goddess inspiration oracle: reviews and a signing!

It’s September, which means that (drumroll, please!) the Goddess Inspiration Oracle is officially out and about in the world. For those of you in the NYC area, I’ll be having a signing for the GIO at East West Living. Here’s the official information:

Wednesday, October 24, 7 pm:

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

If you can’t make it, the GIO can be purchased online from Amazon.com here. (Link opens in new window.)

As well, reviews for the GIO are starting to appear. Here are quotes from a few of them:

Corrine Kenner:
“I don’t know about you, but every now and then I’ll do a reading that flows beautifully from one card to the next, gracefully unveiling a story that makes perfect sense … until I reach the final card. That’s when I slam head-first into a brick wall with an outcome card that brings the whole reading to a screeching halt.

In those cases, I realize that I really didn’t want an ordinary outcome card: What I really wanted was guidance and advice. So I throw clarification cards — sometimes, one after another, which only complicates the issue.

That’s what makes the Goddess Inspiration Oracle such a welcome addition to my collection. It’s a quick and easy way to clarify any card in a tarot reading, and answer one of our most pressing questions: What should I do?

I love the fact that the Goddess Oracle cards complement the Goddess Tarot deck so well.“ read the rest of this review . . .

Aeclectic Tarot:
“The “Goddess Inspiration Oracle” kit consists of an 80-card deck of oracle cards based on a Goddess theme, a 120 page companion book (the “Goddess Inspiration Oracle Guide”), and a lovely gold colored organdy bag to act as a home for the cards. As always with Waldherr’s work, I am in awe! . . .

I found it interesting that Waldherr defines oracles as being both the vehicle for the message, and the message itself. Waldherr sees her messages as offering creative solutions, Whereas one of her previous works, “The Goddess Tarot”, offered wisdom through the venue of Tarot, Waldherr see the “Goddess Oracle” as opening this knowledge to those who do not necessarily work with Tarot . . . Incredible artistic talent, combined with a bent for serious research, is a trademark for Kris Waldherr!” read the rest of this review . . .

Julie Cuccia-Watts
“The Goddess Inspiration Oracle is very multicultural which I always like and it was also something very user friendly. It is perfect for a one card pull. This deck is something that I would use as there are times when I don’t want to use my own decks especially for my own personal readings, cuz let’s face it using my own deck can get to be, just too much “me”sometimes.

I think even though there are some cards that have grown up themes I
would still highly recommend this deck for teens. My daughter just
turned 15 and I think she would enjoy the ‘girl power’ energy of
this all goddess oracle with the meanings printed right on the card.
I found the Goddess Inspiration Oracle to be both educational and
inspirational. . . .

I give the Goddess Inspiration Oracle a thumbs up for content, multicultural, the feminine divine and art.” read the rest of this review . . .

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Meanwhile, I’ve got several posts percolating within me. One of them is about this piece of art (detail posted below):

A tip of the hat to anyone who can identify the painting, the artist and the quote. A hint: think fin de siecle Vienna.

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retail therapy: of goddesses and queens

I haven’t done a Retail Therapy post in a while. Now that autumn is edging in, I thought it might be fun to write one. As well, I think that Lisa, Karen and Elizabeth’s recent guest blogs have inspired me anew to feature the artistry of other women here.

I’ve been reading a lot these days, mainly because of the New Book. So far, this book is far more research-intensive than some of my other books — the focus here is on my writing rather than my art. One benefit is that I’m rediscovering how much I love to immerse myself in research. Generally speaking, most of my time in the studio is spent writing, painting and designing. (Well, that is how you make a book.) Though I often read for work-related reasons, it’s rare for me to believe that hours of time spent with a book are equally as important as making the book itself. Which is silly — after all, research provides the backbone of what I write about — but it’s easy to discount this when choruses of “I must meet my deadline” are dancing through my brain.

That written, while I was on vacation I was able to indulge in some recreational reading semi-related to my work at hand. Here are a few books that I think you, Dear Reader, might find of interest.

Charlene Proctor, PhD is the creatrix behind The Goddess Network, an online community dedicated to educating women about the Divine Feminine. She’s also the author of Let Your Goddess Grow! and The Women’s Book of Empowerment.

