Goddess Tarot app review

Thanks to Willa, who blogs at Beautiful iPhone Apps, for her lovely (and timely) review of the updated Goddess Tarot iPhone app:

“I have Kris Waldherr’s “Goddess Tarot” cards, so I was excited when she came out with an iPhone app. The original app was great, but one thing I would have liked to have was a journal to keep track of notes and thoughts on readings. With a recent update, a journal has been added, so the app is, in my opinion, pretty much perfect. And also beautiful!”

“Pretty much perfect” is high praise indeed.

Haven’t downloaded the app yet? You can here.

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The above illustration is of Isis, who is featured in The Goddess Tarot on the Magic (The Magician) card.

• Filed under goddesses, iPhone apps, reviews + press | 2 Responses

Stuff I like: Audrey Niffenegger’s HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY

My daughter Thea has a useful expression for describing when she rides her bike. She says, “I was going so fast the world was blurry.” That’s a bit how I felt this past week. Between finalizing the files for two card decks (Ask the Queens advice cards and Doomed Queens playing cards), preparing for the October 2nd launch of the Love Tarot app (yay!), and finalizing upcoming publishing workshops, the world was indeed “blurry”.

Regardless, today is the official publication date for Audrey Niffenegger’s new novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, which is cause for celebration. I’m a huge fan of The Time Traveler’s Wife as well as of Niffenegger’s illustrated novels. (Full disclosure: We shared the same editor at Abrams.) I greatly admire her ability to bridge the worlds of art and words with such artistry and integrity. So you can imagine how excited I was when I read that Scribner had acquired her new novel earlier this year in a very significant publishing deal. I was even more excited to score an advance copy of it from a Twitter friend. (Thanks, Melissa!)

I was up to 2:30 in the morning devouring Her Fearful Symmetry—it’s that enthralling a page-turner. Though it’s been about two weeks since I finished, I’m still processing my thoughts about it. It’s lingered with me, which is my mark of a good book.

First off, set aside any preconceptions or expectations you may have about Her Fearful Symmetry. It’s decidedly not The Time Traveler’s Wife, though both books share the theme of The Things People Do For Love knitted throughout, as well as a subtle mordant humor. It’s also written in third person, instead of the alternating first person narrative of TTW. For that alone, kudos to Niffenegger for not resting on her laurels to craft a TTW-romance redux.

Short version: Her Fearful Symmetry is an exquisitely written ghost story. The book’s premise is not dissimilar to one offered by a horror film: To claim an inheritance, Julia and Valentina, a set of abnormally attached identical twin sisters, must live for a year in a fabulous London apartment bequeathed to them by an aunt they’ve never met. The apartment is set next to Highgate Cemetery, the final resting place of many Victorian-era luminaries, including Karl Marx and Elizabeth Siddal Rossetti. The cemetery permeates the novel with an intense sense of place. (To research HFS, the author became a tour guide there; her deep knowledge infuses the novel.) Soon after the twins take possession of the apartment they learn that auntie may not have passed over to the other side. Paranormal shenanigans ensue.

Her Fearful Symmetry is far darker and more complicated and twisty than The Time Traveler’s Wife. The main characters are not what they seem and do stunningly selfish and cruel things; regardless, you find yourself seduced by them and ultimately caring about their fates. The ending is not tidy and requires a serious suspension of disbelief—I still have not decided what final outcome Niffenegger insinuated for one of her characters— though it is strangely uplifting. No spoilers here, but the concluding scene has a poetic justice/beauty about it that moved me deeply.

And yes, I cried at the end, though not the huge gulping sobs that TTW induced in me.

I hope you’ll also read Her Fearful Symmetry. I’d be interested to hear what others think of it since I suspect this is going to be a divisive book that some will adore, others may not. I loved it. It’s especially perfect for this time of year, as we gear up to the night when the “veils between the worlds are thin.”

If you do read, watch out for the Little Kitten of Death. Yup, it’s that kind of book.

• Filed under be-mused, reviews + press, stuff I like, the world around me | 7 Responses

Goddess Tarot app blog tour – the finale!

Last week, the final three stops on The Goddess Tarot app went live:

~ On Joanna Powell Colbert’s beautiful Gaian Tarot blog, I was interviewed about translating the Goddess Tarot into the digital age. Read it here.

~ Tarotist Beth Owl’s Daughter asked me to write a post about The Artist’s Way and goddesses which garnered some interesting comments. Read it here.

~ Finally, fellow Brooklynite, tarotist, and author Elizabeth Genco (aka the Marketing Goddess) interviewed me about the business end of making art. Read it here.

