News Release: Searching for the Ghosts of Devils Lake

For release: July 2, 2009
Contact: Corrine Kenner
Website: www.ghostsofdevilslake.com
Email: ghosts@ghostsofdevilslake.com
Phone: 701-540-5405

Is your house haunted? Do spirits share space in your store or office building? Are there any ghostly goings-on in your fields or on your farm? If so, there’s an author looking for you — and your terrifying tale could be included in a book about the haunted hollows of Devils Lake.

Corrine Kenner, an award-winning author who was raised on a farm near Devils Lake, is compiling a collection of ghost stories from the Lake Region.

“Like most people in the area, I grew up hearing stories about the Dakotah men who died in battle on Devils Lake, and the ghostly sightings of the steamboat Minnie H,” she said. “Devils Lake has more than its share of ghost stories — but almost no one beyond North Dakota’s borders has heard them. That’s one reason I’m really excited about this book. It’s going to put Devils Lake on the map for readers across the country and around the world.”

Kenner is hoping to uncover a wide range of new stories, too.

“I’m really interested in stories about very old ghosts,” she said, “from the days when Devils Lake was a pioneer town. I’m also interested in legends from the Spirit Lake Nation — like the descriptions of wood and water spirits, and the ‘little people’ you can only see out of the corner of your eye.”

Kenner’s search for ghost stories isn’t confined to city or tribal limits.

“I’m interested in any paranormal events in a 50- or 60-mile radius,” she said. “I’m looking for spooky stories of supernatural phenomena, and sights and sounds that can’t be explained. This book will have a definite ‘X-Files’ and ‘Twilight Zone’ feel.”

If you have a supernatural story to share, you can call Kenner at (701) 540-5405, or email her at ghosts@ghostsofdevilslake.com. You can also contact her through the Ghosts of Devils Lake website at www.ghostsofdevilslake.com.

Kenner currently plans to include the stories of:

• Lillian Wineman, the eccentric pioneer woman who stayed with her belongings — even after she died, and her furnishings were moved into a local history museum
• The untimely deaths of two young brothers, found hanged on their homestead after they picked a drunken fight with the wrong crowd
• Ghostly sightings of the Minnie H steamboat and her captain, Edward Heerman, who patrolled the shores of Devils Lake at the turn of the last century
• The lost graveyard of doomed Jewish settlers, who tried to establish their own farming community during the late 1800s
• A mysterious “stairway to hell” discovered in a farmer’s field
• The ghostly shadows and cries of Dakotah warriors, drowned by the angry spirits of the lake during a terrible battle
• And a Loch Ness-style monster who lives in the deepest center of the lake

Kenner is the award-winning author of ten books and the editor of several anthologies. Her books have been translated into several languages and distributed around the world.

The Ghosts of Devils Lake will be released by Llewellyn Worldwide, a global publisher based in Woodbury, Minnesota.

###

This Week’s Tarot Meetups

At tonight’s Twin Cities Tarot Meetup in Minneapolis, we’ll revisit the “Three Card Draw” — Mary K. Greer’s innovative technique for combining the symbols and significance of three separate cards into a single image. (That’s my version of Temperance, Judgment, and the Four of Pentacles, above.) When we last played with this exercise a couple of years ago, we all had a ridiculous amount of fun! We meet at the Eye of Horus bookstore on Lyndale Avenue. Bring colored pencils, crayons, or markers, if you have them.

The Tarot for Writers group meets online each Saturday. This week, we’re going to play with images from a unique tarot deck — the Tarot of the New Vision, which shows old, familiar tarot scenes from an entirely new perspective. You can stand behind the Fool, and see what he sees. Ride behind the Charioteer, and find out who’s following him. Peek behind the High Priestess’s curtain, and peer through the clouds in the Seven of Cups. If you’ve been meaning to try your hand at creative writing with the cards, please join us!

Of course, excitement continues to grow for the Minnesota Area Tarot Symposium next month. You can find all the details here.

