Shuffle | Corrine Kenner's Tarot Blog

A Sneak Preview of The Wizards Tarot Minor Arcana

Illustrator John Blumen has finished all the Minor Arcana cards for the Wizards Tarot. I saw them for the first time about two hours ago -- and they're amazing! Here's a sneak preview of four of the cards: the Four of Wands, Five of Cups, Seven of Swords, and Two of Pentacles. You might remember from my earlier posts that this deck is based on a fictional school of magic, in which the Major Arcana cards depict teachers, and the Minor Arcana cards show students. (You can see a sideshow of the Majors over at wizardstarot.com.) The Majors are based on myth and legend, while the Minors are based on traditional Rider-Waite-Smith imagery with a magical twist. Each suit represents a different form of elemental magic -- fire, water, air, and earth -- and the Minor Arcana cards show students practicing their lessons through the course of the four seasons. I designed the cards, but John has definitely gone above and beyond anything I could have imagined in my written descriptions. I almost feel intimidated! I hope I can do them justice in the guidebook. The book is going to be pretty neat, though. The Major Arcana section, which focuses on the professors, will include magic lessons that correspond to each card. The Star card, for example, depicts the professor of astrology, so I'm writing brief course on basic astrology. Meanwhile, the Minor Arcana portion of the book will read like a grimoire of magic spells, which also correspond to the imagery and the significance each card. I could ramble on ... but I shouldn't, because now that I have all of the cards in my hot little hands, I have to finish the book! While I work, feel free to leave admiring remarks for John in the comments section.

Write a Book in Wordpress

Did you know you can use Wordpress' free blogging software to publish an online book? Follow the steps on this page, and you'll be able to produce a front cover, an index and the actual chapters: http://support.wordpress.com/write-a-book/

" 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.

You ' re Invited!

I'll be serving tarot-themed drinks and fiction-inspired hors d'oeuvres!

Click here to RSVP and get directions.

Search Inside This Book

Would you like a sneak preview of Tarot for Writers? Amazon.com has turned on the "Search inside this book" feature.

Q & A with the ATA

Melanie Harris interviewed me for the ATA's newsletter, Tarot Reflections. It's a good interview! You can read it here.

Tarot Fiction: A Genre in the Making?

Does The New York Times see a literary future in the cards? Apparently so:

In publishing, as in many fields, there are leaders and there are followers. Stephenie Meyer gives birth to legions of the undead. Marley begets Dewey who begets a pet shop in bookstore aisles. Among the authors on this month’s list, there are definite leaders, including J. K. Rowling and the forensic-thriller writer Patricia Cornwell — blame her for all those television shows with whooshing close-ups of scalpels slicing through dead flesh. The rest, well, there is a talking-dog book (going Almondine one better?). And not one, but two novels based in Florida in which tarot cards play a part. A genre in the making?

Here are the two books they're talking about:

THE KING OF SWORDS By Nick Stone 560 pages. Harper. $25.99. Nick Stone’s second novel starring Max Mingus opens the morning after election day in 1980. When a body turns up at Primate Park in Miami, Detective Sergeant Mingus and his partner, Joe Liston, are called in to investigate. There’s a tarot card — the King of Swords — in the dead man’s stomach, and it leads the partners to a shadowy Haitian underground. Their boss at the Miami Task Force is looking to close the case — regardless of the truth. Mingus, in his own description, is “a cop who drank too much, slept too little and really couldn’t remember when exactly he’d crossed the line,” but this time he vows to do the right thing. The book is a prequel to Mr. Stone’s “Mr. Clarinet,” which was published last year. THE FORTUNE TELLER’S DAUGHTER By Lila Shaara 436 pages. Ballantine Books. $25. Once a hotshot newspaper reporter, Harry Sterling has retreated to the campus of a small college in Florida to teach and to lick his wounds. (There are many: his brother was murdered by a man who’d been looking to kill Harry; shortly afterward his wife divorced him and took their son to live with her in Orlando; he has a bad relationship with alcohol.) But he can’t resist a good story, and one night he hears one: A local tarot card reader named Madame Dupree claims that the inventor of something called the Ziegart effect (it involves supercooling metals in order to make them conduct electricity better) actually stole the idea. Chasing down the tale, Harry becomes involved with the enigmatic Maggie Roth, who shares a double-wide trailer with Dupree. As the novel progresses, his pursuit of Maggie and the truth about Ziegart converge.

