Feeling Creative?

Here’s our lovely card for the week, the Ace of Wands from the Victorian Romantic Tarot by Baba Studio in Prague.

The Ace of Wands is the root of the creative powers, a beginning, fire energy. This could be good. A new creative undertaking about to take off? Maybe Prometheus has some fire from the gods for us all. The LWB suggests “Bravery and courage in the face of something new.”  How apropos. I’m about to get saddled with a new duty at work, one I truly dread (I’ve already seen my ‘revised job description’ so I know it’s coming). Six more months and I can bail. I can’t believe I’ve been at this job nearly six months already. By Zeus, there has to be a better way to make a living. I really need to get moving on the escape plan.

Prague in Winter

Ok, I’m still screwing around, not writing, but I had to share this. My Prague obsession is fully in place and getting a boost from this. Karen Mahoney of Baba Studio and Magic Realist Press in Prague, creators of the Bohemian Gothic Tarot, Victorian Romantic Tarot, Bohemian Cats Tarot, etc.,  posted this on their Facebook page, and I just had to share it with you guys. Karen thinks the videographer paid more attention to the Christmas market in Old Town than a native would have, but what do I care? I’m not a native, I’ll look at anything Prague-related.  Is it too early for Christmas-y stuff? Tough noogies. The final view out the window at the river is kind of what I envision Andrej, the MC in my vampire novel, seeing when he looks out his apartment window.

Bohemian Gothic in the House!

It’s here! My beloved Bohemian Gothic, second edition, all pewtery-gilt-edged and everything!

My son happened to be home working on installing a new water pump in his car, but was in the backyard, when the mail came yesterday. However, old eagle-ears heard someone in the driveway making noise, clanking tools and such which he had left strewn all over while in the process of his mechanic work. So he did the first thing that came to mind – grabbed a machete and headed for the front of the house, expecting to find someone helping themselves to his tools. Imagine our poor letter-carrier’s surprise to see a crazed, machete-weilding lad come flying up from the back of the house. She was afraid a vicious attack dog was on its way, but my son assured her there is no dog, only him.  What can I say? It’s a tough neighborhood. Luckily the misunderstanding didn’t last long, and the goods were signed for in due course and I was able to arrive home to enjoy my new decks (I got two, ‘cause, yanno, just in case…) rather than have to get him a lawyer for manslaughter. :::sigh:::

So I bored him nearly to tears oohing and aaaahhhing over the cards, making him listen as I carefully explained the importance of the occasion, and how he was now observing the only legacy I was likely to leave him when I croak. He was dutifully appreciative, admiring the beauty of the cards and the momentousness of the moment. His other option would have been to ignore me and risk being cut out of the will (should I ever get around to actually making out a will).

My precioussssss… Naturally I had to take it for a spin after spending the first hour of its life in its new home being petted and ogled. I decided a nice three-card draw was good for a ‘get-acquainted’ session, and here are the lovely, lovey cards I drew:

 

 

Can’t you feel the love? Queen of Cups, the embodiment of love and emotion, water of water, all wrapped up in loving and being loved. My deck and I really love eachother.

Knight of Cups – fire of water. Ahh, more love. Lots of charisma and charm, passion. He’ll make things happen, but on a bad day will leave and let someone else do the heavy lifting.

Six of Cups – childlike bliss. Oh boy is that me right now. You should have been me walking around in my driveway, pestering my son while he was trying to finish the water pump: “Here, look at this one! Look at this, see isn’t this cool? Wait, look at this one!”

All the cards are online at Bohemian Gothic. I think the gilt-edged ones may be sold out, but the standard edition is available. The new style of box they’re in is perfection, with a hinged lid and solid enough to stand up to being hauled around creation with me.

Was there ever such a lovely day?

I won’t be abandoning my luscious vampire decks, indeed they have a new cousin as many of the characters in this new BoGo deck are now more overtly vampiric themselves.

This is also my first post using Windows Live Writer, so I’m eager to see it live and check out how well it worked. Inserting pictures is eminently simpler in this program. How come nobody ever told me about this before? If you haven’t heard of it either, e-mail me and I’ll try to fill you in, or you can go to Windows Live Writer Overview to check it out.

BoGo Rev. 2

Oh my GAWD, the new Bohemian Gothic Tarot, second edition is now open for pre-orders, and I have duly put in my order!

If you order through Baba Store, you will receive this special silver/pewter gilded-edged deck as their thank you for ordering directly from them. It sounded like they printed a fair number of them, Karen didn’t seem concerned that they would run out of them before anyone who wants one has a chance to get one. They are limiting orders to four copies per order right now.

SQUEEEEEEEE!!!! They don’t ship until August, but this time I’m not missing it. I love this deck, it’s so beautiful. And I love how the images go right to the edge, no huge borders. The image fills the card, except for the small border with the card title at the bottom. All the cards can be viewed at the Bohemian Gothic Web site, but as of this writing the pre-order button is still not turned on. Follow the first link above to go directly to the Baba Store to order if you’re interested. I had to get two, I’m terrified that something dreadful will happen to one of them. There will also be limited edition bags for the cards later, which you can add to the pre-order later with no extra shipping charges. From what I can gather, those will be an extra charge, they are not included with the cards, but will have a ‘limited edition’ tag. If you’ve seen Karen and Alex’s work, you know how beautiful they will be.

There’s also one ‘extra’ card, which you can see at the Web site. I think I’ll frame them, have one at home and bring one to work. :::sigh::: Anticipation…