David Letterman: The Bad Humor Man

Like a lot of Americans, I was disgusted by David Letterman’s “Top Ten” jokes about Sarah Palin last week. On Monday, he reported that the Alaskan governor was visiting New York, and that she had stopped by Bloomingdale’s for new makeup to update her “slutty flight attendant look.” On Tuesday, he said that the Palins had been trying to keep their daughter away from Eliot Spitzer, implying that their girls could be mistaken for prostitutes. And he topped that by joking that Willow, who’s all of 14, had been “knocked up” during the seventh-inning stretch of a Yankees game.

Letterman’s jokes weren’t funny. They’re classist, for one thing. Clearly, media elites like David Letterman find that it’s easy to make fun of “little people,” like flight attendants.

The comments were misogynistic, too. In a fair world, female politicians wouldn’t be singled out — in crude language, no less — for their appearance or for raising families.

I have to admit, though, that I was a little surprised by the firestorm of objections that followed Letterman’s remarks. After all, Sarah Palin and her family have been the butt of jokes ever since she emerged on the nationwide political scene last year. Letterman’s jibes didn’t seem any worse than any of the countless other wisecracks I’ve heard at her expense. While his use of the word “slutty” might be over the top, it wasn’t far off the usual mark.

What’s more, the jokes about the Palin kids are old hat. Baby Trig has been mocked for having Down Syndrome, and poor Bristol has suffered from a non-stop series of insults about her pregnancy.

I’m also used to the double standard that was on display. Honestly, no one would make similar jokes about Democrat families. Try a quick Google search for “Sasha and Malia Obama jokes,” and then compare the results you get with the findings for “Trig Palin jokes” or “Bristol Palin jokes.” There’s no comparison. I couldn’t find a single joke about Sasha or Malia, except for an innocent comment or two that Barack Obama himself made during some of his speeches. The Palin kids, on the other hand, have been viciously skewered at every turn.

So why did Letterman’s routine incite such a strong response this time around? Let’s check the cards.

I shuffled my trusty Rider-Waite tarot deck and let it fall open in my hands — and the card that turned up was the Fool.

Clearly, David Letterman is a classic Fool — a contemporary court jester, entertaining millions of subjects with modern versions of age-old jokes and comedy routines. Perhaps he really was “just kidding,” as he claims.

But maybe people are getting tired of his brand of humor, too. Maybe Americans — particularly mainstream, middle-class, conservative Americans — have simply had enough of people like David Letterman making fun of us. Maybe we’re tired of a media that insults and offends us at every turn, and denigrates women and children with impunity. Maybe we’re tired of being played for fools ourselves.

I also get the sense that David Letterman has a real problem dealing with powerful women. Maybe he has mother issues: I remember how he used to set up his own mother as the focus of some of his comic routines, playfully “teasing” her for her Midwestern values and lifestyle. When David Letterman makes jokes about Sarah Palin, maybe he thinks he’s speaking truth to power — like a medieval clown, cloaking his observations in humor, when no one else feels  free to comment. Maybe he really does think that many a truth is told in jest, and that it’s his job to put Sarah Palin in her place. (Again, that would be the misogynist in him.)

His latest round of apologies is all over the TV news this morning, so I asked a follow-up question: Is Letterman’s latest “mea culpa” sincere?

I shuffled again, and the deck fell open to the Queen of Wands.

I’d have to say no, David Letterman isn’t sorry — and you don’t have to be a wild-eyed psychic to figure that out, either. I remember the first “apology” he offered, in which he suggested that he never meant to insult Sarah Palin’s 14-year-old daughter. No: he was attacking the 18-year-old — an adult of legal age, who really did get “knocked up,” and who thereby was fully deserving of a nation’s scorn.

Whatever.

When I first saw the Queen of Wands, though, I saw Sarah Palin — and I suspect that David Letterman blames her for the response he’s getting to his joke. Obviously, he does perceive Palin as a woman with great power, which is what the Queen of Wands represents: she’s a fiery, outspoken personality. She’s popular and charismatic, and a born leader. In fact, Sarah Palin is one of the few politicians who can draw crowds of thousands wherever she goes. David Letterman is intimidated by Sarah Palin, and on some level, he’s afraid of her. His little court jester routine pales in comparison to her popular appeal — and when she spoke out against his attacks on her daughter, she made him seem like a very small man, indeed.