NaNoWriMo Planning Tip #7: Theme Song

National Novel Writing Month is just two weeks away. Here's lucky #7 in my ongoing series of NaNoWriMo planning tips:

If you're planning a new story from scratch, tarot cards can offer a theme for your work. I sometimes think of the theme as the moral of the story -- "All that glitters is not gold," for example, or "Be careful what you wish for." To find a theme for your story, simply shuffle your tarot deck and pull a single card. Then look for the message or moral of the card. The Ten of Cups, for example, depicts a happy family in front of a cozy cottage. It might suggest a theme like, "You can go home again."

You can find all the tips listed on the Tarot for Writers group website.

For more creative writing tips, visit www.tarotforwriters.com and www.tarotjournaling.com.

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Building Your Own Press Kit

I've done media relations and public relations, but I've never put together a writer's press kit as comprehensive as this agent recommends. I'm totally going to follow her suggestions, which are geared to the Internet age: http://acrowesnest.blogspot.com/2008/10/saundra-building-your-own-press-kit.html

One of the most basic tools in your PR and marketing portfolio is your press kit. A press kit provides basic biographical information and information about your work, in an easily accessible kit for reviewers and journalists. It makes it easy for people to write about you- always a plus- and it saves work for you, because you can avoid collecting and providing the same information repeatedly- definitely a plus.

NaNoWriMo Planning Tip #5: Character Sketches

If you're an Amazon.com reader, you might be new to this blog, so I'd like to take a moment to welcome you and let you know about some new developments. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="The Tarot for Writers guidebook will be released in February, 2009. Click the image to pre-order your copy today."][/caption] First of all, welcome! For the last few months, I've been getting ready for the release of my next book, Tarot for Writers. While most people think of tarot cards as a fortune-telling device, they're also an excellent tool for creative writers. The Tarot for Writers guidebook will show you how tarot cards can help you break through writer's block, create lifelike characters, and develop storylines and plot twists to keep your readers turning the page. For the last week or so, I've also been posting NaNoWriMo planning tips. NaNoWriMo, of course, is National Novel Writing Month, a web-based event in which writers all around the world challenge themselves to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. While you can't start writing your novel until midnight on November 1, it's perfectly okay to start planning your novel now. I've been posting the tips here and on the Tarot for Writers Meetup Group site. If you're interested in using tarot cards as a tool for creative writing, please join the group! Membership is fun, fast, and free -- and it's not limited to writers in any one geographic area. We're global, and you can participate online! (We also meet in person every Saturday morning at the Mall of America, if you happen to be in the Minneapolis area.) So now that you're up to speed, here's the fifth in my ongoing series of NaNoWriMo planning tips:

TIP #5: CHARACTER SKETCHES What do you really need to know about a character's background before you can include him in a story? What facts and figures should you have at hand? What details can you use to bring your characters to life? You can start with the basics, of course, like name, age, and place of birth -- but there are other telling details that you should be aware of, too. For example, what kind of music does your character listen to? What does he eat for breakfast? How does he dress for work? As you're planning your story, think about the background knowledge you'd like to have on hand for each of your characters. Then develop a standard "fill in the blank" form that you can use for all of them. You can devise a very simple short form, or a long and comprehensive survey. Later, you can use tarot cards to help fill in some of the blanks.

You can find all of the tips listed sequentially on the Tarot for Writers Meetup Group message board.