So I’m sitting next to Mary K. Greer, one half of Tarot’s Grand Dame Dynamic Duo (Rachel being the other half, natch), and I say, “Didn’t I see you with some knitted Tarot cases?” (Her amazing blog is new to me, you understand, so I was unawares that she’s been knitting these for a while now.)

Mary: “Yeah!”
Me: “Do you have any left?”
Mary: “I sold most of them…”
Me: “Awesome! Well…hrm.”
Mary: “Wait, you’re a knitter, you can totally make your own…”
Me: “Yeah, but it wouldn’t be a MARY GREER bag!!”
Mary: *smiles*
Me: “Sheesh!”

I nabbed the yellow one in these shots. It’s got a little Goddess charm on it. I am totally nerding out!! I’ll put my new Arabian Nights deck in it.

Can you tell I’m back from The Readers Studio?

Yes, this weekend was a total whirlwind, and so nourishing after the month I’ve had. Marketing seminar, three copy gigs, NYCC, preparing for the Studio, and of course PREVIEWS hits next week (I think) which means BLUE promo begins in earnest, like, now. I think April 2008 is the busiest month I’ve had since I’ve quit my job, and that’s kind of saying something. I’m looking forward to May in a big way, and not just because spring is finally here.

The Readers Studio was a gas, and it was great seeing so many good friends. Some of these folks I’ve known for about 8 years now, having met them back in the early early 2000s at American Tarot Association meetups. Man, I miss those. They were tiny (never more than 50 people) and scattered (I think they had one in each of 6 regions throughout the US), and the ratio of presenters to attendees was something like 8:1… always an intimate, intense experience with those of like mind. I can honestly say that those early events were the beginning of a shift for me, the beginning of the path I’m on right now.

I will never forget the very first ATA event I attended… walking into a hotel lobby (can’t remember exactly where - Albany, probably) and sucking up the vibrant energy of cool, creative, extremely smart and refreshingly normal occultists, people genuinely interested in their personal transformation, their feet firmly on the ground and their minds going a mile a minute with so much to share. This was well before I got the whole “heart family” thing worked out (I was practicing with a group at that time, but they were the wrong group and were to go kaboom shortly thereafter)… and well before I’d finally admitted to myself that I was a writer (in fact, I dropped out of the scene for a few years while getting my writing underway in earnest). I think in some way that world was leading me to the inevitable, and I remain grateful.

So many wild and cool things over the years…

… My first reading from Matt (he was 19! I can’t remember what it was about, but I do remember going, “Who the hell is this kid and who was he in a previous incarnation? Sweet Lord in Heaven…”)
… Meeting John Gilbert first, and his double-take at how young I looked (still way older than Matt tho)
… Barbara, looking beautiful, polished and professional as she stood at the podium to announce that Llewellyn was going to distribute Lo Scarabeo decks in the US (and then the crowd went naners, trust me)
… Meeting Rachel for the first time, and being so intimidated because, you know, holy shit, that’s Rachel Pollack
… Chic “Frater Kodak” Cicero striding into the hotel lobby in a photog’s utility vest (read: pockets galore) with what seemed like two tons of camera equipment trailing behind him
… Being politely, yet repeatedly, hit on by a certain wild & wacky West Coast ceremonial magician and author (who will remain nameless)
… The one and only time I’ve ever seen anyone actually read with Tarot Of The Cat People
… Making out in the stairwell about an hour later with the one and only person who has ever given me a reading with Tarot Of The Cat People (I was totally hung up on someone else and couldn’t even enjoy it; luckily, Mr. Tarot Of The Cat People was astute enough to pick up on the cues and sweet enough to be, well, sweet about it)
… My first run-in with Lon (”A pretty girl reading my book in the hotel lobby… it’s like every author’s dream come true. Where’s my camera?”)
… Lon giving me the 411 on the temple of Solomon over a huge plate of fries and a Tom Collins
… Mary Greer chaperoning as 100+ Tarotists as they reverently fondle a real, live original Rider-Waite deck from 1910, purchased by Stuart Kaplan in an eBay bidding war only days before (I took pictures of this momentous event with that old camera watch from back in the day, but alas and alack, I can’t find them any more)
… Wald & Ruth Ann’s wedding in hotel room transformed into a ceremonial temple, complete with checkerboard floor

And now Wald & Ruth Ann continue to carry on the tradition. No gin or kissing this time, but I did give a talk on marketing that was very well-received!

I did a bit of blogging about the event on my new site, BuildYourMetaphysicalBusiness.com. You know, the one I haven’t officially announced over here yet. Lots more to say about the event, but I’ll do it over there.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’ll be raving about cool decks here and on Endicott.

So, I head on over to the UPS store on 7th, and lo and behold, my copy of New York Magazine has arrived, the New York Canon issue, the one with “196 Cultural Works That Best Defined The City Since This Magazine Began” on the cover. This makes me very happy, as I am an old skool New York nerd and there’s lots of old skool in a list like this.