So what will we learn from this latest installment of pop culture and politics?

Sadly, nothing — as evidenced by the next card to reveal itself, the Five of Wands.

The Five of Wands suggests that we won’t learn anything, at least not in the short term. We’ll continue to bicker and squabble amongst ourselves.

Oh, maybe I shouldn’t be so pessimistic. After all, it is a “5″ card, halfway between the 1 and the 10 — so maybe we’re at the halfway mark. Maybe we’re at some sort of tipping point as a culture, where the divide between Democrats and Republicans can advance beyond petty, humorless attacks and name-calling.

We’ll see. Time will tell — and so will the comments that trickle in after this post.

If you’d like to comment, feel free, but don’t bother telling me that Sarah Palin is dumb, or dangerous, or that she deserves the treatment she’s received. I don’t agree, you won’t change my mind, and that’s not the point, anyway. Try to keep your comments to the subject at hand, which is David Letterman and his jokes about the Palins.

“Gipsies Fortune-telling”

I like this image from the sixteenth century!

Up to No Good

My neighbors are on vacation, and I have the key to their house. I was just looking out the window, and I thought, “You know, if I wanted to, I could sneak over there and … read all their books.”

Yeah. That’s the most mischief I could imagine.

Don’t tell anyone, though, because I’d hate for my neighbors to think they couldn’t trust me.

MATS speakers

Have you heard about the speakers we’ve got lined up for the Minnesota Area Tarot Symposium? I just posted this description to a discussion board on the Living Tarot Meetup site:

• A lot of you have met Julie Cuccia-Watts. She’s driving in from our neighboring state of Wisconsin to talk about the four queens from the Ma’at Tarot deck. Not to brag or anything, but the paintings of those four queens will actually be ON DISPLAY at the conference … because I bought them, and they normally hang in my bedroom! Aaaah! I’ve been looking at them every day for two years now, and I still get excited when I see them! It will be fun to share them with other fans of the deck this July.
• Some of you have met Nancy Antenucci, too. She’s remarkable. She makes her living as a full-time tarot reader in Minneapolis and St. Paul, she leads quarterly Mystery Circles, and she’s currently writing a book for Llewellyn about psychic development with the cards.
• You’ve all met or heard of Jeannette Roth from the Tarot Garden. She’s coming up from Iowa, our neighbor to the south, and she’ll be bringing a selection of interesting and unusual decks. We’ve also tapped her to share her encyclopedic knowledge of the cards, so she’ll be talking about the historical development of the Star card through the years.
• Barbara Moore, the woman who discovered Ciro Marchetti and convinced him to create a tarot deck, lives in St. Paul. She’s also a prolific tarot author: she wrote the companion books for the Gilded Tarot, the Mystic Faerie Tarot, the Mystic Dreamer Tarot, and the Enchanted Oracle. She’ll teach us all how to create tarot-based “life maps.”
• Chuck Boe is a major player on the Twin Cities tarot scene. As a tarot reader, he’s a mainstay at the Eye of Horus bookstore in Minneapolis. His readings are gentle, insightful, and dead-on accurate, because he blends an extensive knowledge of the cards with formal training in human development and healing. He wrote his thesis on tarot counseling, and that’s what he’ll be talking about.
• And I’ll be there to talk about my passion for combining tarot cards with creative writing, based on my book, “Tarot for Writers.”

To register for the Minnesota Area Tarot Symposium, go to minnesotatarot.com.

Tarot for Writers Certification

Tarot certification pushes a lot of buttons. This morning on Facebook, I posted a link to my new Tarot for Writers certification program.

Almost immediately, I heard from Zach Wong, the creator of the Revelations Tarot. We visited about the issues surrounding tarot certification, and he gave me permission to post our conversation here, too.