What I like about these books is their message of hope for women who feel trapped by patterns of low self worth, or victimized by cultural messages. For myself, I know that since I became a mother, it’s too easy to feel less than adequate — you haven’t lived until you’ve had some stranger on the street snap at you because your child isn’t wearing a wool hat on a sunny spring day. So these books came to me at a moment when I needed to be reminded that I am more than the sum of others’ criticisms.

These books aren’t specifically about goddesses — rather, they are about how to embrace your native divinity. They would make a welcome gift for someone you know who is on the fence about the Divine Feminine, but needs to be eased into reading about Athena, Isis, Sarasvati and the rest of the pantheon. While many of the tools Dr. Proctor offers in these books may feel somewhat familiar to anyone into self help, she presents them in a gently subversive package that I applaud; these ideas could extend beyond transforming the self into transforming society itself, if enough women embraced them. In Let Your Goddess Grow!, Dr. Proctor’s chapter on the Divine Feminine is nothing short of a rallying cry for women to reclaim their sacred past.

The Women’s Book of Empowerment presents 323 affirmations that are specific to women’s lives. They’re logically organized according to subject matter. This is the book designer in me coming through here, but the packaging of the books is very appealing, especially for The Women’s Book of Empowerment. The interior of TWBoE is printed in an ethereal midnight blue as soothing as its subject matter, with lovely halftone art backgrounds. The small trim size makes it handy to tuck into a bag or on a nightstand for when you need a quick dose of inspiration.

Margaret George’s The Memoirs of Cleopatra recently came to my attention because of the New Book. (Yup, I’m writing about Cleopatra and her family these days.) Though a novel can hardly be counted as research, it did list many helpful primary and secondary sources for me to peruse. </rationalization>

Now here is a woman who had no doubt she was divine — Cleopatra’s Egyptian subjects considered the queen to be the living embodiment of Isis, though she had not a drop of Egyptian blood in her veins. (Fun fact: her Ptolemaic dynasty hailed from Macedonia and took over Egypt after Alexander the Great’s demise.) She also used this mythic awareness to manipulate her enemies and allies in a surprisingly modern public relations war. It also helped that her lovers, Caesar and Marc Antony, considered themselves to be of sacred origin; for example, Antony traced his family lineage all the way back to Hercules.

This massive 900 page-plus novel is a fun, voluptuous read presenting the queen’s life in first person narrative form. Though some of the language veers dangerously close to romance novel euphoric — I could have done without some of the sexual encounters between Cleopatra and Caesar, which were a bit too Heathcliff-the-brute for my taste — the last chapters are very moving. The descriptions of Cleopatra’s preparations for her demise are especially haunting. By this point, you sense that she has transcended her Greek origins in life to become genuinely Egyptian in death.

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Goddess painting of the day: the Valkyries

Are the Valkyries goddesses? Or are they supernatural warrior maidens? According to Norse mythology, they are dísir, or fate goddesses who served the ruling god Odin. Their main purpose was to choose the most heroic of those who had died in battle and to carry them off to Valhalla, where they became warriors to fight at Odin’s side at the preordained battle at the end of the world.

The most famous Valkryie is Brunnhilde, whose story I find particularly stirring. She offers a potent example of how love can inspire people to great deeds. It also serves as the linchpin for Wagner’s massive music drama, The Ring of the Nibelungen. Valkyries are also associated with ravens; some images show them as half-raven/half-woman, almost vulture-like in form as they swoop down to gather the dead.

My drawing depicts the Valkyries as they fly through the sky on their supernatural mounts, like thunder in the sky. Like the Muses, there are nine sister Valkyries (though that number varies in different myths); I’ve only drawn three of the Valkyries here, so I could focus more on the details — didn’t want to draw a crowd scene!

This drawing was created for Goddess Alive, a book I recently illustrated for Llewellyn Publications. I used pencil, white gouache on tinted paper. The book features 13 Celtic goddesses, each associated with the turn of the seasons and the phases of the moon.

Goddess Alive was recently published and can be ordered at amazon.com. If you decide to order it, autographed bookplates are available upon request.

• Filed under goddess art of the day, goddesses, recent publications, the art world | One Response

publishing 101: when a book goes to auction

There’s an interesting post about book auctions over at the Blue Rose Girls’ blog. (The Blue Rose Girls are an informal conglomerate of children’s book illustrators, writers and editor; they named themselves in homage to the Red Rose Girls, who I recently mentioned in my post about Brandywine.)