But of course, with a list like that, certain things will immediately spring to mind. For me, one certain record, the “if this ain’t on the list I’m going to cause a riot” record, immediately pops into my head, not a fraction of a second after I lay eyes on Madonna circa ‘83 (who graces the cover, natch).

I anxiously flip through the pages. Flip-flip-flip. Scan the music section. Scan-scan-scan…

And it’s there! PAUL’S BOUTIQUE is there! And lo, the sometimes shaky ground on which my psyche rests remains firmly in place; the world continues to turn on its axis, etc.

The rest of the list is pretty cool. Reminds me of a lot of stuff I’ve always meant to check out but for one reason or another haven’t yet.

Whew. Gives you some clue as to my mental state today. Had my head down working for most of it, but did manage to get out to Prospect Park to watch the sun go down.

Looks like I’ll actually be on a Weird Tales panel at NYCC, with Stephen and Molly C. and (meep) Mike Mignola. Friday at 2 pm. Apparently Leland’s ACT-I-VATE panel is at the exact same time, as is the Vertigo panel. This seems very wrong.

Overheard at Deep 6 today:

Simon: “You oughtta be able to go to Philadelphia with us this weekend. Your wife was off… canoodling with Gene Simmons.”
Leland: “She was not canoodling!”

Oh yeah?

OK, that’s enough cryptastic-ness for now.

All right, now… who here in the audience loves Repo Man? Raise your hands.

*raises hand*

Ah, the make-out albums of the good old days…

I was just a little too young for Repo Man when it came out and didn’t start making out ’til some years later, I’m sorry to say. In case you missed it, that sentence was me going, “I’m not an old lady yet, really!”

Which reminds me why I called up Wordpress for this blog post. Google served me the following Pablo Picasso quote just now:

“It takes a long time to become young.”

I’m not 100% convinced that’s true. But I still like it. It strikes me as an intelligent re-working of that old chestnut, “youth is wasted on the young.”

Said old chestnut always struck me as patronizing and lame.

All you whippersnappers out there, add Repo Man to your Netflix queue or something.

Bedtime.

So, as I mentioned a few days ago, last week I got to spend a day with the lovely Midori Snyder in her new Tucson digs. It was surreal and amazing. Amazing because Midori is great fun and I love talking with her. Surreal because… because there are prickly pear cactus covering any and all free ground in Tucson and I am still not over it. And I was sitting here nursing my chicken noodle soup thinking about how I’m just not over them cacti, and how I would never, ever like to fall on one, and it occurred to me that I’ve not yet mentioned Midori’s new blog:

In the Labyrinth

Midori has this knack for finding the coolest stuff on the Internet. We spent a couple of hours ooh’ing and ahh’ing over things like this, this, and oh yeah - this. And I know I’m forgetting a bunch.

Be sure to check out the links on the sidebar, that’s all I’m sayin’. And her short pieces, and essays!

I’m fighting a cold today. Leland implored me to take a sick day, but with all I’ve got due, it’s just not happening. So he went off about bought me some good ‘ol Campbell’s condensed chicken noodle, which was not only a sweet gesture, but a delightful throwback to 1984 or so. Except the noodles weren’t long & skinny! They’re short & flippy! This just isn’t right.

Leland was sick earlier in the week. I was feeling okay yesterday afternoon, but of course I thought I’d better take some precautions. You know, “just in case”… so I had some echinacea, then some Airborne, then some Vitamin C, and a zinc lozenge, and… whaddaya know, I didn’t feel so hot.

Time for a nap.

… and can you believe I’m not spending hours and hours deciding what to pack?

Me neither. I am notorious for taking three hours to pack to go anywhere, agonizing over what to bring to read and to knit and to write on and to write with and to listen to and on and on and on. And maybe a month ago, I just sort of gave up. I mean, it just wore me out. I’d get all exhausted… and finally it dawned on me: what am I doing this to myself for? Life’s too short.

Anyway. The big prep this time around involved taking the afternoon off today for a rare trip to Best Buy to pick up the gizmo that makes the iPod work with the radio. And I did a little last minute shopping for Leland’s birthday (which is on Tuesday of next week, ahem ahem) too. He likes to play this game called “I know what you got me for my birthday, ha ha ha.” Only he totally doesn’t this time. I guarantee it. How do I know? Because I thought of them all by myself. Okay, okay, I admit it: they were impulse purchases. I didn’t get his birthday story done on time so I was feeling the burn. Ah, well. It’ll just be a little late.

While I was at B&N, I picked up the 2008 Tarot Reader, which is notable for at least two reasons:

1. This year is the book’s swan song. Editor of awesomeness Kate Brielmaier has taken the next steps along the path. She was exceptional to work with and I will miss her.
2. I am featured on the back cover this time
3. I actually updated my bio and it actually makes mention of my Wiccan affiliations

Okay, three reasons.