As you read it, remember that it was just a friendly online chat, and I’ve cut and pasted it with very little editing. Still, I think we covered a lot of ground in just a few minutes!

Zach: stupid question time. why do people want to be certified tarot writers?

Corrine: Hi, Zach! They want a structure for their work. And they want a certificate of accomplishment. Or achievement. And they want someone to whom they can be accountable … Like me!

Zach: ha! in my brief history as an “author” of a tarot deck i’ve received requests from people who review my deck and they say they need to do x-amount of deck reviews and it has to engage the author/creator (ie. interview) i’m baffled as to who out there measures these people’s “Reviewing ability”

Corrine: No one! That’s why there are so many oddball reviews! LOL!

You know, though, you could offer a certification program for your deck! James Wanless does that with Voyager, of course.

Zach: which brings me to the lead on question – is there an association of tarot writers which would monitor these rogue un certified writers? :)

Corrine: Yes. I’ll be the official Tarot for Writers police. LOL! No, seriously, people are very proud when they complete a course and get certified.

Zach: well i’m all for people feeling good about themselves, but it still baffles me that they need to externalise it.

Corrine: For someone who reads with your deck professionally, your certification would be a badge of honor and a marketing tool.

Zach: frankly., if anyone dares to use my deck, they are in for a ride anyways. i’ll be more than happy to certify them clinically insane, or at least questionable :D

Corrine: You should definitely consider it. Not only does it help the people you certify, it’s a good ongoing way to publicize and promote your own work.

Zach: well i’m of a different school of thought when it comes to my deck. 1) it was never meant to be a public work, so if some one identifies with it, kudos to them. 2) i have never actively gone out and pushed the marketing machine for it, because it’s such a personal piece of work. the last thing I want are the masses to get a hold of it.

Corrine: Ohhh … You’re a one-man secret society!

Zach: i tried to be for many years, till they found me

Corrine: Heh heh heh.

Zach: i didn’t even want to write the book for the companion kit :/:/

segway question -when i studied architecture, they were very precious with the term “Architect” because they didn’t want “builders” or “interior designers” to just use the term, so they for societies for architects, where you have to be registered and do a “Certification” so you are allowed to use the title “architect” now these societies are not governed by the .. government – ie. there’s no law.

if you’re tarot writer certification is doing this – is there a bigger banner for “tarot readers”? and will this alienate others form the craft?

Corrine: Oh, there are ongoing controversies here about tarot certification. I usually hear it compared to social work certification. Some are concerned that it will draw government interference. Others are more frequently worried that it will denigrate tarot readers who aren’t certified. A few people get up in arms when they think that someone will get rich from certification fees. Some insist that tarot reading is too subjective to be certifiable.

Zach: so you’re familiar with the repercussions and possible politics involved – will certifying tarot writing do the same?

Corrine: Sure. I think it might be too big a task to certify “tarot readers” in general. But I think it’s perfectly valid to certify people within one system of tarot. Just like James Wanless has done. I’ve never heard a word of criticism about how he certifies Voyager readers.

Zach: probably because they all love him to bits in the first place

Corrine: Since this is my system, based on my book, I think the parameters are clear. I might have a few kinks to work out as it develops, of course.

Zach: ahh i think that’s what i’m missing

Corrine: How do you mean?

Zach: you see it’s based on your book, but the title sounds more encompassing of “Writing” as a profession

Corrine: Yes. It’s all being channeled through the Tarot for Writers website and group, so it’s closely linked to the book. But you’re hitting on the same reason that no one can certify a “journalist” or a “reporter.”

Zach: well then it’s a case of punctuation for me

Corrine: You think I should put it in quotes? That would look weird.

Zach: “Tarot for Writers” Certification. i know … it does look weird

Corrine: It makes it look sarcastic!

Zach: italics perhaps?

Corrine: I think italics may be the way to go. And if a rogue group of tarot writers does spring up unsupervised or unpoliced, more power to them.

Zach: well if you have a following like Wanless for Voyager, then it should be a great program.

Corrine: That’s my dream!

Zach

stupid question time

why do people want to be certified tarot writers?
11:10amCorrine

Hi, Zach.