What exactly is a book auction? Well, they’re probably something you haven’t heard of unless you happen to work in the publishing industry (though occasionally you might read in the New York Times something along the lines of “Stephen King’s latest book was sold at auction to so-and-so-imprint”). Frankly, most books aren’t sold this way. But those that are usually considered to be very commercially viable — potential bestsellers, in other words. And they do happen to first time authors. Think The Devil Wears Prada, Nanny Diaries, that sort of thing.

Here’s a brief description of a book auction from the BRG:

“An auction occurs when a submission has been sent out by an [literary] agent to multiple editors, and more than one editor is interested in making an offer. When the first editor expresses interest and/or makes an offer, the agent will go to the other editors to see what their interest level is. If two or more editors are interested in making an offer, the agent will usually hold an official auction.”

As in real estate, usually the highest bidder prevails, though there are sometimes other considerations in play. For example, one publisher might offer a larger advance, but another house might offer a more attractive advertising budget, or be better positioned to place a book in the marketplace.

However, a book auction gets tricky when multiple imprints of the same publishing house express interest in the same book. (A publishing house can have numerous small imprints under their umbrella. For example, Penguin Putnam Group is made up of Viking Books, Viking Studio Books, Putnam Books, Penguin Books and so on.) In these situations, there is usually a house bid policy in place, which means that the imprints can’t bid against each other. The way this works is that the publishing house itself bids for the book; if they win it, the house then decides which imprint gets the book. (At least that’s how I understand it — any agents out there want to clarify this for me?)

Sometimes, even if there are several publishing companies interested in a book, one publishing house will decide to avoid an auction by offering a preemptive bid. This bid is intended to be large enough wipe all the other competitors off the block and often does. That’s what happened with the New Book, which was very nice indeed.

But 99% of book acquisitions don’t end in an auction. They just end up published — which is a happy event in itself.

To learn more about book auctions, visit the Blue Rose Girls’s blog.

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Have a question about publishing, writing or illustrating books you’d like answered on Publishing 101? Send it to Kris: e-comment at artandwords dot com.

Technorati Tags: publishing, book auctions, how to sell a book to a publisher, how editors acquire books

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catching up after vacation

Actually, it’s been almost a week since our return from places north. Since then, I’ve been doing the usual frantic routine that occurs whenever I’m out of the studio for any extended period of time. Vacations require a lot of preparation and then a lot of catching up — they’re tiring! But finding inspiration in new places makes them well worth it.

This year we visited Montreal and Quebec City, mainly because I was hungering for some French culture. Yes, I know that French-Canadian is very different than French Parisian. But there are some similarities — cosmopolitan cities, a sense of historic proportion, and great food in cafes that encourage lingering over an espresso. While we were there, I have to admit to more than a few times forgetting that I wasn’t in some European city I’ve yet to visit — Quebec just doesn’t feel like North America to me.

Our favorite cafe was a place called Cafe Titanic, located close to our hotel in Old Montreal. Why it was called Cafe Titanic was a bit of a mystery — maybe because it was located below street level, in a subfloor? It was decorated with a slightly nautical theme, but nothing too obnoxious. Even though it was just before the lunch hour, small candles flickered invitingly on its walls. I loved the huge bowls of cafe au lait, which were sprinkled with a dash of cinnamon — just the thing to have right before setting off for some serious sightseeing — and the comfy upholstered booths, set against the dark wood interior. Just my kind of place!

We also enjoyed a high tea at the Chateau Frontenac, an experience enhanced by the knowledge that my in laws had enjoyed their honeymoon there 55 years earlier — and here we were with their granddaughter! The tea was complete with a tea sommelier who brought around a tray of fresh teas for us to combine into new combinations. One of the teas was maple-flavored — not surprising for a country that features a maple leaf upon its flag. Oh, and a lot of good bookstores featuring books not-necessarily-published in the US.

What else did we do? Besides Canada, we spent a week in Vermont at a family reunion. Thea had a wonderful time with her older cousin Daisy, who was glad to do kid stuff with her, like visiting secret beaches, playing ball, dressing up teddy bears, painting faces and running around laughing.

And now we are back.Though I was away, the New Book was never far from my thoughts. In my studio, I have a piles of research materials to plow through. It was nice to have a break from this blog, knowing that it was well served in my absence by Elizabeth, Lisa and Karen. I did manage to get a little writing in this week, but frankly, most of the week was devoted to running errands and paperwork — life maintenance, in other words.

And now it’s back to work!

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