So, as a means of playing catch up, here’s a round up of what’s been going on in Art and Words land.

1. Last Friday was the second gathering of the Creative Women’s Networking Salon at the studio-gallery. It was a resounding success — so much so that the Salon will now become a regularly scheduled monthly event, like our Tarot Salon. I’m thinking first or second Friday of each month.

At our last salon, I was joined by a wide variety of women photographers, editors, writers, bloggers, artists, and crafters — an amazing array of talent. After the event, I noticed that some of the women “friended” each other on Facebook and beyond. That made me very happy, since one of my goals with my studio-gallery is to foster creative community in my Brooklyn neighborhood of Ditmas Park.

2. The Paul Taylor Dance Company is now at City Center in Manhattan through mid-March. I’m fortunate to know Annmaria Mazzini, one of the intensely gifted dancers who perform in the company. (She’s also a talented jewelry designer — I have several of her magical pieces.)

Seeing Annmaria dance has become a special ritual for me, marking the end of winter and start of spring. This year was extraordinary because Thea was old enough to attend with us for the first time! Annmaria even gave Thea a tour backstage at City Center, which thrilled my daughter immensely.

Thea and Annmaria, still in costume from dancing the 1960’s-themed Changes.

Imagine being (almost) five years old and looking out at this vista. In the words of Thea, “really cool.”

3. One of the things I love most about Brooklyn is the community (see item #1 above). One of Thea’s friends is a little girl named Theodora, who lives around the corner from us. Theodora’s mom is Jenny Offill, the author of several books including the novel LAST THINGS, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Jenny has a short story in Electric Literature from which she will be doing a reading of on March 14 at 7pm at KGB Bar and Lit Review. More info here.

Another neighbor mother and friend is journalist Sharon Lerner. Her first book THE WAR ON MOMS is being published by Wiley next month. It’s battlefield reporting on the widespread realities facing most American women today: the lack of paid maternity leave, the dearth of decent part-time work options, and the shortage of good, affordable childcare options. It tells the truth that overworked, stressed-out American moms need to hear: that they’re not alone — and they’re not to blame. Read excerpts here.

4. Related reading news: We’ll be having author Mary Sharratt visit the gallery all the way from England on March 15 at 7pm to present and sign her new novel, DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL. I’m very excited — this is an exclusive for us, since the book won’t be released until early April.  DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL is garnering some extraordinary praise and received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly. Learn more about this event.

5. I’ve decided to start offering semi-regular blog posts about my inspirations for The Novel, which is set amidst Victorian England’s deliciously decadent Aesthetic movement. For example, I wrote last month about my trip to Montreal to view the Waterhouse exhibit. The next one will go up later this week as part of my ongoing Creativity Friday series. It’s about my obsession with a Schubert string quintet. (Listen to it here.)

6. Finally, several people have yet to claim their prizes from our Valentine’s Week giveaways. Please send me your info so I can get your goodies on the way. (Or, if you e-mailed me and have yet to receive a prize, please send it to me again — your e-mail did not make it through.)

And with that, I hope you all are having a great week!

I am here wrangling with the Novel*, which now feels especially real since I’ve confided in my literary agent about it.** So it seems especially timely that these two articles have just appeared online to offer advice to struggling novelists everywhere.

~ The UK Guardian asked a number of novelists to give their top tips for writing fiction. I especially agree with one of the points Sarah Waters (Tipping the Velvet) makes:

Writing fiction is not “self-­expression” or “therapy”. Novels are for readers, and writing them means the crafty, patient, selfless construction of effects. I think of my novels as being something like fairground rides: my job is to strap the reader into their car at the start of chapter one, then trundle and whizz them through scenes and surprises, on a carefully planned route, and at a finely engineered pace.”

~ In response, Laura Miller at Salon.com  posted a list of what readers require of a novel.

Since we’re on the subject, here’s a quick Novel update: I’m up to 67,000 words, with an intended goal of about 100,000. Of those, I’d say about half of them are close to what I intend. Meaning that when I reread them I’m not tempted to scream with embarrassment or hit the “delete” button. I’m in that state where I’m caught between intense excitement and insecurity. Meaning, business as usual.