They want a structure for their work.
11:10amZach

good morning!
11:10amCorrine

And they want a certificate of accomplishment.

Or achievement.

And they want someone to whom they can be accountable.

Like me!
11:11amZach

ha!

in my brief history as an “author” of a tarot deck

i’ve received requests from people who review my deck

and they say they need to do x-amount of deck reviews and it has to

engage the author/creator (ie. interview)

i’m baffled as to who out there measures these people’s “Reviewing

ability”
11:12amCorrine

No one!

That’s why there are so many oddball reviews! LOL!

You know, though, you could offer a certification program for your

deck!

James Wanless does that with Voyager, of course.
11:13amZach

which brings me to the lead on question – is there an association of tarot

writers which would monitor these rogue un certified writers? :)
11:14amCorrine

Yes. I’ll be the official Tarot for Writers police. LOL!

No, seriously, people are very proud when they complete a course and

get certified.
11:14amZach

well i’m all for people feeling good about themselves, but it still baffles me

that they need to externalise it.
11:15amCorrine

For someone who reads with your deck professionally, your certification

would be a badge of honor and a marketing tool.
11:15amZach

frankly., if anyone dares to use my deck, they are in for a ride anyways

i’ll be more than happy to certify them clinically insane, or at least

questionable :D
11:16amCorrine

You should definitely consider it. Not only does it help the people you

certify, it’s a good ongoing way to publicize and promote your own

work.
11:17amZach

well i’m of a different school of thought when it comes to my deck

1) it was never meant to be a public work, so if some one identifies with

it, kudos to them

2) i have never actively gone out and pushed the marketing machine for

it, because it’s such a personal piece of work. the last thing I want are the

masses to get a hold of it.
11:18amCorrine

Ohhh … You’re a one-man secret society!
11:18amZach

i tried to be for many years, till they found me
11:18amCorrine

Heh heh heh.
11:19amZach

i didn;t even want to write the book for the companion kit :/:/
11:19amCorrine

Your questions are good! Can I post this on my blog?
11:19amZach

sure
11:19amCorrine

Cool! Thanks!
11:19amZach

drop my name if you like :)
11:20amCorrine

I will. And I’ll link to your website so you attract even more followers.

Bwahahaha!
11:20amZach

you have too much time on your idle hands.

actually can i segway you to another related question?
11:21amCorrine

Yes. A husband, four kids, our own software business, three books

underway, a jewelry sideline, too many websites to count, and a dog.

Sure.
11:21amZach

get rid of the dog (i’m a cat person)
11:21amCorrine

No! Not our little Buddy!
11:21amZach

okay, the ugliest child then?
11:21amCorrine

We’ll have to draw straws.
11:22amZach

make them all short.

segway question -

when i studies architecture, they were very precious with the term

“Architect”

because they didn;t want “builders” or “interior designers” to just use the

term, so they for societies for architects, where you have to be registered

and do a “Certification”

so you are allowed to use the title “architect”

now these societies are not governed by the .. government – ie. there’s no

law

if you’re tarot writer certification is doing this – is there a bigger banner

for “tarot readers”? and will this alienate others formt he carft?
11:24amCorrine

Oh, there are ongoing controversies here about tarot certification.

I usually hear it compared to social work certification.

Some are concerned that it will draw government interference.

Others are more frequently worried that it will denigrate tarot readers

who aren’t certified.

A few people get up in arms when they think that someone will get rich

from certification fees.
11:26amZach

so you’re familiar with the reprecussions and possible politics involved -

will certifying tarot writing do the same?
11:26amCorrine

Some insist that tarot reading is too subjective to be certifiable.

Sure.

I think it is too big a task to certify “tarot readers” in general.

But I think it’s perfectly valid to certify people within one system of tarot.

Just like James Wanless has done.

I’ve never heard a word of criticism about how he certifies Voyager

readers.
11:27amZach

probably because they all love him to bits in the first place
11:27amCorrine

Since this is my system, based on my book, I think the parameters are

clear.

