BEA today….

So no Creativity Friday post this morning! I promise to dish on Book Expo in my next post. In the meantime, here’s a description of my experiences at Book Expo five years ago, right after The Lover’s Path Tarot came out. This was the one which Bill Clinton spoke:

~Monday, June 7, 2004

I’m back from Chicago, tired but exhilarated. Book Expo America was amazing! Since the main buzz regarding BEA was about Bill Clinton, the conference’s keynote speaker, I’ll start there.

I was fortunate to arrive in Chicago early enough to hear Bill Clinton speak about his upcoming memoir, My Life. I had time to check into my hotel, then hightail it over to the McCormack Center with a half hour to spare. I wasn’t sure how many people they were letting into hear him, but I knew that tickets weren’t required, so I figured I had a good chance. And I did get in, after waiting at the back of the longest line I’ve ever been in. Fortunately, it moved quickly.

Bill’s speech was very interesting. Though I’m not much for celebrity worship, I’ve got to admit that it was a thrill to be there among the SRO audience of several thousand publishing professionals. He looked tired but fit, when he finally came out a half hour behind schedule to a standing ovation and thunderous applause. He spoke for an hour — a half hour longer than planned — and was ever the centrist about things. He mainly talked about writing his book, the US’s current situation (he never directly mentioning Iraq, in his diplomatic way). The only area he became empassioned was when he mentioned the Patriot Act, Kenneth Starr and Susan MacDougal — he looked downright furious when he mentioned the detention of Susan MacDougal.

Bill also expressed concern about the dominance of the religious right in Republican policy-making; he felt that W was more of a centrist than his actions revealed, but had to kowtow to the religious right. Bill said, “Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think we should keep religion separate from government.” He also said that he felt there was an emphasis in the United States on differences instead of what unites us as a country. Above all, he stressed how optimistic he was about our country’s future — he stated over and over that if you look through history, times of great change for the better were preceded by times of great polarization.

It was really fascinating. Clinton such a good speaker, very humble in his choices of language, yet very articulate. Sometimes he was very funny in his downhome Arkansas way. But the overwhelming sense I received from his speech was of an incredibly intelligent man without a snob’s bone in his body, someone who cares deeply about making the world a better place.

The following days (Friday and Saturday) were my signings. The first one was in the autographing area, the second one at the US Games’ booth. Tons of people came and were very enthusiastic about the Lover’s Path Tarot. Many of them also mentioned that The Goddess Tarot had sold very well for them in their stores. It was very gratifying. Also, some men came to get copies of the deck for their girlfriends or wives! That was very cool, and a sign to me that I was expanding my audience. People unanimously remarked how much they loved the art, how gorgeous it was. Elizabeth Kerkstra, my ever-supportive art director, said that they had gotten a very nice response and were planning promotions for the deck.

There was lots of other stuff too. I stopped by the Abram’s booth to say hello, now that I’m an Abrams author. I had a nice chat with Nancy Traversy, the president of Barefoot Books, who published my Book of Goddesses back in 1995. I also met with Leslie Day, my art director from Amber Lotus. We had a wonderful, warm conversation. She’s such a beautiful woman, gentle, funny and smart. I wished we had more time together. We’ve worked together on several calendars, including the latest SageWoman. Leslie was blown away when I showed her the Lover’s Path Tarot. Since US Games had a mock up of the complete kit at the booth, she got the full experience. She seemed stunned at the amount of work I’d done on LPT in such a compressed period of time. I joked that I’d been kept in a cage and fed bread crusts and water as I worked.

We also had lots of fun. The US Games folks, my husband, and myself went out to dinner one night, and had a wonderful time — lots of laughter and animated conversation. My husband and I also did a little siteseeing. We went to the top of the John Hancock Building, to look out for many miles over Chicago into four states. We also went to the Art Institute to see the Joseph Cornell boxes. We also walked a lot, and admired the architecture of Chicago. It really is a beautiful city, and looks more like Paris than NYC. Our hotel was right on the river walk, and close to Lake Michigan.

As you can tell, it was a very good trip.

• Filed under be-mused, publishing, tarot and oracles, the world around me | One Response

upcoming events at the gallery—
tarot salon and children’s art marathon!

In between getting ready for Book Expo, preparing for a concert with my local orchestra, and everyday life, we also have some great events planned at Kris Waldherr Art and Words gallery. (Yup, it’s a busy time here!) If you live in the NYC area, we hope to see you at one or both of these events:

Friday May 29, 7 – 9:30 pm
TAROT AND PSYCHIC SALON
Free admission and refreshments.