On the plus side, I am completely enthralled with my characters and my novel’s subject matter (Victorian England’s Aesthetic movement). Which is a good thing, since I’m spending lots of time there. Even when I’m not actively writing, I’m thinking about my character’s motivations, their histories, and what their final fates will be. Which sounds more ominous than I intend, though you never know. If one of the characters start to annoy me, I can always write them out.

This is probably the first book I’ve worked on that isn’t intended to be illustrated or elaborately designed. That alone is sure to provoke insecurities within my book arts-obsessed self. But this has also given me a lot of freedom to write whenever and wherever — no thoughts about production considerations, or needing to paint, just get down the words, the sentences, the scenes. To trust myself as a writer, rather than a a book-maker.

On the software side, I’m using the Mac-only Scrivener program, which I like a lot, now that I’ve gotten used to it. It allows me to save scenes as individual documents within a master document, then move them about as I see fit. I discovered Scrivener when I participated in National Novel Writing Month, which gave me that push to get the first 50,000 words out.

But still the doubts remain: Can I really write a “real” novel?

I hope so!

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* The above photo gives you a sense of my process. Each post it note has a scene, story thread, or theme written on it. And yes, they’re color-coordinated. I move them around to get a sense of what should happen when, and why. It’s like playing with fate, but in a good way.

**She’s even asked me that age-honored question: “When can I expect a finished first draft from you?” Yikes.

Thea’s been having a great time, careening from playdate to playdate. But I’ve had my time in the studio limited. The great thing about living in my bucolic Brooklyn neighborhood of Ditmas Park is that there’s never any shortage of kids. At this age, the kids are beyond cute and a lot of fun.

This is a roundabout way to say that I hope to squeeze a Creativity Friday post in this week, if the planets align. In the meantime, I want to give a shout out to my favorite community orchestra, the Brooklyn Symphony. They’re giving an exciting-sounding concert this Sunday in Brooklyn Heights at the historic St. Ann’s Church.

Here’s the concert info, for those of you in the NYC area:

Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 3 pm

SMETANA  – “The Bartered Bride” Overture and Three Dances
VON WEBER – Concerto for Bassoon in F 
- Eddie Cabrera, bassoon
DUKAS – Symphony in C

This concert takes place at:

Church of St. Ann and the Holy Trinity
157 Montague Street (corner of Clinton and Montague Streets)
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Subway: R, 2, 3, 4, 5 to Court Street
Telephone number: (718) 852-0677

Suggested admission is $15. Children are decidedly welcome.

Thanks so much to everyone who participated during last week’s “Most Romantic Week on the Blogosphere”, which was held to mark the relaunch of the Love Tarot app. I had a truly wonderful time reading all of your comments, stories, opinions, and thoughts. I loved having the opportunity to get to know you, my blog readers, better.

As a side note, your tales of dating woe made me shiver with horror as well as laugh in astonishment. I sincerely hope that things have improved considerably on your collective romantic fronts since then!

Special thanks to Sandra Gulland, Holly Tucker, Donna Henes, and Ruth Ann Amberstone for their wonderful guest posts. Much appreciation to Diane Saarinen for helping me organize this week of Valentine-themed love.

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. And today is (drumroll please!) the day in which I announce the winners of our daily giveaways from last week. Congratulations to:

Audra: You’ve won Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland.

Leslie: You’ve won The Lover’s Path by me.

Fran: You’ve won The Queen of My Self by Donna Henes.

Joy Lerner: You’ve won the Goddess Tarot deck and MP3 of The Tarot School’s teleclass for The High Priestess from Ruth Ann Amberstone.

Silverlotus: You’ve won the Amor and Beatrice print.

If you could e-mail me your mailing addresses to kris at kriswaldherr dot com, I’ll arrange to get your prizes off to you pronto.