I might have a few kinks to work out as it develops, of course.
11:28amZach

ahh i think that’s what i’m missing
11:28amCorrine

How do you mean?
11:28amZach

you see it’s based on your book, but the title sounds more encompassing

of “Writing” as a profession
11:28amCorrine

Yes. It’s all being channeled through the Tarot for Writers website and

group, so it’s closely linked to the book.

But you’re hitting on the same reason that no one can certify a “journalist”

or a “reporter.”
11:29amZach

well then it’s a case of punctuation for me
11:29amCorrine

You think I should put it in quotes?

That would look weird.
11:30amZach

“Tarot for Writers” Certification – would read better to me

i know … it does look weird
11:30amCorrine

It makes it look sarcastic!
11:30amZach

italics perhaps?
11:30amCorrine

LOL

Maybe …

I’ll do some informal polling of our members.

Market research!
11:30amZach

‘Tarot for “Writers” Certification’ looks sarcastic ;)
11:31amCorrine

I do think it’s going to be a great program, though.
11:32amZach

see, fi you put single/double qutoes, id’ never even ask the first question.
11:32amCorrine

It probably wasn’t as clear as it could be, because the Facebook link

didn’t make it obvious that it was all coming from the Tarot for Writers

website.

I think Italics may be the way to go.
11:33amZach

it does, but you know it’s grey and all.
11:33amCorrine

And if a rogue group of tarot writers does spring up unsupervised or

unpoliced, more power to them.
11:33amZach

well if you have a following like Wanless for Voyager, then it should be a

great program.
11:34amCorrine

That’s my dream!
11:34amZach

oh! i have a 3rd question
11:34amCorrine

Okay.
11:34amZach

do all creators who write their companion books get an honourary

certification? bats eyelashes
11:35amCorrine

Wait! I thought you didn’t understand the need!

Actually, hold on. I’m not sure I have a copy of your companion book.
11:35amZach

i don’t, but i’ve already done the wrok, i may as well get a free piece fo

paper :)
11:35amCorrine

If I don’t, you may have to submit it for review!
11:36amZach

i’ll ask the aeclectc forums for some one who has a spare aying around to

send it to you :P

i’m sure there are still some disappointed buyers out there who still have

the deck/book/kit :)
11:36amCorrine

You know what? If you put your TfW certificate on your website, of

course I’ll send you one!

I think I have it. Hold on while I check?
11:37amZach

lol i’m not serious!
11:37amCorrine

Argh. My tarot bookshelf is such a mess.

No, I’ll seriously send it to you if you want. The certificate is electronic,

so it will look like a personalized copy of the Tarot for Writers cover.

Just a little gif file.
11:39amZach

I’ll pass at this stage – but if you need “numbers” sure ;)
11:39amCorrine

Okay. I’m still waiting to see how it all shakes out.

What city are you in, btw?
11:39amZach

melbourne, australia.
11:40amCorrine

Isn’t it the middle of the night there?
11:40amZach

2.40 am, i’m a night owl, it helps with my translucent tan.
11:40amCorrine

Happy Tuesday! It’s almost noon on Monday here in Minneapolis.
11:41amZach

yea, my publisher is in MN
11:41amCorrine

I used to work for Llewellyn as an editor. It’s how I got into tarot.
11:41amZach

ahhh
11:41amCorrine

Sometimes I swing by their office to visit with Carl and the rest of the

crew.

It’s about 20 minutes from my house. Maybe 15. All freeway, so it’s an

easy drive.
11:42amZach

i’ve only dealt with barbara, lary K, chandra and some of the art dept.
11:42amCorrine

Sure. They’re all very nice, in person or by email.
11:42amZach

well yes, what else would they be? US Games? :)
11:43amCorrine

I only quit working there because I met my (now) husband, and he asked

me to do marketing and communications for his software company.

Did you approach US Games, too?

They’re also very nice, believe it or not. They published my Epicurean

Tarot … which made Llewellyn want me as a writer, not just a staffer!
11:43amZach

yeah i got a rejection letter and then a request to include in their

encyclopedia ..
11:43amCorrine

Well, that’s something, I guess.
11:44amZach

strange small industry
11:44amCorrine

Well, I should run.

