Creativity Friday: Coming soon to an iPhone near you….

Yup, the Goddess Tarot is getting it’s own iPhone app! Above are three sneak peeks at it. If everything goes as scheduled, the app will be available from iTunes in late July/early August.

Creating the Goddess Tarot iPhone app has been an interesting process—and I mean “interesting” genuinely, not in an “oh-my-goodness-this-is-complicated-and-distressing” way. This is my first foray into creating an iPhone app, so I’ve had a steep learning curve to climb. I’m fortunate to have had a developer friend to advise me along the way, from everything from creating my first use case spec to non-disclosure agreements; from leads for reputable iPhone developers to the financials involved in hiring one.

(You might be wondering “what’s a use case spec?” I know I did. Short version: It’s a visual map of the application for developer, so they’ll know exacty how the app should behave at any time. You want the use case spec to be as detailed as possible, to cover every possible use of the app. No surprises, but mine ended up looking like an extended book proposal with a ton of graphics. Well, that is what I know best….)

It’s a brave new world for me. Though I’ve created many a website and consider myself fairly comfortable with html, I know my limits. I have no interest in learning Cocoa or Objective C, the programming languages used to write an iPhone app—ultimately, I’m a graphic designer, not a computer person. Plus I want the app to be as good as possible. (Ie: bug-free.) But even though I’ve hired a developer to program it, it’s still been a lot of work for me. Basically, I’m providing the developer with what they call the “creatives”: graphics, text, design—the main course, in other words.

On my end, designing and revising the use case spec took a lot of time. Now that we’re in production mode, I’ve had hundreds of graphics to prepare for the app, so they’ll display correctly on an iPhone. Right now, I’m in the midst of editing the text descriptions for all the cards and goddesses. It’s a lot of work, but also very exciting.

I’ll be posting more about the Goddess Tarot iPhone app as production progresses. If you’d like a heads up on when the app is available from iTunes, I hope you’ll take a moment to sign up for my newsletter. As an added enticement, I’m planning to give subscribers a publication date discount!

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Next week, I have some great posts underway. Monday will finally be my big BEA “state of the industry” post (cross fingers). Wednesday, I’ll review two new self-published goddess decks, the Mythical Goddess Tarot and Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess (left).

Another coup: Pamela Wells, creator of Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess will be interviewed by me regarding her experiences self-publishing her deck. She’s also going to be giving away a Collector’s Edition of it to one lucky commenter. I have a copy of it here, and it’s gorgeous!

• Filed under creativity, goddesses, new projects, publications, tarot and oracles | 7 Responses

Publishing Monday: BEA summed up in two images (or less)

What better way to illustrate the clash of old and new publishing?

1. Yes, these are half-naked samba dancers. Yes, that is a steel band. They were the loudest thing in the Javits Center. Really. We stepped up to the mat to see what the commotion was. (How could we not?) For our troubles, one scantily clad dancer smiled and handed us a postcard inviting us to visit their booth, where we could relax with a frosty tropical cocktail.

You might be wondering what they were publicizing? Why, the latest e-book reader, the e-Cooler. It’s available in lots of bright colors, like an old iMac—and unlike the Kindle which (so far) is only available in subtle shades of ecru and eggshell.

2. Yes, that poster in the background is for the latest Dan Brown tome, The Lost Symbol. In it, lies the hopes of many a publishing imprint homed under the auspices of Random House. If it sells as well as a certain previous bestseller (whose cover happened to wear the self-satisfied eyes of La Gioconda), Random House will be in much better shape than it has been in recent months.

Short version: A bunch of imprints and editorial folk over at Random House were given the kabash last December. Back story: Random House expanded in the wake of The Da Vinci Code’s river of cash. However, Dan Brown took longer than expected to deliver a follow up. That, combined with disappointing sales on a number of other front list books, led to difficulties on their end.

Then the recession hit. Add into this a general industry skittishness over e-books et al—well, you get the idea. The sad thing is that they’re not the only house in this situation, just one example.

So who will win? Old or new media? Or will we all find a way to just get along?

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More to come on BEA next Monday!

Photos courtesy of Thomas Ross Miller.

• Filed under be-mused, publishing | 5 Responses

Creativity Friday: The Song of the Earth

It’s a rainy, gloomy day in Brooklyn. So it seems appropriate to post this video, taken of the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra concert I performed in last Sunday. It’s of the second song of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (aka “The Song of the Earth)”. If you look closely, you can see me in the third stand of the cello section, playing along.

The song is titled Der Einsame im Herbst (The Lonely One in Autumn). Yes, it’s a sad song. But I’ve always found something so cathartic about sad songs—especially one as gorgeous as this one is. The whole of Das Lied von der Erde reflects Mahler’s increasing sense of doom about his life. Among his other difficulties, he had just been diagnosed with a heart ailment and had been pushed out of his conductor post with the Vienna Opera. Yet it ends in uplifting praise of the earth, which is forever verdant and beautiful.

Here are the lyrics of Der Einsame im Herbst in English:

Autumn mists roll across the lake as if a dust of Jade had been spread over the flowers, and their scent is gone.The withered lotus leaves will soon float on the lake waters. My heart is weary, and I come to this beautiful place of rest, for I need solace: I weep much in my loneliness. Autumn lasts too long in my heart: Sun of Love, will you never shine and dry away my bitter tears?”

Playing in this concert was an intense but wonderful experience for me. I first heard Das Lied von der Erde when I lived in a small cottage in Dartmoor, while a young artist working on my first illustrated book. I immediately loved Mahler’s music in that passionate way that you can only have when you’re relatively untried by life. Since I had recently had a difficult love break up, I identified with the song’s sense of loneliness and isolation. Since the moors and forests surrounding my cottage were so staggeringly beautiful, I exhalted in Mahler’s joy over the earth’s eternal renewal.

While I rehearsed with the orchestra, it was strange to realize that here I was, almost two decades later, playing cello in Das Lied von der Erde—as if two corners of my life had suddenly become tied together in a surreal, magical way.

Thanks to Marshall Sponder for posting the video. If you’re interested, the rest of the concert is linked from this page on Youtube here.

• Filed under creativity, events, studio and gallery, the art world, the world around me | One Response

Publishing Monday: BEA link-o-rama

As intended, I attended Book Expo America Friday. (Though it’s held throughout the weekend, I was too faint of heart and packed of schedule to venture back for another day.) Book Expo, better known in the publishing industry as BEA, is 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 Javits Center in New York City.

Here’s my three word summary of BEA: Changes are afoot.

Another three words: Overwhelming but necessary.

I’m still processing all that I saw and learned. When I’m able, I’ll condense them all into a “state of the industry” post here, along with a detailed recap of my adventures at Javits. But in the meantime, here are some links deconstructing BEA that I found valuable:

The Future of Publishing via the Book Publicity Blog.

The New York Times on BEA and electronic publishing.

Why the publishing industry is in trouble from Publisher’s Weekly.

Another Publisher’s Weekly recap (but more positive).

Yahoo! News on BEA and the lack of Spanish translations.

One writer’s day at BEA.

And last, but certainly not least, Harper Studio’s take. (As I wrote a while back, Harper Studio is trying to revamp the traditional author-publisher publishing model.)

Anyone reading who attended, I hope you’ll take a moment to comment about your thoughts on this year’s BEA! In the meantime, I’ll be gathering my words as I rest my sore shoulders after lugging my BEA-scored book catalogs, swag, ARCs and more about the caverns of NYC. I’ll aim to post some photos too!

• Filed under publishing, the world around me | 3 Responses