As featured on CNN.com, Time Out New York, and Yelp! The Seer’s Salon returns for the merry month of May on the weekend after Memorial Day. This month, we’re featuring readings from:

~ Kris Waldherr, creator of The Goddess Tarot;
~ NYC’s urban shaman Mama Donna Henes;
~ And famed psychic Christina Ambrosino.

Also available: Chair massages from Fran Dunston of Fusion Therapy Spa at $1 a minute. Readings are available at a variety of prices on the question of your choice.

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Sunday, June 14, 11 am – 6 pm
FLATBUSH CHILDREN’S ART MARATHON

Is your child a budding Matisse or Da Vinci? On June 14th, come by with your emerging artist any time between 11 am and 6 pm. In about an hour’s time, they can create their very own addition to our next art
exhibit, BROOKLYN: THROUGH A CHILD’S EYES. We’ll provide the art supplies: paper, paint, markers, crayons and more. They provides the inspiration.

This special event is meant to be a wonderful opportunity for children to make art, share it with the world, and (most of all) have fun!

Can’t make our art marathon? No worries: Stop by the gallery before June 14 to drop off your child’s contribution. Maximum paper size: 8 3/4 x 11 inches. Questions? E-mail Kris Waldherr at kris at artandwords dot com.

Suggested admission: $5 per child to cover art supplies and framing.
(At the end of the exhibit, framed art is returned to the child to keep as a keepsake.)

Art exhibit opens Saturday, July 11, 2009.

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No reservations required for either event. To learn more, visit http://www.artandwords.com/events.html or call 347-406-5811.

Kris Waldherr Art and Words
1501 Newkirk Avenue
(entrance on Marlborough Road, across from Rite Aid)
Brooklyn, NY 11226
Q or B to Newkirk Avenue; street parking is available.

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Also, if you’re a classical music lover, I’ll be playing cello with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra this weekend in a performance of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. I’m very excited—Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) is one of my favorite pieces of music.

Here’s the info:

Sunday, May 31, 2009 at 3:00 pm
MAHLER – Das Lied von der Erde

Nicholas Armstrong, Artistic Director
Stephanie Houtzeel, mezzo-soprano
Matthew Garrett, tenor

The concert takes place at St. Ann’s Church, located at 157 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights. For more info, visit the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra website here.

If you have never heard Das Lied von der Erde, you’re in for a real treat. Last night’s rehearsal included mezzo-soprano Stephanie Houtzeel for the first time. She was simply transcendent.I think it’s going to be a very special concert! Plus it’s the last one of our season.

• Filed under events, studio and gallery, the world around me | No Comments

Creativity Friday: MISTRESS OF THE SUN winner! and BEA!

Drum roll please…..

Congratulations to Kim V! She’s won a copy of Sandra Gulland’s MISTRESS OF THE SUN—I hope you enjoy the book! As soon as you send me your mailing address at kris at kriswaldherr dot com, I’ll post your book to you.

Thanks also to everyone else who entered this giveaway, and took a moment to share their royal crushes with us. My personal favorite was those who’d mentioned Cleopatra as a possibility for a “walk on the wild side” fling. How very Angelina Jolie!

I’m really enjoying these book giveaways and author interviews. If things go as planned, I suspect we may have another one in June with another author who has a lot to say about the art of writing and creativity.

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In other news (possibly more publishing-related than creativity-related), I’m in the midst of getting ready for BEA, which happens the weekend of May 29th. Inquiring minds might be wondering, what’s BEA? Book Expo America—probably the biggest publishing convention in the United States. It’s held by the American Booksellers Association, the national trade association for independent booksellers, at the Javitts Center in New York City. So if you’re interested in publishing, this is the not-to-be-missed event.

What will I be doing at BEA? I won’t be signing any books or decks (though I’d done so in previous years). Instead, I will be wandering the aisles, looking to see who’s publishing what and whom. Just about every big and small publisher exhibits at BEA. It’s a great opportunity to get a sense of what’s going on in the industry, for better and worse, and how my work fits into the big picture. This year, I suspect there will be a lot of talk about the emergence of e-books via the Kindle, and how this is affecting publishers’ bottom lines. Like it or not, the industry is being transformed by all these technological changes. On the fun side, there’s book signings and readings, and more. One year, I even got to hear Bill Clinton talk about his then-new memoir—very thrilling!