I have to get a Pendulet ready to send to Australia!

I have to figure out the best shipping method.
11:45amZach

alright, later and thanks for letting me pick your brain.
11:45amCorrine

Which do you prefer for packages from the US?

US mail or Fedex?

Or UPS?
11:45amZach

we have fedex here

and ups

so it’ll be part of an existing network
11:45amCorrine

They seem so much more expensive than US Mail, though … which I

think is pretty reliable.

It’s not like sending packages to South America, where they “disappear.”
11:46amZach

yeah … in the end you have to find out if your product loss outweighs

your sending cost.
11:46amCorrine

As far as I know, standard Australian mail gets to the US just fine, too. I

buy stuff from Australia fairly often on ebay.
11:46amZach

that you will never find out till over a year or so
11:47amCorrine

Sigh. There’s just so much we have to know to do business!

Okay, well, I’ll talk to you later!
11:47amZach

alrighty.
11:47amCorrine

I’ll put some of this on my blog, too. Thanks!

Happy World Tarot Day!

Today is World Tarot Day, a special day set aside to celebrate the cards!

In Minneapolis, we’ll celebrate World Tarot Day tomorrow, at the monthly get-together of the Twin Cities Tarot Meetup Group.

If the weather holds out (fingers crossed!), we’ll have a tarot labyrinth walk at the Eye of Horus bookstore. Most people who walk by the store don’t realize that there’s a beautiful secret garden behind the front wall of the building, complete with a landscaped labyrinth path. I’ll get to the Meetup an hour early, and hide tarot cards all around the garden for people to find like Easter eggs.

If you’re in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, please join us!

Technical Support

Julia, my seven-year-old technical support specialist, has gone through my new Pendulets website, checking links and ensuring that all of the graphics come up on every page.

Yes, I felt a little crazy at first, asking a first-grader to review my work — but if you think about it, who’s more qualified than someone whose first words were “dot com?”

It’s true! When Julia was a year old, she used to watch the Disney channel — probably more than she should have. She would toddle around the house, asking what sounded like, “Got gum? Got gum?” We were dumbfounded. How did she know about gum, and why did she want some? I think my dad — good old Grandpa Wayne — even offered her a stick, but she blew past him. One day, during a commercial for Disney.com, she started jumping up and down, pointing at the TV and chanting, “got com!” At last, we got it!

So anyway, the Pendulets website has received a thorough review from young Julia, who pronounced it sound and whole.

In the process, she was also astounded by the selection of gift certificates.

“Whoa!,” she blurted from the kids’ computer in the kitchen. “You can get a gift certificate for ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!”

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(This entry has also been cross-posted at my new Pendulets blog, http://pendulets.wordpress.com.)

Meet and Greet the Media

When I was at the Readers Studio tarot conference in New Jersey last week, I spent some time with the beautiful Sasha Graham — a publicity-savvy tarot reader from New York City. We traded tarot readings, and she told me that I really need to be more proactively available to the media.

A part of me dreads media relations, despite the fact that I was a newspaper reporter and media relations consultant myself, for a long time. Being media is easy — but being the focus of media attention makes everyone feel self-conscious. Especially when one is afraid of one’s double chin being exposed for the whole world to see.

I took her advice, though. I agreed that I would give it a try. And when I got home, I stumbled across a posting for a “Meet and Greet the Media” cocktail event at the Mall of America, three miles from my house.

Tonight, I was all over that cocktail party, in a new outfit from the discount rack at Macy’s, passing out my ginormous photo business cards, and …

Well, I don’t know what will come of it. I actually had fun, though. I met a few PR people, and I met a few media types, and I came home with a purse full of business cards. Tomorrow I’ll send some follow-up emails and see what happens.

I’ll do that after I finish a 5 a.m. radio interview that also rolled in unexpectedly this week.

This is what happens when you agree to cooperate with Sasha Graham and a few tarot cards.