Project Catch Up: Now available for your iPad and Kindle….

Also over the summer: Apple approved four of my books for the iPad—THE BOOK OF GODDESSES, SACRED ANIMALS, RAPUNZEL, and PERSEPHONE AND THE POMEGRANATE. On top of that, THE BOOK OF GODDESSES was also made available for Kindle. All of these books have currently sold out their print runs, so I’m thrilled to see them back in (virtual) print.

The best-selling anniversary edition of THE BOOK OF GODDESSES offers over 130 illustrations and 100 goddesses. Purchase on iBooks. Purchase for Kindle.

SACRED ANIMALS was intended as a counterpart to THE BOOK OF GODDESSES. It explores the roles of animals in mythology and folklore. These sixteen illustrated examples range from Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess, to the eternal Phoenix (as depicted on the cover). Purchase on iBooks.

RAPUNZEL was the first book I illustrated. I created the paintings for it while living in a tiny cottage on the bucolic moors of Devon, England. Its design and art were greatly inspired by my love of the Pre-Raphaelites and the books of William Morris’s Kelmscott Press. Purchase on iBooks.

PERSEPHONE AND THE POMEGRANATE is very special to me. Besides being my first goddess-themed book, it was also the first book I authored as well as illustrated. PERSEPHONE AND THE POMEGRANATE is a picture book retelling of the Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter. It was even praised by the New York Times Book Review. Purchase on iBooks.

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As I had with iPhone app creation, I’m finding e-book production to be quite addictive though I’ll be honest: Much as I love my iPad, the pleasures of reading on it aren’t quite the same as those of paper and ink. I love the physicality of printed books, their weight and heft—the book as object, rather than a collection of words only waiting to be read.

On the other hand, I love curling up with my iPad before bedtime. The back-lit screen lets me read as I like in a dark room, bringing back fond memories of transgressive reading under the covers with a flashlight. What could be better than that? I also love having instant access to so many books—I’m a big Project Guttenberg fan. This has been a boon for researching The Novel, but that’s a subject for another time.

As a designer, author, and artist, I’m finding the instant gratification of making e-books intoxicating. I love knowing that they’re available to anyone in the world for download. I also like not having to deal with printers or distribution—just text, design, and art. Frankly, I’m finding e-book production so enthralling that I’ve decided to start my own e-publishing imprint, featuring books of beauty and inspiration.

This is a fairly major development—one certainly worthy of a separate blog post. More news about this soon!

• Filed under e-books, new projects, publications, publishing | 3 Responses

Project Catch Up: Doomed Queens card decks

During last month while I was AWOL from this blog, I received some delightful news: My two DOOMED QUEENS-themed card decks are finally available!

To give you a sense of them, the above image was scanned from the publisher’s catalog page. The first deck, ASK THE QUEENS Advice Cards (above left) offers wisdom for women who want to get ahead without losing their heads. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) If you like to play poker, the DOOMED QUEENS Playing Cards (above right) feature a different female regent on each card except for the kings. The kings include Henry VIII and Alexander the Great. I think they lend new meaning to getting a royal flush. (Again, couldn’t resist.)

Both decks are published by U.S. Games Systems, the publisher of The Goddess Tarot and Lover’s Path Tarot. While I still need to add the decks to my online catalog—another task on my trying-to-catch-up list—they can be purchased from Amazon now.

DOOMED QUEENS Playing Cards

ASK THE QUEENS Advice Cards

You can take the ASK THE QUEENS Advice Cards for a test run here. In the meantime, reviews are starting to roll in:

…They are absolutely stunning…. I had a great time asking the Queens for advice.

… It is a charming deck to work with…. I absolutely love this deck because not only is each card full of wisdom and experience it also tells you a bit of information on that particular queen and a little of the history too.

In late October, both decks will also be featured by Allie at Hist Fic Chick and Nicole at Linus’s Blanket as part of their upcoming Haunted Historicals feature. I’ll be writing a guest post for them on a DOOMED QUEENS-related theme. More info to come next month!

• Filed under be-mused, publications, queens | One Response

Creativity Friday: FOR THE KING giveaway winner!

Drumroll please! Congratulations to DAKOTA—I’ll be sending you an e-mail shortly with information on how to claim your copy of Catherine Delors’ historical fiction book FOR THE KING.I hope you will enjoy it!

More posts coming soon! There is just so much going on here that I haven’t had a moment to spare:

1. The first draft of my novel THE LILY MAID has been turned in. I’m awaiting feedback from my agent any moment now….. (gnaws knuckles). in the meantime, I’m immersing myself in research for the next go ’round. My reading material includes biographies of two famous Pre-Raphaelite muses, Elizabeth Siddal and Jane Morris—my main character in THE LILY MAID becomes a muse to an influential artist during 1880s’ England.