At BEA, I also like to catch up with colleagues who I might not see otherwise. Strange but true: There have been editors and art directors that I’ve worked with that I’ve never met in person. BEA sometimes allows me that opportunity to connect the name to a face, which is a lot of fun. (Lynne Menterweck at Llewellyn, I’m thinking of you.) It’s also gratifying to meet the salespeople who work so hard to sell my publications to bookstores.

Bottom line: BEA is huge, exhausting, overwhelming, exciting, depressing, boring, and fantastic—a microcosm of the publishing world. It’s like a big family reunion in some ways, albeit a big, book-obsessed family. I also always leave with new ideas and a better sense of my work’s place in the world. So it’s worth it.

You can learn more about Book Expo America here.

• Filed under creativity, giveaways and raffles, publishing | 2 Responses

Pop Tudors guest post up!

Have you been watching this new season of The Tudors? I’ve been! I’ve really been enjoying the over-the-top concoction of fact and fancy that each episode brings. We even have viewing parties at my house, replete with red wine and talking back at the tv.

This season has been especially queen-heavy, starting with Jane Seymour and onto Anne of Cleves, played by a very appealing Joss Stone. (Last season’s Natalie Dormer was superb as Anne Boleyn.) Next week introduces Henry’s midlife crisis queen Catherine Howard, who is being played up by the good folks at Showtime as a Lolita-in-a-corset strumpet. (Alas, I’m sure this will upset Alisa Libby, author of the revisionist The King’s Rose.)

Anyway, Showtime’s Pop Tudors fan site has asked me to do a guest blog about Henry’s doomed queens. After thinking it through, I have one piece of advice for these maritally-challenged women: They should cover their heads!

My advice has nothing to do with showing obsequience to God or King. Rather, it’s based on common sense. If one looks at Henry’s wives throughout seasons of The Tudors past, it’s clear that the more covered up the queen’s head, the less likely she is to bite the dust.

Read the rest of my Pop Tudors post here.

PS: Last chance to win a copy of Sandra Gulland’s MISTRESS OF THE SUN. Enter our giveaway here.

• Filed under be-mused, blogs we read, queens | No Comments

Publishing Monday: Top ten self-publishing mistakes

Want to know how to do self-publishing right? Over at Publetariat: People Who Publish there’s an interesting interview with Shannon Yarbrough, the founder/lead reviewer of The Lulu Book Review. Shannon is a passionate advocate of Lulu.com self-publishing services. He’s written an excellent guide to the top ten mistakes authors make when self-publishing their own book.

Though Yarbrough’s advice is geared toward those who use Lulu, many of his pointers are good whether you use Lulu or another service—or even ignore the print world in favor of e-books. Just ignore where he types “Lulu” and substitute your name of choice.

Here’s an excerpt:

1. Punctuation, spelling, and typos – none of us are perfect and every book has flaws, but your Lulu storefront/book page can not afford to contain these as people will take one look and decide that if you can’t put together a short blurb without errors, your book is too flawed to read. Editing has always been a dark cloud over the POD world, which is why accomplishing complete accuracy on your Lulu book page is an absolute must! Have someone review your work prior to releasing for distribution. If there are major errors, then it is too late to pull it back without paying for another distribution. Plus, you don’t want a reputation for releasing material that is not ready for prime time.

2. Know your characters and where they are! If his big blue eyes are so important to point out on page ten, they better not be brown eyes on page twenty. If she’s drinking a beer on page seven, she better not be finishing scotch on page eight. While these mistakes should really fall under rule #1 as typos, I bring attention to them only because I’ve seen this happen quite a bit. If you have a lot of characters to keep up with, I suggest buying a notebook and writing out character sketches or outlines of everything about them you need to know.

3. Formatting, formatting, formatting – Books are not emails or business letters. They have an expected format. If you know nothing about formatting a book, pull about 10 traditionally published books off your shelf and study their layout. Or go to a library or bookstore and just thumb through some popular books. Pay close attention to the number of blank pages between title pages, copyright pages, dedication pages, and Chapter 1. Also pay attention to page numbering (something my very own book fell victim to earlier this year). Are the numbers at the top or bottom, centered or flushed to the right? What page does the first chapter start on?”

You can read the rest here. Want to read more about self-publishing? Check out my posts here and here.

(Pssst: If you haven’t entered the MISTRESS OF THE SUN giveaway yet, there’s still time to go forth and comment. Entries must be received by midnight EST on Thursday.)

• Filed under publishing, publishing 101 | 2 Responses