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Just reading over this list makes me realize how ridiculously and dizzyingly busy August was. Besides launching The Goddess Tarot app, I’ve also been traveling, working, dealing with home renovations, sold several decks, and even held a tarot salon. No wonder I’ve been quiet here on this blog!

But now it’s September, and you might be wondering what this new month holds for me. While work isn’t slowing down for me, it is easing up in terms of must-get-this-down-now-or-else pressure — always a welcome development. So I plan to be back to a more consistent posting schedule on this blog.

I also have two wonderful blog guests scheduled for September, to make up for skipping August’s. Lisa Hunt will be interviewed by me about her newest publication, The Fairy Tale Tarot. I have a copy here and it’s a real beauty! Urban shaman Mama Donna Henes will also be stopping by to discuss her inspiring book, The Queen of My Self.

As for my own creative efforts, I’m back to revising my long-aborning New Book and finalizing the Doomed Queens-themed card decks for publication. Plus there are new iPhone apps in the works, including one featuring the Lover’s Path Tarot.

Info on these — and more! — to come soon.

• Filed under friends and colleagues, goddesses, reviews + press, tarot and oracles | No Comments

Retail Therapy: Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland

Set in seventeenth century France, Mistress of the Sun is an opulent treasure of a historical novel. In it, author Sandra Gulland pulls off a difficult balancing act: The novel is both impeccably researched and gorgeously written. (As a long time reader of the genre, they usually strike me as being tipped one way or the other. Not so here.)

Mistress of the Sun is the story of Louise de la Vallière, nicknamed Petite because of her diminutive size. However, what Petite lacks in physical stature, she makes up in spirit—Petite was noted in history for her skills as a courageous horsewoman. On top of that, she’s also mistress to Louis XIV, which requires a different sort of courage.

Think it’s easy being mistress to the Sun King? Think again. Petite enters the court of Louis an innocent teenager, but succumbs to royal love-at-first-sight after the couple meets cute in a park. Initially they hide their affair through complicated disguises and discrete assignations. But Petite’s love for Louis forces her to make (to my mind) unimaginable sacrifices that go way beyond her personal moral code—hiding pregnancies under tightly-bound corsets, giving away their children to be raised by others. Even her mother disowns her.

Eventually Louis takes his romance with Petite public, which leads to a suspenseful “third act” that presents all sorts of questions about superstition, religion, and consequences. The court of the Sun King is a complicated place of ever-shifting alliances, where little is as it seems, especially to the pure-hearted Petite. Ultimately, Petite is forced to make a heartrending choice that will determine the remainder of her life. The denouement of this choice is presented in a tear-inducing coda that I adored (and won’t give away here).

Lest you think this is yet another voluptuously detailed romance, there’s a lot of nuance and dry wit here too. Gulland is a master of observation, and at defusing the ridiculousness of royalty. I found myself laughing out loud at some of her passages:

The King scanned the room with his eyes, his expression masklike. With calm dignity, he received the passionate adulation. A woman at the back slumped to the floor and was efficiently whisked out of the room. (Petite gathered that swooning happened rather often.)”

Though Mistress of the Sun is primarily the story of Louise’s life as this king’s mistress, it’s also a recounting of how Louis shaped his mythos into becoming the larger-than-life Sun King we recognize from history; and how this affected his relations with those he loved and was loved by in return, such as Petite. We are fortunate to share in this adulation. Highly recommended!

illustration: “Louis XIV with Louise de la Valliére in the Bois de Vincennes” by Jean Frederic Schall.

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Author Sandra Gulland will be interviewed here about her experiences writing Mistress of the Sun in tomorrow’s Creativity Friday. On top of that, we’ll be giving away a copy of Mistress of the Sun. Details will be posted here tomorrow! However, if you can’t wait, you can buy it here from Amazon.

• Filed under retail therapy, reviews + press | One Response

Doomed Queens wins first place….

…. for design and production at the New York Book Show in the quality paperback category! I guess they liked those paper dolls.

The New York Book Show is chaired by the Bookbinders’ Guild of New York. It honors the best designed and manufactured books of the previous year. Check it out here. Oh, and if you haven’t visited yet, there’s a new Doomed Queens promotional site at AsktheQueens.com.

And in other royal news, guess who’s crowned herself princess of all she surveys? Take special note of the marabou glass slippers. Très charmant!

(Not to worry, Ariel fans: Thea still considers herself a mermaid too.)

• Filed under be-mused, publishing, queens, reviews + press | 4 Responses