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In closing, here are some images from the children’s Valentine making workshop we held at the gallery this weekend. For a period of about three hours, my workspace was taken over by about fifteen kids wielding glitter glue and sequins. At one point, a group of them commandoed my work table, transforming it into a private club house. There was even a “No! Grow Ups – Only Kids” sign.

It was overwhelmingly cute.

However you spent your Valentine’s Day (or “Love Day” as one child called it), I hope it was fulfilling and fun!

To finish my “Most Romantic Week on the Blogosphere” featuring the Love Tarot app, I am compelled to share with you what I consider to be possibly one of the most inspiring of love stories — the tale of Dante and Beatrice. On top of that, we’re giving away a copy of the Love Tarot app and one Amor and Beatrice print (autographed by me) to two lucky blog commentors. Details at the end of this post.

It’s not too late: You can still enter the giveaways from earlier in this week! Here’s what you can win:

Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland.
The Lover’s Path by Kris Waldherr.
The Queen of My Self by Donna Henes.
Goddess Tarot deck and MP3 of The Tarot School’s teleclass for The High Priestess from Ruth Ann Amberstone.

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“Why Dante and Beatrice?” you may wonder. After all Dante never got his girl. She didn’t love him in return. Heck, the poet hardly spoke to her, if we’re to believe what he wrote. Nor did he send her any notes or any other indications of his affection. The truth was that Beatrice Portinari never knew how much Dante Aligheri adored her when she died prematurely in her twenties. Dante’s infatuation with Beatrice was one which he nurtured with subtle stares during church services, cherished greetings during accidental meetings — and transcendental poems shared with everyone but the object of his affection.

Most people know that Dante lived in thirteenth century Florence and wrote The Divine Comedy, an epic poem describing his vision of a journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven. The first part, the Inferno, is the liveliest part of the work. Once you read it, it’s hard to forget its intensely visceral imagery and the sense that the poet is settling some serious political scores. Though Beatrice appears within The Divine Comedy as his guiding angel, she was also the subject of his first book, La Vita Nuova (“The New Life”). It is in La Vita Nuova that Dante fully recounts his love for her, and of how she inspired his art.

In a lot of ways, it’s easy to just consider Dante’s love for Beatrice a courtly love contrivance for his art — but what art! Here’s an excerpt from a poem he wrote about her death:

Great anguish do my sighs give unto me,
Whene’er my thought unto my heavy mind
Doth bring her to me who hath cleft my heart.
And thinking oftentimes concerning death,
There comes to me so sweet desire therefor
That it transmutes the color in my face.
When this imagination holds me fixed,
Such pain assaileth me on every side,
That then I tremble with the woe I feel;
And such I do become
That from the people shame takes me away:
Then, alone, weeping, I lamenting call
On Beatrice, and say: “Art thou, then, dead?
And while I call her I am comforted.”

When I think of all the art, poetry, literature, and (yes!) lovers who have been inspired by Dante, it amazes me. Everyone from Dante Gabriel Rossetti (though one has to pity poor Elizabeth Siddal, whom he plucked out of obscurity to be his Victorian-era Beatrice/Kate Moss) to, well, moi. Dante’s work has been illustrated by Sandro Botticelli, William Blake, and Gustave Dore. On the music front, Rossini and Schumann set his words to music, and it inspired a symphonic poem by Liszt. As for modern poets, Dantesque imagery found its way into the works of Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, Gabriele D’Annunzio, and more writers than I can possibly list here.

All these influences and sources – and this is without even mentioning the films and novels and other art forms that owe Dante their due.

Why is the poet’s love story still so compelling, seven hundred years later? My theory is that Dante and Beatrice reminds us of the power of loving for love’s sake; of the beauty that pure devotion to another can inspire. And what can be more romantic than that?

So here’s the chain of events: Beatrice inspired Dante. Then Dante inspired everyone else. And that is why I consider Dante and Beatrice to be the most inspiring love story ever.

