Big Announcement and Oracle Deck Giveaway

OMG. There is so much going on here, I don't know where to start.

Okay, so first of all, as most of you already know, the Everyday Witch Oracle Deck is out from Llewellyn. It was supposed to come out on September 8th--yes, that's not for over a week--but was released about a month early. This caught me and illustrator Elisabeth Alba by surprise, but we're going to make up for it now.

When the Everyday Witch Tarot came out, Elisabeth made a road trip here from her home in Massachusetts. But she just gave birth to a baby in June (I KNOW! Congrats, Elisabeth!), so that wasn't possible this time. Instead, we each signed a dozen decks and sent them to each other, so we now have a dozen each that are signed by both of us. Most of those are going up on Etsy (Etsy listing) but I'm going to be giving away one double-signed copy here as well. In case math isn't your strong suit, that will leave me eleven on Etsy. LOL.

Each set will include the deck (signed by both of us), a special sticker we had made that features the back of the deck, a bookmark, and a postcard. The set I'm giving away here will also include some special surprise. What is it? I can't tell you--it's a SURPRISE.

So be sure to enter using the Rafflecopter form at the bottom of this post. As always, no purchase is necessary, although if you already have the deck, or win this copy, I'd really love it if you would post an honest review.

Here's a couple of the places you can get it. Amazon and Llewellyn. It is also available at B&N, any other online book seller, and you can request it from your local Indy book store if they don't happen to carry it.

BUT WAIT, THAT'S NOT ALL!

I have news.

I just signed a contract with Llewellyn for a new book. TA DA!

Tentatively titled The Eclectic Witch's Book of Shadows, it is going to be a fun and information-filled "everything you need to know" book for my witchy readers. It won't be out until 2021, probably (I haven't even started writing it yet), but I think you are going to like it.

Can you believe this is going to be my 13th nonfiction book? (My 12th with Llewellyn.) And that's not counting the books that come with the tarot deck and the oracle deck.

I hope you're all as excited as I am.

And now, the giveaway you're really excited about.

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Everyday Witch Oracle Giveaway

So, a funny thing...

The Everyday Witch Oracle Deck (which I worked on with Elisabeth Alba, who did the tarot deck with me) was supposed to come out on September 8th. But it came into the Llewellyn warehouses unexpectedly early...so now it is coming out on AUGUST 12th! That's next MONDAY! Can I get a woot?

But of course, that completely throws off my promotional plans, since I now have less than five days to do what I would have done in a month. On the bright side, if you've been eagerly awaiting this deck, you're going to get it a lot earlier!

I got my author copies right before I left for a long weekend vacation with friends (pictures of that coming soon, probably), and finally had a chance to open one up today. They're soooo pretty! Llewellyn did a great job as always, and Elisabeth's artwork takes my breath away.

The book, the cards, and the cover of the box.

 Naturally, this means I'll be doing a giveaway! I've got one shiny new copy of the deck, plus a fun kitty bookmark (since there are a bunch of cats in the deck), and a broom pen.

To enter, just use the Rafflecopter form below. As always, no purchase is necessary, although if you run out and preorder the book today, it should ship out to you on the 12th!

The giveaway

Here's a link to get the deck directly from Llewellyn: Llewellyn
And here's Barnes and Noble
And Amazon
You can also ask your local Indie bookstore to order it for you.

I hope you love it as much as I do! In the meanwhile, here's the giveaway.

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Oracle Deck Coupon Code and Book Signing Event

Hi All and HAPPY SPRING!!!!

Or as we refer to it here in upstate NY, happy "theoretical calendar spring," although today at least the sun is out and the spring birds are singing, even if it is still only in the 20's. Today is not only the Spring Equinox (Ostara, for those who observe the Pagan holidays), it is also the night of the full moon. So it's a great time to do magical work for your goals in the coming months, or for balance in your life, since the equinox is the only time that day and night are in perfect balance.

