, they also promised to send the royalties soon, which never arrived. It really annoys me because they’re still selling the book and making money off it, though I reverted rights a year ago. And this from a publisher whose motto is to “Inspire to integrity.” Ugh!

On the plus side, Abrams had a lovely BEA after party for Laurent de Brunhoff, the artist who does all the Babar books for them. It was at the Consolate of the French Embassy, a beautiful mansion across from Central Park. We brought Thea, and we all had our pictures taken with Babar and Queen Celeste (who must have been suffering in their costume from the heat).

I met Laurent, a spry Frenchman of eighty years who now lives in Key West. He signed a book for Thea, which we had purchased when we were in Paris earlier this year. There was delicious champagne — French, of course — and tasty treats with an international theme, to celebrate the new book, Babar’s World Tour. We also viewed the art on display, which was much smaller in scale than I expected. I think they must blow up the art for Babar, since the books are usually large scale.

I also met Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife, who is working with the same editor as myself at Abrams. She seemed very nice — I’d say she’s about my age, very artsy-looking, with brilliant henna’d red hair and cool glasses. Her background is in book arts, and she’s fascinated by tarot. So we had a nice conversation about the work involved in doing 78 cards.

I also had good encounters with some of the sales reps there for Abrams. They were very enthusiastic about my book. One of them said that it moved her to tears — she cried so much that her eyes were red in the office!

Now that made me very happy.

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