In closing, here’s my retelling of Dante’s devotion to Beatrice, adapted from The Lover’s Path Tarot; this account was based on his La Vita Nuova:

Beatrice was nine years old the first time Dante gazed upon her, he slightly older. Her presence made such an impression that he felt as though his spirit had been infused with light. From that moment, Dante adored Beatrice above all others. Through the years as they grew into adulthood, Dante sought to meet Beatrice, too overwhelmed with love to do nothing more than stare at her. He noticed that Beatrice was so full of grace that any who saw her experienced a happiness which could only be described through sighs. All this convinced Dante that Beatrice was truly an angel. Since he said nothing, Beatrice did not suspect Dante’s love; she thought him dumb with shyness. But her warm greeting never wavered no matter how awkwardly Dante acted.

When Beatrice turned fifteen, her parents arranged her marriage to a wealthy merchant. The first time Dante saw Beatrice after her wedding, she was accompanied by two of her bridesmaids as they walked along the Arno River in Florence. Overcome by the knowledge that she was now another’s wife, Dante turned his face from Beatrice to hide his tears. Beatrice’s bridesmaids misunderstood and thought the poet had insulted their mistress. They jeered at him as they led Beatrice away.

That night, Dante retreated to his chamber in anguished shame. While he slept, a vision appeared to him in his dreams as the stars reached the ninth hour of the night. From a cloud the hue of fire emerged a god-like figure. This being, who identified himself as Amor, the spirit of love, held a woman whom Dante recognized as Beatrice. Amor also held a heart, which he told  Dante was the heart the poet had irrevocably given to Beatrice.

Dante awoke from his dream resolved. His love for Beatrice would be no earthly passion to expire when they died. Instead, he would immortalize Beatrice with poems that would last forever. As their lives unfolded, Beatrice was honored by Dante’s verses as no woman had ever been. The poet’s fame spread—and with it, the story of his love for Beatrice.

Over the years, the story of Dante and Beatrice has inspired many to give their hearts just as completely.”

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TODAY’S GIVEAWAY: I have one copy of the Full version Love Tarot app and an autographed Amor and Beatrice print, which reproduces the drawing for the card shown above. To enter, simply leave a comment for this post; please indicate whether you’d like to be entered for the app or the print. Or both. For a double entry, tell us your about your most intensely romantic experience.

It may not involve another person — for example, I was enraptured during my first trip to Venice like a Victorian heroine overcome by Stendhal Syndrome. Or it might. I guess the point I’m trying to make is that romance is all around us — Valentine’s Day should be a celebration of that, rather than a marker (and marketing ploy) for happily we’re partnered off.

The small print: You have until midnight EST on February 14 to leave your comment. Winner will be chosen at random and announced on this blog Monday, February 15, 2010. Sorry, but this giveaway is limited to U.S. only.

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Top art: Dante and Beatrice from the Love Tarot app by Kris Waldherr.

More about the Love Tarot app: Considered to be the most romantic app in the App Store, the Love Tarot app offers gorgeous tarot readings inspired by famous love stories, such as Tristan and Isolde and Cupid and Psyche. This five star-rated app was recently relaunched to include a tarot journal for users to save their readings and other inspirations.

Available in Lite and Full versions, learn more here. Or download the Full version on iTunes now.

Next up for my “Most Romantic Week on the Blogosphere” featuring the Love Tarot app, is Mama Donna Henes, an urban shaman and folklorist supreme. Someone commented earlier wondering what an urban shaman does. In Mama Donna’s case, she works with individuals, groups of all kinds, companies, and municipalities to create meaningful, non-denominational rituals for every conceivable occasion. For example, she performs solstice and equinox rituals for New York City; she also presides over the opening of the Village Halloween Parade. She also regularly reads tarot at my gallery’s popular Tarot Salon.

Mama Donna is also the author of several books, including the wonderfully empowering and award-winning The Queen of My Self: Stepping Into Sovereignty in Midlife.* Her blog entry here is adapted from The Queen of My Self — I think it offers a necessary corrective to so much media out there which suggests that a person can’t be complete unless they’re in a romantic relationship. Mais non, ma cherie! After all, our most important relationship with with ourselves.

Today we’re giving away a copy of Mama Donna’s book The Queen of Myself to one blog commenter. Details at the end of this post.

