What to expect at MATS next weekend

Here’s a copy of the email I just sent to everyone who’s registered for MATS so far. Does it make you want to be part of the fun? It’s not too late to register!

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The Minnesota Area Tarot Symposium is just a week away! We’d like to share a few notes with you so you can know what to expect.

HOTEL NOTES

• The Minnesota Area Tarot Symposium will be held next weekend — July 24-26, 2009 — at the Best Western/Dakota Ridge Hotel, at 3450 Washington Drive in Eagan, Minnesota. You can find more information about the hotel here: http://minnesotatarot.wordpress.com/location/
• The hotel is relatively small, and it specializes in hosting business travelers during the week. Weekends aren’t usually busy at the Dakota Ridge, but next weekend they happen to have guests for two weddings staying there. Chad, the hotel’s event manager, said the wedding parties were actually excited to hear that tarot readers would be in residence. Some of them would even like to come down to our conference for readings when we’re on break!
• The hotel has released its reserved block of rooms for our event, but Chad said they’ll still honor the $78 room rate if you tell them you’re with the tarot conference. We’re encouraging participants to stay at the hotel, so we can stay up late and talk tarot well into the night! For reservations, call (651) 452-0100.
• Almost everyone who’s coming is local, so most of us will have cars. If you’re planning to bus to the symposium, the Eagan transit center is about a block from the hotel. The hotel also has a free shuttle to the airport and the Mall of America, which also has a light-rail station. If you’d like to take the shuttle, please call the hotel at (651) 452-0100 to make arrangements.

FRIDAY NOTES

• We’ll kick the weekend off with a pizza party on Friday night. Pizza and soft drinks are included in the party admission fee; if you’d like to drink something a little harder, you can bring your own beer or wine. There’s also a bar at Al Baker’s restaurant next door.
• If you didn’t register for the Friday-night party when you registered for the conference, it’s not too late! You can still go to our website at http://minnesotatarot.wordpress.com/registration/ to sign up.
• After the pizza party, we’ll keep the fun rolling with a ‘midnight’ tarot puppet show. Of course, we’re Minnesotans, so we’re defining ‘midnight’ pretty loosely. We’ll actually start the show at 10:30. If you’re staying at the hotel, the show is free. If not, admission is $5, payable at the door.

SATURDAY NOTES

• The hotel provides a complimentary continental breakfast for hotel guests. We’ll also have coffee near our conference registration table on Saturday morning.
• Conference registration, check-in, and all of our workshops will be held in the conference center on the lower level of the hotel.
• When you check in for the conference, you’ll get a valuable surprise gift from Llewellyn Worldwide, which publishes of some of the world’s best tarot decks and books. Hats off to everyone at Llewellyn for their generosity!
• During the workshops on Saturday, feel free to dress comfortably. Jeans and casual shirts are fine, but you’re also welcome to wear a fancy tarot-reading ensemble. You might want to have a sweater, too, in case the hotel’s air conditioning makes the room feel cool.
• On Saturday, we’ll take a break for lunch. Technically, lunch is on your own, but most of us will probably go together to one of the restaurants near the hotel. Don’t be shy; if you’re coming to the symposium by yourself, just find a friendly group and join in their lunch excursion! You’re welcome to have lunch with anyone on the planning committee, too.
• Bring cash or checks for the vendors and professional psychic readers. A few of them will accept credit cards, but not all.
• Bring your favorite tarot deck to use during the symposium.
• If you have extra tarot decks or books that you don’t want anymore, bring them to give away or trade with other attendees. We’ll set up a trading post in the corner of the conference room.
• If you can, bring a pair of scissors from home for Barbara Moore’s workshop on life mapping.
• We’re going to dress up for the banquet on Saturday night. Come as your favorite tarot card or tarot character, and you could win a prize. If you don’t want to wear a costume, please bring something sophisticated to wear, such as a dress or a suit.
• Saturday’s banquet will also feature a freestyle “Tarot Talent Show.” Sing a song or tell a joke, and you could win a prize for your performance.
• The banquet is at Al Baker’s restaurant, right next door to the hotel. We’ve got the party room reserved, and you’ll be able to choose from three entrées: prime rib, baked salmon, or a vegetable stir-fry that can be prepared with or without chicken. They’re all good; we’ve done our research on this one. The restaurant doesn’t need to know which entrée you want until the banquet starts.
• If you didn’t register for the banquet, it’s not too late. You can still go to our website at http://minnesotatarot.wordpress.com/registration/ to buy your ticket.

FINAL NOTES

• We’re expecting about 45 people, but we still have space for a few more — so last-minute registrations are still being accepted. Tell a friend!
• We’re really looking forward to seeing you next weekend. If you have any questions before then, don’t hesitate to contact us.

See you soon!

Your MATS Organizing Committee:

• Corrine Kenner 
• Barbara Moore 
• Melani Weber 
• Nancy Antenucci 

PS: You can find a copy of our conference schedule online at http://minnesotatarot.wordpress.com/schedule/.

Age Progression

Forty-two years passed between the photo on the left and the one on the right. I think I look about the same. Back in 1967, I was just waiting for someone to put tarot cards in my hands!

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.

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