I’d completely forgotten what I’d submitted for articles this time around, and when I saw them, I daresay I was pleasantly surprised. I think they’re my best of all the Tarot Reader pieces. Also while at B&N, I looked for WEIRD TALES 345, which features my interview with Jacqueline Carey (you can indeed read it at that link on the website too). Unfortunately, it wasn’t there. The latest issue of Cthulhu Sex Magazine was there, mind you, but not WT 345. This left me scratching my head. Funny how the world turns in ways you might not expect.

Have a look at the cover of WT 345. Stephen is really getting the gorgeous on with these cover designs. Love the F-holes! But of course I would.

What else? Scrapbooking and art journaling nerds who happen to be wandering by should have a gander at the AlphaStamps Halloween Collection.

Lastly, in the “and the hits just keep on coming” department, we’ve got the Bohemian Gothic Tarot on the way from Magic Realist Press (for a really huge clear picture that will make you drool, click here). I just heard Karen’s voice on a Tarot School teleseminar the other day. She was calling in from Prague and it was just so cool to put a voice with the name of the lady responsible for birthing so many amazing decks.

Now, which deck am I going to take with us tomorrow? Hrm…

My list of things to blog about grows longer and longer. I don’t feel like getting into a big post right now, but here are a couple of amusements. First, it’s my brother’s birthday today (okay, it’s after midnight, so technically it was yesterday). Hooray! He rocks. Also, he saves lives, which is a fairly rockin’ thing to do. Also, he’s my one-stop medical story consultant, which is cool. I’m not paying him anything, though, so I’d better continue to give him compliments on the blog here or he might get disgruntled and cut me off, in which case I’d have to turn to… my sister.

Anyways. Happy birthday, Mike!

I just finished knitting a hat. Now, I can handle paying $12 for a pattern from an independent shop owner and all, especially when it’s cute. But gosh darn it, not when it’s WRONG. And there are no ERRATA. Boo. So now I’ve got this oversized conehead thing going on. I might not be brave enough to leave the house with it. Leland says, “it looks like a Norman helmet! Eleventh century! It’s even got the rivets!” Actually, it looks like a Hershey’s kiss, only purple and ill-fitting. I point out that he didn’t even try to pretend that it doesn’t look ridiculous in that “Aww, that’s cute, honey” kind of way.

Let’s see… what else? Broke Jeff’s early evening inking trance yesterday to meet up for a beer. He tells me that our story, “The Dog Lady,” will drop in ish 6 of Cryptic magazine, not ish 5 as initially expected, because of some coloring issues. So we’ll continue to hold for that. In the meantime, he’s got a tasty Dr. Gore piece for the picking in ish 4, out now. Also, I feel compelled to warn you that Jeff will be on the run from Dr. Gore for the next few months, hiding out at comics conventions. So stop by with the good wishes and the safe harbor if you happen to be where he’s at. Next stop, Wizard World Chicago, which is a couple of weekends from now. Details on his MySpace page.

Amusing non-sequitur from today’s email: “hey, if you want to do the Yeti book, we can do the Yeti book.”

That’s all I gots.

Well, sort of. You know how it is when you first get back from a week away? Sometimes it takes while to get going. The day has been less than a wash by a long shot, and frankly, that’s grand. So.

Thanks muchly to everyone who expressed their condolences after the last post. I can now safely report without chafing the ones I love that it was Bee’s dad who died. Bee, as readers of this blog probably know, is my best friend of about 20 years. Mike Round was a constant presence in my life for most of high school and has been a family friend ever since. He was just the coolest guy in so many ways… looking back on his life over these past days has uncovered lessons, to say the least.

Now, I recently quit my job to write full-time, more or less without a net. I don’t feel like I’m holding back in my life… I’ve always aggressively gone after what I want, even if it means wrastling with so much internal resistance, and writing is no different. But sometimes I do it with altogether too much navel-gazing, hand-wringing and malaise. Oh, and I often do it with my eyes closed.

Lesson 1: Mike Round never closed his eyes for anything. And he never had a bad day.
Lesson 2: Remember: who’s driving the bus, here?

Mr. Round, I’ll miss you!

… you won’t find me in Brooklyn. I’m here at my parents’ house after a long day on the bus, called back to Maine for a sudden memorial service.

Um… I should be back around on Monday. Maybe?

That’s about all I can manage at the moment.

Yeah.

From here:

http://ebroder.net/livejournal-crossposter/

(thanks, Mr. Wood.)

She doesn’t quite work out of the box with my snappy new Wordpress 2.1 install, but she should work now with a minor fix. Let’s see…

(If this works, that’ll be the end of the knob-twiddling until I re-do the site design, but that’s for another day.)

First, there was a SCHEHERAZADE update last week that I apparently forgot to tell you about. Boo.

Next, there’s an interview up now, with one of my favorite dudes, Lon Milo Duquette:

Next, I’ve been reading a ton of Francesca Lia Block lately. PSYCHE IN A DRESS? Whoosh.

Next, the wreath is still out there. Whee! Perhaps I underestimated Brooklyn this time.

Last, I’m exhausted. Time for bed.