Tomorrow’s post: I conclude the week with a post about what I think is the most inspiring love story. Ever.

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TODAY’S GIVEAWAY: We have a copy of The Queen of My Self! To enter, simply leave a comment for this post. For a double entry, tell us about a an experience where you treated yourself like royalty. (For myself, it was during my recent trip to Montreal. I stayed at a nice hotel, ate at a famed restaurant, and saw intensely beautiful art.

The small print: You have until midnight EST on February 14 to leave your comment. Winner will be chosen at random and announced on this blog Monday, February 15, 2010. Sorry, but the giveaway is limited to U.S. and Canada only.

*If you enjoyed this entry, I hope you’ll become a fan of The Queen of My Self on Facebook. You can also follow The Queen of My Self on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thequeenbook.

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Top art: Isis and Osiris art from the Love Tarot app by Kris Waldherr.

More about the Love Tarot app: Considered to be the most romantic app in the App Store, the Love Tarot app offers gorgeous tarot readings inspired by famous love stories, such as Tristan and Isolde and Cupid and Psyche. This five star-rated app was recently relaunched to include a tarot journal for users to save their readings and other inspirations.

Available in Lite and Full versions, learn more here. Or download the Full version on iTunes now.

I’m thrilled to have the acclaimed tarot authority Ruth Ann Amberstone as my next guest for the “Most Romantic Week on the Blogosphere”, featuring the Love Tarot app. Ruth Ann Amberstone and her husband, Wald Amberstone, are founders of The Tarot School as well as the authors of The Secret Language of Tarot and Tarot Tips: 78 Practical Techniques to Enhance Your Reading Skills. They are also the creators of The Readers Studio, an annual international conference for tarot enthusiasts.

In this post, Ruth Ann writes about The Devil, the sexiest and hottest card in the tarot. Yup, The Devil often gets a bad rap. But, as Ruth Ann points out here, he (or she, as the case may be) can be a lot of fun. On top of that, we’re giving away a MP3 of the Tarot School’s famed teleclass on The High Priestess and an autographed copy of The Goddess Tarot to one blog commenter. Details at the end of this post.

Tomorrow’s post: Mama Donna Henes offers sage advice on how to romance the most important person in your life — you!

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If you were to name the tarot cards that are most associated with relationships, chances are The Devil would not be at the top of your list. But a closer look reveals that this “bad boy” can have a lot to say in a relationship reading.

The most common interpretation of The Devil, as it might relate to partnerships, is that of a dysfunctional or co-dependent relationship — often where one person has an addiction of some sort. The bondage that’s depicted in the image can refer to the addictive behavior, or perhaps to a taste for kinky sex.

But there are things about this card that are less obvious. In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, take a good look at the two people and The Devil himself, and you’ll notice that none of them are looking at one another (unlike in The Lovers). This might indicate that there is a lack of communication in the relationship and/or that at least one partner is totally self-involved.

It’s a common observation that the chains around the necks of the two people are loose. The standard approach to interpreting this symbol might suggest that one or both of them could easily leave the “relationship” with The Devil and/or each other by simply slipping out of the chains. A less familiar understanding of these chains, however, is that they are not bonds, but links — these links connect the three figures and hold them together. In this context, The Devil makes it possible for people to stay together and function together, even when they are each essentially in their own world.

The Devil is the perfect date! With his power over appearances, he can look whichever way you personally find most attractive and sexy. He knows how to dance, how to choose a fine wine, and he can dazzle you with his sparkling wit and intelligent conversation. The Devil is a real smooth operator! He’ll promise to fulfill your every wish, but it’s all a scam to get you into bed. And if you fall in love, he’ll drag you through hell as he charms the pants off partner after partner, caring nothing for your jealousy or suffering.

On a lighter note, one of the most useful things to know about The Devil is that the esoteric function of this card is laughter. The Devil laughs at just about everything. And while that may not seem funny on a cosmic level, using this esoteric function in a reading may indicate that what’s really needed is to lighten up! Watch a funny movie, go to a comedy club, or hang out with friends and simply have a good time.