I meant to do a nice detailed post about my trip to California and PantheaCon, but I came down with the plane plague a couple of days after I got back, and I'm only just starting to catch up with things. Hopefully I'll manage a belated post soon, if people are still interested in hearing about it.

In the meanwhile, I have two quick announcements:

For those of you who are eagerly awaiting the release of the Everyday Witch Oracle Deck in September, the lovely folks at Llewellyn gave me a coupon code to take to PantheaCon, and they are allowing me to share it with you! If you go to their site and pre-order the deck before March 31st using the coupon code WITCHYORACLE19 you can get 20% off! (See how much I love you?)

You can preorder here. Everyday Witch Oracle Deck (Remember that this coupon only works at Llewellyn's website, and only until the end of the month.)

I can't wait!

If you happen to live near the Albany, NY area, I will be taking part in a multi-author book signing event at FLIGHTS OF FANTASY BOOKSTORE on Saturday the 23rd from 6-8 PM. I will be in great company, with Anne Bishop, Julie Czernada, and Kristen Britain. I hope you can join us!

Cover Reveal! Everyday Witch Oracle Deck

As many of you know, illustrator Elisabeth Alba and I have been working on The Everyday Witch Oracle Deck, which will be out on September 8th from Llewellyn. We had such a blast working on the Everyday Witch Tarot (which, incidentally, I just saw was on sale on Amazon for only $19.82 instead of its usual list price of $29.99) that we just had to find another project to work on together. If anything, this one was even more fun!

One of the best parts is being able to do the cover reveal. Llewellyn picked two cards that were both of our favorites, so we're especially excited. So with no further ado...

The kit cover:

The book cover:

And here is a picture of the back of the cards. Four cats, each representing one of the four elements. Which one is your favorite?

 And as a bonus, a picture of Elisabeth with all forty finished original paintings!
(If you look closely at her, you will see that she is busy creating something else...a little human being. Whoo hoo!)

We are both so proud of this deck, and we can't wait for it to come out. We hope you'll all love it too. What do you think of the covers?

Guest Post: Elisabeth Alba, Illustrator

Hey, peeps! Most of you know Elisabeth Alba from her illustrations of our Everyday Witch Tarot deck, as well as the upcoming Everyday Witch Oracle deck we're working on now. She's sharing some advanced images and details of the work over on her brand new Patreon page, and I thought that some of you might be interested in what she's up to, so I suggested she guest post here. Take it away, Elisabeth!

Hi Everyone!

Thanks to Deborah for allowing me to be a guest blogger here.

This is a portion of a post I created for my patrons on my Patreon page at www.patreon.com/elisabethalba. It shows the process of the painting, “Listening,” for the Everyday Witch Oracle deck I am working on with Deborah (who is also on Patreon at www.patreon.com/deborahblake), published by Llewellyn Worldwide.

If you're interested in seeing in-depth step-by-steps behind my artwork, please check out my Patreon and consider becoming a patron! I plan on sharing in-depth posts about the creative process behind many of the oraclecards as well as other artwork I create, timelapse videos of painting, videos around my studio, and other goodies like holiday cards, desktop wallpapers, and monthly coloring pages. I'm really excited to have this opportunity to share my art life with you all!
Note from Deborah: I'm following her there and I LOVE watching the process as the paintings come alive! Plus, I can't wait to get the coloring pages.

Here is Deborah's initial description for “Listening”: Close-up on a witch with one hand behind her ear, eyes closed and smiling, listening to a magical wind blowing by. A bird is hovering, perhaps whispering in her other ear. The feeling is thoughtful and attentive.