2. We’re in the midst of designing and hanging a new show at the gallery which is being curated by my husband, anthropologist Thomas Ross Miller. It’s entitled ON THE ROAD OF BONES. This haunting art exhibit will feature native Siberian and American photographers documenting Russia’s Old Kolyma Highway, built by prisoners of Stalin’s infamous gulag.

3. I’m finalizing several e-books for the iPad. These include SACRED ANIMALS and an old picture book favorite, RAPUNZEL.

4. And so much more—and all before we leave on vacation in mid-August.

And how is your summer shaping up?

• Filed under The Novel, art and words, creativity, new projects, publications, publishing, studio and gallery, the art world | 2 Responses

Publishing Monday: Links all around — and a book new video!

It probably won’t surprise any regular visitors to this blog that I’m passionate about publishing in all it’s forms. So here’s a quick round up of recent news and links that I found worthy or interesting. Enjoy!

1. First off, I must admit that I’m excited about the iPad. I’ve had so much fun programming apps for the iPhone that I look forward to seeing what I can for the iPad. I’m also pleased that my iPhone apps will run on the iPad, though I may eventually want to update them to take advantage of the larger screen.

Now that it seems that there’s a device that can showcase full-color e-books, one of my first intentions is to create a digital version of THE BOOK OF GODDESSES. I’ve ordered one and look forward to having it in my eager hands on April 3rd. I think that there’s all sorts of Brave New World possibilities for book designers here, though I must admit to a Luddite fondness for the pleasures of the printed page. In the meantime, here’s some information about creating e-books for the iPad in InDesign — much easier than creating iPhone apps for sure. And here’s an inspiring article about the book design opportunities offered by the iPad.

2. I’m still in decompression mode after the whirlwind of activity involved in Mary Sharratt’s reading and signing here last Monday. It was wonderful to have her — Mary gave a compelling presentation that everyone loved and I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner with her and her husband afterward. We had a lot of fun talking about museums, art, writing, travel, and publishing. But since it was our first time livestreaming, we (friend/gallery publicist Diane Saarinen and I) had quite the learning curve!

Fortunately, all went well, despite a few technical glitches, and next time will be much easier. Best of all, Mary’s reading can be viewed online here.

3. Live in NYC or close by? This Saturday is our Spring offering of my Publishing 101 workshop at the gallery. It’s chock-full of as much inside publishing skinny goodness I can cram into two hours. There are a still a few spaces left. More info here. Or register here.

4. Here’s a Huffington Post article from an editor/author on how social networking and blogging have transformed publishing — in some ways, for the better. (Surprise, surprise!)

Like many other authors, I have a love-not love relationship with social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and blogging. First off, you need to be consistent with one’s efforts. When I’m on a book deadline or in the midst of serious muse time, I have a difficult time multi-tasking beyond the essentials (food and sleep, anyone?). On the other hand, the connections I’ve made online are ones I treasure and make what I do worthwhile and delightful. Some have even transformed into “real world” friendships and beyond.

5. Finally on a related note, when author Catherine Delors (MISTRESS OF THE REVOLUTION) asked me to design a book video for her new novel FOR THE KING (Dutton, July 2010), I enthusiastically complied. Below is the result of our collaboration, during which we had a lot of fun and listened to a lot of Berlioz . I “met” Catherine online during my DOOMED QUEENS blog tour when she graciously hosted me on her beautiful (and newly relaunched) blog, Versailles and More.

• Filed under events, friends and colleagues, iPhone apps, publications, publishing, publishing 101, studio and gallery | 5 Responses

Love Tarot app launch day! And a video!

Today’s the day my new app goes live on iTunes! The Love Tarot app features tarot readings and romantic love stories with my award-winning Lover’s Path Tarot.

In celebration of the launch, here is the YouTube promo video for it, which is considerably more romantic than the Goddess Tarot app video. This video was inspired by The Lover’s Path, the illustrated novel that accompanied The Lover’s Path Tarot. (Just in case the embedding doesn’t work, here’s the direct YouTube link.)

Learn more about the Love Tarot app at www.Loverspath.com. Or, if you want to cut to the chase, you can download it from iTunes as either a free Lite version or a paid Full version. (Heads up: The Paid version is on sale at $1.99 until 10/4/09—regular price $2.99.)

FULL VERSION

LITE VERSION

Next up for me: Preparing for the upcoming gallery show, which will be about fairy tales. I’ll also probably be returning to work on my New Book, which is just about ready for the next phase of development.

But for tonight, I think I’ll raise an Appletini toward Cupertino, California.

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The lovely soundtrack for the video is by Ensemble Mirable, Conversations Galantes.

• Filed under events, iPhone apps, lover's path, publications, tarot and oracles | 2 Responses