When this card appears in a relationship reading, don’t let it be-devil you. One way or another, it has something valuable to say about the situation.

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TODAY’S GIVEAWAY: We have a MP3 of the Tarot School’s wonderfully in-depth High Priestess teleclass and an autographed copy of The Goddess Tarot! (Find out more here.) To enter, simply leave a comment for this post. For a double entry, tell us about your worst — or funniest — date ever. I’ll start: Mine involves a guy spending the whole night telling me about his ex-girlfriend and how great she was, that no one could measure up to her. At the end of the night he asked, “So, will I see you again?”

The small print: You have until midnight EST on February 14 to leave your comment. Winner will be chosen at random and announced on this blog Monday, February 15, 2010. Sorry, but the giveaway is limited to U.S. and Canada only.

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Top art: Paolo and Francesca from the Love Tarot app by Kris Waldherr.

More about the Love Tarot app: Considered to be the most romantic app in the App Store, the Love Tarot app offers gorgeous tarot readings inspired by famous love stories, such as Tristan and Isolde and Cupid and Psyche. This five star-rated app was recently relaunched to include a tarot journal for users to save their readings and other inspirations.

Available in Lite and Full versions, learn more here. Or download the Full version on iTunes now.

Next up for my “Most Romantic Week on the Blogosphere” featuring the Love Tarot app, is a guest post by historian and novelist Holly Tucker, Ph.D. History geeks probably know Holly from her delightful website Wonders and Marvels. Holly is an Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University. Her upcoming book Blood Work (under contract with W.W. Norton) is about the politics of early medical experimentation in seventeenth century France and England.

Here, Holly offers us the other side of seventeenth century love to Sandra Gulland’s uber-romantic entry about love letters yesterday. Instead, she writes about the baroque era’s favorite sex manual (complete with a randy illustration from it). On top of that, today we’re giving away a copy of my illustrated novel The Lover’s Path to one blog commenter. Details at the end of this post.

Tomorrow’s post: Ruth Ann Amberstone writes about the sexiest card in the tarot.

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TODAY’S GIVEAWAY: We have a copy of my illustrated novel The Lover’s Path, which inspired the Love Tarot! Set in sixteenth century Venice, The Lover’s Path is based on a true story of two sisters — one of which just happened to be the most famous courtesan of her time. (Learn more about it here or watch the YouTube video.) To enter, simply leave a comment for this post. For a double entry, tell us about your favorite love story from history.

The small print: You have until midnight EST on February 14 to leave your comment. Winner will be chosen at random and announced on this blog Monday, February 15, 2010. Sorry, but the giveaway is limited to U.S. and Canada only.

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Top art: Tristan and Isolde art from the Love Tarot app by Kris Waldherr.

More about the Love Tarot app: Considered to be the most romantic app in the App Store, the Love Tarot app offers gorgeous tarot readings inspired by famous love stories, such as Tristan and Isolde and Cupid and Psyche. This five star-rated app was recently relaunched to include a tarot journal for users to save their readings and other inspirations.

Available in Lite and Full versions, learn more here. Or download the Full version on iTunes now.

To kick off my “Most Romantic Week on the Blogosphere” featuring the Love Tarot app, I am fortunate to have Sandra Gulland as my guest. Sandra is the internationally acclaimed author of the bestselling Mistress of the Sun and of the Joséphine B. trilogy, which has sold over a million copies worldwide and been translated into thirteen languages.

In this post, Sandra offers a very touching history lesson about the writing of love letters in seventeenth century France. On top of that, we’re giving away a copy of Mistress of the Sun to one lucky blog commenter. Details at the end of this post.

Tomorrow’s post: Historian Holly Tucker spills about the seventeenth century’s favorite sex manual.

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In times past, a girl was told never to open a letter from a boy. A virtuous girl was expected to hand it over unopened to her parents. But of course lovers always found ways around such strictures. Josephine, who had received ardent love letters from Napoleon when he was courting, was strict about her daughter not receiving letters. Josephine had been an adult when Napoleon came courting, and living in the unsettled period after the French revolution. Ironically, it was that very daughter who, in later life, published the letters Napoleon had written to her mother after they had married — but she made sure to edit out the erotic lines.

