I’ve been spending a little time on Aeclectic lately, which is lovely - helps me reconnect with one of my best buds, that wicked pack of cards. Also, the enabling is always a draw (pardon the pun). Behold:

• Awww, jeah:Tarot of the Pirates
• Oh, MY: not sure what to make of this one.
• Tarot of the Zodiac sounds very intriguing, though I doubt I’d be able to read with it in a zillion years.
• And because it’s irresistible: The Gummy Bear Tarot (check out them old school occultist colors!)

In other news, if you’ve ever wanted to make your own boxes, here’s your chance.

Speaking of best buds, Bee’s Christmas present arrived: John Denver’s greatest hits! Girl, you’re killin’ me over here. Thank you.

By way of Andrew at Flux: JacketWhys, a blog dedicated to the graphic design of YA book covers. (OK, so he mentioned this ages ago - I’m slow on the ‘ol uptake!)

Love this short old documentary on 60’s Greenwich Village. “Some are poets. Some, prognosticators.” (That would be me. The latter, I mean. Where my bongos at?)

There’s a new book of Brooklyn essays that’s been making the rounds on all the blogs. The back jacket copy made me think: “Though its literary history runs deep-Walt Whitman, Truman Capote, and Norman Mailer are just a few of its storied inhabitants-in recent years the borough has seen a growing concentration of bestselling novelists, memoirists, poets, and journalists. It has become what Greenwich Village once was for an earlier generation: a wellspring of inspiration and artistic expression.” And I had to conclude: yes, I’d say that’s true - and they don’t even count the comics community. And I take it for granted. And this is bad. We’re not going to be here forever, after all.

Feels like I’ve been all over the place lately. In my mind, anyway. Tonight I’m working on this story for Dean (as editor, not artist - a girl continues to dream) that’s taking me to some weird psychological places in the past. I now heartily admire those who do autobio comics and do them well. There is a true story here, but it’s more like dream logic (to borrow a phrase from Neil Gaiman), not story logic. And while the dream story is long, the comics story needs to be short. An exercise in choices, even more so than usual.

There are so many things I’d like to tell a 19-year-old me if I could. Such as, “Get your head out of your ass and open your eyes.”

I’d like to make these.

The Llewellyn Magical Almanac is out. Always fun to stumble upon my stuff in the aisles of Powell’s when I least expect it. Looks like the Tarot Reader is out, too.

I’m really pleased with my contributions this year. And having THE MAGICAL ALMANAC with my writing in it and in my hands is surreal, not to mention swell motivation to get next year’s articles done (they’re due in less than a month). I also need to update my bio, real bad.

Anyhoo, pick ‘em up and enjoy.

You know, I won’t bother telling you how I found trashfiction.co.uk…. on the Internet, here to there, it’s neither here or there. But thank goodness, man. Thank goodness. Otherwise I might never have known the existence of the Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult.

Words fail me. Hang on…

Nope, still failin’. Giggling, though.

I guess it’s Wednesday morning now, right? Sheesh, it’s well past 1 am.

I got home from the Reader’s Studio on Sunday afternoon and promptly crashed. Fell asleep, didn’t get up ’til 10 pm, wrote for a bit, went back to bed. Despite all my experience at things like conferences and shows and other fun events, I still haven’t quite learned how to parcel out my energy in such a way that I’m not dead by the last day, especially if I’m having a grand time.

The last day of the Studio was filled with a lot of laughter, networking, and reading practice. Highlights:

1. Lisa Finander, the Tarot acquisitions editor for Llewellyn, gave us all lots of information on Llewellyn’s current direction and details on the kinds of things that they’re looking for. It sounds like Llewellyn is growing a lot, and with that, maturing. I know I’ve got a Tarot book in me somewhere, but the pull of fiction is going to be pretty damn strong, at least until I get the ball rolling (not to mention the fact that I’m already working on one Llewellyn proposal that’s not Tarot, go figure). These days, I tend to view any writing project that’s not fiction as a distraction (freelance writing gigs excepted). So many projects, so little time!

Alas, there remains the problem of books for Reader’s Studio attendees, that is, the advanced market. We had a lengthy discussion about that. Lisa is looking into hijacking the Llewellyn bi-monthly mailing list and turning it into a way that our market can communicate more effectively with each other.

(Speaking of Llewellyn, the favorite latest release at the show had to be Tarot midwife Mary Greer’s 21 WAYS TO READ A TAROT CARD. I really like it so far — it reminds me of her classic, TAROT FOR YOURSELF.)

2. Did I mention Kim Arnold yet? Lemme tell ya, this lady is cool — and she’s clearly going places. Her Psychic Cafe venture is one of the better small business ideas for metaphysics types to come along in a long while. I got to spend a good deal of the weekend working with Kim and her friends from the UK. They’ve got a lot going on, including the UK Tarot Conference coming up later in the year.

3. Wald and Ruth Ann announced the presenters for next year’s Reader’s Studio. They are: Mary Greer, Tarot School alumnus and psychotherapist Elinor Greenberg (she plays host to Bob Place’s classes in the city; wonderful lady) and Marcia Masino. While all are fabulous, Marcia is a bit of a coup, to be honest. She authored a true old skool Tarot classic of a book, EASY TAROT GUIDE. The title is dorky and misleading — it’s a kickass book, will kick your ass, and is the book I used back in the day to learn the basics of the cards. It will be a trip and a half to see Marcia in person.