The deck is divided into elemental suits – Earth, Wind, Fire, and Air. “Listening” is an Air card. My first rough sketch had a generic witch thrown in, white with long black hair and black hat, but after working on the sketches for all 40 cards, she evolved. The biggest fault with the Everyday Witch Tarot was its lack of diversity, and Deborah and I knew we wanted this deck to be the opposite, and represent the many people who use and appreciate tarot and oracle decks. In “Listening,” I painted an Apsáalooke woman. Many Native American legends of crow birds are about how they are the wisest of birds and that they have the power to talk. The Apsáalooke were given their name by a neighboring Siouan-speaking tribe and it means "children of the large-beaked bird," so it definitely seemed fitting to have this card represent a woman of the Crow Nation, as they came to be called in the English language.

Here are the two rough sketches of Listening, side by side:

After the sketch was approved I gathered reference material and also took photo reference of myself wearing a robe. The outfit she is wearing is based on traditional Crow clothing for women - the white objects sewn on are elk teeth! I didn't want her to be completely traditional though, since the deck is for modern witches, so gave it a bit of an update with hair half braided and half down, and a black skirt.

I then did a more refined sketch, figured out what colors I wanted to use, printed my sketch onto watercolor paper, inked it, and then it was finally ready for watercolor!

Here are stages in the painting process:

And finally... the big reveal! Here is the completed painting, ready to be an oracle card!

Thanks for following along on the process for this painting! I will share little bits here and there on social media, but I plan on devoting more time to these behind-the-scenes posts over on Patreon.  Please consider joining me there!

Thank you for the interest in our oracle deck. We are having so much fun working on it!

Thanks from me too! Just for fun, Elisabeth sent me a couple of packs of her new book plates, and we're going to give them away here.

I just love these!

 All you have to do is enter this simple Rafflecopter form, just like always. We'd love it if you'd check out our Patreon pages, but of course, only follow if you want to!

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Celebrating the Oracle with a Tarot Deck Giveaway

I'm sorry I haven't been around much. Between wrangling the new kittens and working on the Everyday Witch Oracle deck with fabulous illustrator Elisabeth Alba for Llewellyn (plus trying to get the garden in now that winter finally decided to give way to spring...) I've been a tad busy.

But I have to tell you, I am having a BLAST working on another project with Elisabeth. It's hard work, but so much fun. She has been coming up with some great rough sketches bases on my design suggestions for the cards. (There will be 40 in all.)

Check it out!

So I've decided to celebrate by giving away a copy of the Everyday Witch Tarot deck, which is what inspired us to come up with this project. After all, it has been a while since I did a giveaway, and we can't have that!

Besides, the tarot deck was recently released in SPANISH, which is very cool. Also muy bien! Llewellyn was kind enough to send me a couple of copies of the Spanish version, so if you win, you can tell me if you'd rather have it in English or in Spanish!

As always, all you have to do is fill in the Rafflecopter form below. No purchase necessary, although if you want to tell your friends how wonderful the tarot deck is, I wouldn't mind :-)

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Sekrit Project Announce and Celebration Giveaway

So some of you may have seen me talking on Twitter about a sekrit project that was a possibility... Well, I'm THRILLED to announce that illustrator Elisabeth Alba and I have just signed a contract with Llewellyn to create the Everyday Witch Oracle Deck! Can  I get a woot? (And a bottle of champagne?)

Elisabeth and I had a great time when we worked together on the EVERYDAY WITCH TAROT
We had so much fun, in fact, that we've been looking for a project we could do together ever since--well, ever since we recovered, anyway. We finally had coinciding windows of time available and come up with the idea of doing an oracle deck along the same lines as the tarot deck. Oracle decks are smaller and simpler, and take no preparation or training to use. The deck will have 40 cards and a book that goes with it, written by yours truly.

Here's the sample card Elisabeth made up. Isn't it AMAZING?

Notice anything special about this witch?

 
 We are both incredibly excited to be able to announce this project. (And to get the band back together.) No release date yet, but probably some time in 2020.

To celebrate, I'm going to give away one copy of the Everyday Witch Tarot Deck! (Signed by me.)

 

Just fill in the Rafflecopter form below. And then you can join us in doing the happy dance to celebrate our good news. What do you think? Are you excited too?

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