All Partied Out

The Tarot for Writers release party on Saturday was even more fun than I had hoped for. The house was full of people I like, the tarot drinks kept everybody happy, and the tarot appetizers were tasty.

Here are some of the highlights I’ll remember:

• My husband offered a beautiful toast, off the top of his head, as everyone gathered in the living room. Apparently, the Emperor’s Scotch and Soda really loosens him up.
• I was so flattered when my neighbor Susan walked into the party with a copy of the book she’d pre-ordered from Amazon.
• I was also really flattered when Allen, a fellow writer, said I’m his new “favorite teacher.” We talked a little about the story he started writing with tarot cards.
• My friend Pam and I spent a few minutes reminiscing about the tarot classes I used to teach 10 or 11 years ago, in my old house in St. Paul.
• We also visited with Barbara, one of my Llewellyn editors and my tarot teaching partner from a few years ago.
• One of the guests came from California! Well, she just happened to be in town for the weekend, but still … she traveled to get here!
• My parents chatted up most of the people who came. It was their first close contact with a new-age crowd, and I think my dad was secretly hoping to meet a few crazy tarot hippies. In the end, though, he was happy with the people he actually did meet. “They were all so interesting,” he said. “But you could never tell they were into this sort of thing just by looking at them. They all seemed like normal people from the neighborhood.”

If you didn’t see it on Facebook or Twitter, here’s an updated and revised PDF of the tarot drink menu we used for the party — along with the shopping list I used for all the ingredients.

The menu wasn’t as fancy as some I’ve seen in other places, like the amazing tarot cocktails that Sasha Graham developed for the Readers Studio in New York. I kept it simple, because I knew that some of the guests weren’t that familiar with tarot cards — so the names of the drinks and the small card images had to work together at a glance.

Originally I also thought I’d come up with a buffet based on famous books and writers. That was too hard to pull off, though, so I resorted to putting together a collection of foods from the Epicurean Tarot deck. (In the end, that made more sense anyway, since that’s my own work.) I used the actual Epicurean Tarot recipe cards to label all of the dishes on the table. It was cute; I hope my sister took a picture.

I tend to overstock for parties, which means that we’ve got enough leftovers to keep the party going privately for the next … well, several months, if you’re counting bottles. Possibly years, at the rate we drink. My husband says we should throw another party to use it all up.

In the meantime, could I interest you in some leftover Three of Pentacles Swedish Meatballs?

“An Amazing Resource”

I’ve been telling all my friends and relatives that they should buy my new book, Tarot for Writers — but now there’s an objective, outside expert who agrees with me!

Sheri Harshberger, the editor of the American Tarot Association’s Tarot Reflections, says the book is a “must have.” Her review appears in this month’s issue of the online magazine:

Tarot and writing seem to go perfectly together. Corrine Kenner’s new book, Tarot for Writers shows us techniques to help us all leverage our love of Tarot to help us become better writers… or to take a stab a writing.

This book is very timely. Tarot and writing seem to be at the forefront of everyone’s minds lately as well as in the news. Just this past year, the new National Poet Laurate, Kay Ryan, mentioned that she used a deck of Tarot cards to learn to write poetry. Many Tarot readers I know focus their talents on assisting writers who have creative blocks, or are looking for insight or inspiration for a writing project. The use of Tarot has expanded past its historical uses as a tool of fortunetelling into a tool of self-help, therapy and now creative inspiration.

This book very comprehensive, as are all Corrine Kenner’s books. It is not only for Tarot readers who write, but also for writers who have never used Tarot before and wish to explore it as a tool of creative inspiration. In the first section, Tarot 101, she provides a brief lesson on Tarot meanings, how to read the cards, classic spreads and examples of readings. If that weren’t enough, she also provides writing exercises with the spreads to get the reader started writing. I can’t think of a better way to teach a reader how to journal readings!

As if the first section weren’t enough to make this book an amazing resource for a Tarot reader, she has embedded throughout the book an unofficial “Creative Writing 101″ in which she discusses subplots, characters, storylines, settings and descriptions, and more. She also includes techniques for breaking the dreaded writer’s block!

The last section of the book is devoted to descriptions and attributes of each Tarot card in a 78-card deck from a writer’s perspective, including lists of writing prompts. A glossary of Tarot terms and symbols is located in the back of the book.

This is a must have for any Tarotist interested in writing — from journaling for his or herself to writing a book, or any writer interested in using Tarot as a tool to unlock his or her imagination.

Guest Blogging

I’m guest blogging about tarot and creativity today, over at Kris Waldherr’s blog. Stop by, leave a comment, and you could win a free copy of Tarot for Writers!