Wald and Ruth Ann took lots of photos (including a group photo that I clumsily walked in on, instead of, oh, I don’t know, situating myself in) that will surely be up on the Tarot School website shortly. Oh! And I can’t forget to mention their new Cafepress storefront, where you can check out the ridiculously cool birth card glyphs that they commissioned Bob to make. I need me one of them Hanged Man/Empress messenger bags.

I also handed out copies of my own PORTRAITS OF 22 KEYS to the presenters. And they liked it! They really liked it! Rachel complimented me on the Judgement story, which you can read at the link. Most of them asked me to sign it, too, which still kind of throws me.

The best part of Sunday for me was taking lunch in the lounge with Lon (holy alliteration, Batman) all to myself. In addition to his usual lessons (our meetings always involve him getting the pen out and drawing a diagram or three), he gave me all the uproarious details on his new book, snooping on Dan Brown, Old Testament revelations (pardon the pun), and just what it takes to book him as a guest speaker. And he bought my pizza. What a sweetheart.

Okay, that’s enough for one evening. Thanks for reading while I get all of this Tarot excitement out of my system!

And now, abed.

Listen.

So, several days ago now (was it on the weekend?) I was sitting there, thumbing through my spring announcements issue of Publisher’s Weekly (which I can’t seem to lay my hands on right now), when what pops out at me but the latest book from Lon. I promptly squealed (I’ve been doing that a lot lately), then emailed him and squealed. In the email.

Lon’s latest is all about Solomon, y’see:

Everything I know about Solomon, I learned from Lon over a plate of fries in a hotel bar in Chicago. I asked Lon to give me the skinny because everything on the Internet on Solomon is written by whack jobs and is therefore pretty much incomprehensible. Or at least it was back then. That was a long time ago.

So it’s time for a refresher course on the man. And who better for a refresher course on Solomon than Lon, especially since he gave me the skinny in the first place?

There’s probably more than a bit on Masonry in there, another incomprehensible subject. Act now and you’ll be all ready when Dan Brown’s next book comes out. (What, you think I’m kidding?)

“To me, writing is the most magical act of all, and is probably at the heart of every magical act.”

Isn’t that lovely? That’s from ALAN MOORE SPELLS IT OUT, Airwave Publishing, a slim little volume containing bits of a three hour interview between Alan Moore (duh) and comics journalist Bill Baker. It shipped this week and should be available in your comics shop. Though somewhat spendy (sure it’s a long interview, but it’s just one interview), it’s got a lot of great Moore-isms and is worth picking up.

The thing I love about Alan Moore (aside from all the great stories, but that goes without saying) is his practical, pretense-free attitude towards creativity and “the process.” He honors its supernatural qualities, while at the same time, encourages artists to not be afraid to peek behind the curtain. Supernatural does not require superstition. What a relief.

I have another lovely Alan Moore quote here. There are a lot of lovely Alan Moore quotes out there. Perhaps we should start a collection.

By way of one of my good friends and the man himself, just wanted to give a heads up that Lon Milo DuQuette will be giving a lecture this Saturday night. The event is sponsored by Tahuti Lodge, one of the city’s O.T.O. chapters.

Lon’s lecture, “The Art of Divination”, is sure to draw heavily from his latest tome, THE BOOK OF ORDINARY ORACLES. It’s also rumored that Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford will make an appearance. You wouldn’t want to miss that, believe me.

Details:

“The Art of Divination with a special appearance by Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford. December 10th, 2005 Entry: 4PM Lecture: 4:30 to 9PM Location: Community Church of NY 40 East 35 Street New York, NY 10016 Cost: $25.00 pre-registered Email: hermeticways@nyc.rr.com.”

When we’d had enough of the Christopher Street crowds, we made our way to Union Square, where there was this cute Asian girl cutting loose with some Smokey Mountain bluegrass on her fiddle. How cool is that? I love this town. And I love the Met. Leland found a book of old skool (19th century) spirit photographs on a table at Barnes & Noble; turns out the book was the catalog for a current Met exhibit:

The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult

Ghosts, spirit séances, levitation, auras, ectoplasm…extraordinary photographs of these and other paranormal phenomena will be on display in “The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult,” an exhibition devoted to the historical intersections between photography and the once wildly popular interest in spiritualism.

“The Perfect Medium” will bring together some 120 photographs culled from public and private archives throughout Europe and North America. The exhibition focuses primarily on the period from the 1860s to World War II, when occult and paranormal phenomena were most actively debated and both supporters and skeptics summoned photographs as evidence. Approaching the material from a historical perspective, the exhibition presents the photographs on their own terms, without authoritative comment on their veracity.

Awwww, jeah.

Going on ’til the end of the year.

Well, doesn’t he?

Been having a grand old time reading A DARK MUSE by Gary Lachman. It’s subtitled “A History of the Occult”, but, really, it’s more of a compendium of profiles of writers touched by that ‘ol esoteric spirit. Yet Another Reading List — oh, gosh… I need more lifeminutes, clearly.

Unfortunately, I can’t go digging into the works of most of these guys for at least a few days, so I’m compensating in the short term by scaring up pictures on the Internet. Behold, Algernon Blackwood:

Someone want to spring for the last copy of the one and only Blackwood biography in existence? Hey, just thought I’d ask.