In my novel, Mistress of the Sun, the King slips or writes notes into the margins of books he sends Louise de la Vallière, the young woman he courts. In truth (for this great love is a true story), they exchanged poems. They each enlisted the help of one of the King’s Gentlemen of the Chamber to carry the poems back and forth, but also — perhaps feeling inadequate to the task — got him to help in the composition of the missives. I changed this account somewhat for the novel, but I am charmed by the story.

Someday, perhaps I will write a story about a go-between between lovers. In the 17th century, public scribes could be hired in the Cemetaire des Innocents in the heart of Paris, and some of these, no doubt, were called upon to write letters of love.

Imagine: a young man in love, venturing into the stinking cemetery, stepping around open graves, wending his way around the statue of Death, thinking only of the love he feels, the words he wishes to compose.

Shyly, he sits across from the old scribe, stutters out his need.

If only we could overhear him … and read the lavish, embellished words that the scribe scratches out. Will it read, simply: I love you? No, these words are too powerful! (And too, the scribe is paid by the word.) No doubt the scribe will suggest flowery images to express the young man’s emotion, describe his sighs and tears, his unimaginable torments, sign him as a slave, ready to follow his beloved’s every request.

The young man leaves with a letter — a scrap of paper which he will (somehow) put into the hands of his beloved, and thus change his life forever. For in spite of the flowery language, she will read, simply, in his eyes: I love you.

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TODAY’S GIVEAWAY: We have a copy of Sandra’s wonderful novel Mistress of the Sun! (Read my full review here.) To enter, simply leave a comment for this post. For a double entry, tell us about your favorite love letter!

Maybe this love letter — or e-mail, if you’re the modern type — was one you happily received from a beloved. Perhaps you were its enthusiastic author. Or it was a letter from literature or history? Personally, I find Napoleon’s letters to Josephine to be rather hot stuff: “A kiss on your heart, and one much lower down, much lower!”

(I wonder if these are the edited versions mentioned by Sandra. If so, I’m blushing to imagine the original letter….)

The small print: You have until midnight EST on February 14 to leave your comment. Winner will be chosen at random and announced on this blog Monday, February 15, 2010. Sorry, but the giveaway is limited to U.S. and Canada only.

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Top art: Cupid and Psyche from the Love Tarot app by Kris Waldherr.

More about the Love Tarot app: Considered to be the most romantic app in the App Store, the Love Tarot app offers gorgeous tarot readings inspired by famous love stories, such as Tristan and Isolde and Cupid and Psyche. This five star-rated app was recently relaunched to include a tarot journal for users to save their readings and other inspirations.

Available in Lite and Full versions, learn more here. Or download the Full version on iTunes now.

Best-selling author Sandra Gulland (Mistress of the Sun).

Urban shaman Donna Henes (Queen of My Self).

Renowned tarot authority Ruth Ann Amberstone (The Secret Language of  Tarot).

And, finally, acclaimed historian Holly Tucker (Wonders and Marvels, Blood Work).

These amazingly talented and inspiring women will be joining me for a week of love-themed posts and special giveaways. It’s all to celebrate Valentine’s Day — and the relaunch of the five star-rated Love Tarot iPhone app, which was recently updated with a tarot journal for saving readings and other inspirations.

The week will be kicked off tomorrow morning with a wonderfully romantic piece by Sandra about the writing of love letters.  (Side note: I’m extremely flattered that she writes that her post was inspired by my illustrated novel The Lover’s Path.) On top of that, we’ll be giving away a copy of Sandra’s bestselling book, Mistress of the Sun. To enter the raffle, all you need to do is comment.

A huge bouquet of thanks to these illustrious ladies for participating in what I hope will be the most romantic week on the blogosphere. And I hope you’ll to “see” you here beginning tomorrow!

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PS: To learn more about the Love Tarot and my other iPhone and iPod Touch apps, please visit my new-and-official app website here.