Ciro Marchetti has just unveiled his new poster for the 2009 Readers Studio. It’s gorgeous:
October 31, 2008
October 29, 2008
NaNoWriMo Planning Tip #11: Location, Location, Location
Here’s another quick tip to help you prepare for National Novel Writing Month.
Use tarot cards to develop settings for your stories. Pull scenic details from a single card, or layer specific elements from several cards.
You can find all of my NaNoWriMo planning tips on the Tarot for Writers Group message board.
Image source: Historical Maps Online, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne
October 28, 2008
NaNoWriMo Planning Tip #10: Forget Everything You Know
Here’s one of my favorite tips for National Novel Writing Month.
When you’re using tarot cards as a writing tool, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Don’t limit yourself by sticking too closely to definitions you’ve memorized or interpretations you’ve learned from books. Let the cards play with you for a change! Let your mind wander when you look through your tarot deck, and feel free to break the “rules.”
You can find all of my NaNoWriMo planning tips on the Tarot for Writers Group message board.
October 25, 2008
The Readers Studio: Color Your World
Every year, I go to the Readers Studio tarot conference hosted by the Tarot School of New York City. This year, they’ve asked participants to create animoto videos that describe the experience. Here’s my video:
October 24, 2008
The High Priestess’s Pad
I bought the November 1 issue of Family Circle for the Slow Cooker Supper recipes on page 198, the Sweet Pumpkin Cupcakes on page 204, and the Comfort Food Diet on page 127.
In the process of surveying the Fast, Butt-Firming Walking Workout on page 122, however, I also stumbled across some new, unexpected information about the High Priestess’s secret life:
No wonder she’s so moody.
NaNoWriMo Planning Tip #9: Three-Card Spreads
This tip for National Novel Writing Month is so basic that it can almost go unsaid. Even so, I feel compelled to say it.
Three-card spreads are a mainstay among tarot readers, and a three-card spread is a good, basic way to initiate a storyline, too. Simply shuffle your tarot deck and lay any three cards at random.
The first card will represent the beginning of your story — the setup and the exposition. The second card will depict the middle — which typically incorporates a series of complications that leads to a climax. And the third card will reveal the end of your tale — the resolution, conclusion, and denouement.
You can find all of my NaNoWriMo planning tips on the Tarot for Writers Group message board.
October 23, 2008
The Hand of Fate
I’m still experimenting with animoto video. Here’s one I put together from photos I took at the Mall of America last year.
If you want to make your own videos, use this link for $5 off an annual all-access pass.
October 22, 2008
The “Mad Men” Tarot Reading
Mad Men’s Anna (Melinda Page Hamilton) reads cards for Don Draper (Jon Hamm).
My sister Claudine is obsessed with the Mad Men series — so when a recent episode featured a tarot card reading, she twittered me for information about the cards. “Don and a plot point via tarot cards,” she wrote. “Corrine, I need your insight now!“
Well, get in line, Claudine. Get in line.
Actually, I didn’t understand her twitter, so I ignored her. Later, she clarified, with a link to the show’s website:
Set in 1960s New York, the sexy, stylized and provocative AMC drama Mad Men follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising, an ego-driven world where key players make an art of the sell.
She also did a little research on her own, and came up with the following analyses of Don’s tarot reading.
But first, let me throw in a little tarot trivia. The woman in the photo seems to be holding a Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck. The cards have the familiar blue-plaid “tarotee” backs we’re all used to seeing — but this version of the deck wasn’t available until U.S. Games started distributing it in 1971. As early as 1968, the Mad Men characters could have had a reading with the same card images, but they would probably be using a Albano-Waite deck with white backs. Before that, they would have been stuck with Zolar’s Astrological Tarot, or an old, rare copy of the original deck from the early 20th century. (If you, too, are oddly fascinated by the backside of tarot, you can see historical images on Holly Voley’s site, here.)
Okay, on to the fun stuff: other bloggers’ interpretations of the spread:
The Fool and the Element of Air Freshener
Look at this flyer that Anastasia found in her Sunday paper. Does somebody at the ad agency read tarot cards?
You know, the Fool really is associated with the element of air.
