getting ready

Right now, I’m tying up a lot of loose ends on the New Book before we leave on vacation next week. It’s a somewhat intense period, since I don’t want to miss any details.

I’m getting close to completing a book design dummy, where all of the art and words are roughly drafted in. Next is filling in all the research that I still need, so I can expand and finetune my draft. I have a large pile of books next to my work area to make my way through. It’s fascinating reading—easy to lose myself it in. That said, there’s a part of myself who stands aside as I read, unwilling to get too carried away as she mentally making notes for what will be eventually woven into the book.

Because I finally signed the contract for the New Book last week (yay!), I feel a little more secure about revealing its subject matter. With this book, I’ve shifted my passion for mythology back to my other love, women’s history. I’m writing about queens and other female regents, many whose reigns ended not-so-happily: Anne Boleyn, Cleopatra, Caroline of Brunswick. The stories I’m including are darkly fascinating, funny as well as heartbreaking. I really see them as parables for the ways women in power are treated, for better and worse—and they’re especially appropriate now that we have a woman running for the White House here in the United States.

(A publishing side note: contracts can take a while to arrive—this one took almost three months, between agent and publisher revisions and so on. You might be wondering why I was working on the book before signing a contract. Well, my agent had a deal memo in place, a sort of temporary document with the terms for the book contract already spelled out in detail. So signing the contract was a bit of a formality, though it’s important for both legal and financial reasons. After all, the book advance does’t get paid until the contract is signed!)

While I’m away, this blog will remain active. I’ve banked a few Goddess Inspiration Oracle posts to go live in my absence. I’ve also asked a few guest bloggers to stop by—I’m very excited about this!

I’ll write more about the who and when in a post before my departure.

• Filed under art and words, new projects, publishing, travels | No Comments

Save the date - and a review

I know October is not so close, but just in case any of you are in the NYC area and want to plan ahead . . .

What: Goddess Inspiration Oracle signing

When: Wednesday, October 24, 7 pm

Where: East West Living
(formerly East West Books)
78 Fifth Avenue @ 14th Street
New York, New York 10011
Phone: 212-243-5994.
Email: bookpos@eastwestnyc.com

Also, a very nice review of the Goddess Inspiration Oracle is up on Julie Cuccia-Watts’ blog; Julie is the creator of the Maat Tarot and The Ancestral Path Tarot as well as a co-sponsor of WATTS (Wisconsin Area TriState Tarot Symposium), which recently took place and was very successful. Her succinct verdict:

“I give the Goddess Inspiration Oracle a thumbs up for content, multicultural, the feminine divine and art.”

Read the entire review here.

Learn more about the Goddess Inspiration Oracle here.

• Filed under events, goddesses, recent publications, reviews + press, tarot and oracles | No Comments

Paul Taylor Dance Company free in NYC

Here’s a quick public service announcement for those of you who live in NYC. The wondrous Paul Taylor Dance Company is performing in several free open-air close quarters, at the Lincoln Center Out Of Doors festival. They take place this Friday and Saturday night at 8pm in Damrosch Park. Seating opens at 6pm.

Friday’s program is Book of Beasts, Lines of Loss and Esplanade; Saturday’s program is Airs, Profiles, Troilus and Cressida (reduced) and Piazzolla Caldera.  I was fortunate to have seen Saturdays’ program, and it is truly amazing — highly recommended.

If you can’t make the free performances, the Company will return for its annual engagement at New York City Center from February 28 through March 16, 2008. So go now — or wait until next year.

• Filed under be-mused, the world around me | No Comments