Something I hope to do while working on the Magic Pantry Oracle Tarot and writing the third book in the Eternal Library series is to share progress and updates with all of you along the way! I was pretty quiet while working on The Tale That Twines, as I was recovering from burnout, but now I’m feeling a lot better and ready to chat about progress and such with all of you.
The Magic Pantry Oracle Tarot
One of the fun things I have for you is a new painting video! This one is way shorter than my previous painting videos, in part because this painting literally took less time than the book cover illustrations, but also because I’m learning a lot more as I go about how to edit and pace these things.
This video is just under twelve minutes long, with footage of me working on the Six of Pentacles while chatting calmly about the painting process, the meaning of the card, and a few little life updates.
On top of that, here are a bunch of new illustrations for the Magic Pantry Oracle Tarot:
These are (clearly) just photos of the paintings, without titles on them yet, but here we have the Five through Ten of Pentacles! Millet, Barley, Oats, Corn, Amaranth, and Wheat in that order.
Yes, this deck started out as a Tarot deck, then I changed my mind and announced it as an oracle, and now it’s back to being Tarot. In addition to the autistic burnout, I have struggled with some burnout in recent years when it comes to cartomancy, in no small part because making and selling decks is my job. It all started to feel a bit too clinical, like I was seeing it solely as a product and not as a product that is also a spiritual tool with meaning and heart.
Being in online Tarot spaces has felt exhausting at times. Learning, growing and being thoughtful about how we depict people, cultures, gender, and other identities in Tarot is important to me. However, due to the format of social media, I was getting overwhelmed by so many very strong voices with a lot of different opinions all coming in at once. I process information more slowly than many people and get easily overstimulated by a lot of information at once. It ended up putting me in a frozen state where I couldn’t think or make my own decisions about my work—not because anyone was saying mean things or because I felt they were wrong, but because of how much was all being communicated in a short time period.
Anyone else struggle with this?
Anyway, I feel truly excited about this deck again! For a hot second in late spring, I thought I might abandon deck making altogether and just focus on writing. Ironically, making that decision freed me up from the feeling of financial obligation that was hanging heavy over my deck work. Making a spiritual/magical tool just to pay the rent and no other reason (not to say you shouldn’t make money off of a spiritual career, but there should be more than just the desire to make money there, if that makes sense) was not enough motivation for me to do the work.
Currently, I hope to keep my focus on the Magic Pantry Tarot until the main artwork is finished. Fingers crossed I can do that this fall, but as we well know, life often interferes when you have uncertain health issues on the table. I’ll be posting new illustrations regularly to IG as well as making updates here.
The Flame That Sings (Eternal Library Book 3)
I have officially started writing Eternal Library book 3, which is titled The Flame That Sings! Technically, I wrote the first paragraph of it back in the spring, right after I finished The Tale That Twines, because I was vibing and because it literally picks up RIGHT where we left off—the first time I’ve ever done that in a sequel, somehow. This is the eleventh book I’ve written in my life and the third series, but previously, I only wrote sequels that were overlapping stand-alones in the same universe or “many years later, the MC’s kids” style. Weird, lol!
A photo of a drawing featuring young Mairead and Aeronwy when they first met. The focus on their relationship will be HEAVY in this one.
Here are the opening lines to The Flame That Sings, because I love them, and I love them even more because beginnings are the absolute hardest part of writing for me. It’s narrated by, as promised, young Aeronwy:
“The moment I step foot into the Head Librarian’s office, my betrayal is complete. I am in the heart of the enemy fortress, facing three formidable foes: the Head Librarian emself and two senior Illuminators. The Scriptivist overlords who strip the life from story and taxidermy it into a blasphemous, unchanging, immortal form from which there is no escape. Tools of a fascist regime which will burn in the rivers of fire and choke on the clouds of ash which will one day descend from the holy peak of Mount Cináed on high in retribution for their crimes.
I am here for a job interview, in hopes of joining them. ”
Aeronwy’s narration style is very different from everyone we’ve seen previously (Tabby, Rhiannon, Amane, and June), and I AM HAVING A LOT OF FUN WITH IT.
I regret to confirm that it is going to be a couple years before this book is out, but that’s what these little updates and sneak peeks will be for in the meantime. With The Tale That Twines, I was able to focus on JUST drafting the book and made it my priority project. Right now, the Magic Pantry Tarot is my priority project. I’ve reserved a full day per week to write, but there will be an MPT Kickstarter next year that takes up a lot of time, and who knows what else. Phew!
Also this book… is going to be… LONG. Longer than the previous two. Uhuhu.
I will say, though, that it is farther along already that it might seem. In 2021, I wrote a full draft of “book 2” which was actually book 2 and 3 in one volume. After writing it, and after writing several large chunks of book 3 content that I thought MIGHT actually be book 2 (I’m talking 30k word chunks) trying to get the timeline of the books straight, I ended up splitting June and Aeronwy’s prequel stories the way they exist currently. This means that The Flame That Sings has essentially already had a draft zero. And a zero point five. Or six.
Hopefully that means good things for the length of the process going forward.
Here are some more quotes from the first 5k words of the book so far, because I can’t help myself and I think they are funny. Whether they will make it into the book or not in the end, we just don’t know. Also, they are raw and unedited!
“The Flame in my lungs smolders with barely repressed anxiety. This would be the worst of all places to have a meltdown and fill the room with smoke. Open flame is not allowed in the Library, for obvious reasons. I reassure myself that I am not an open flame so long as I don’t allow any to escape my body. I am merely, as Mairead would say, the equivalent of a human lighter.
A sacrilegious way to describe a Flamekeeper, spouse to the Star-Crowned goddex of fire and creator of Caspora, who gifted these magical Flames to the exalted leaders of my ancient ancestors. I have already committed worse spiritual crimes, so I will allow it.”
““—which is normal enough. Don’t forget, all three of us have been in your position before,” says Rose. “Let’s cut to the chase, relax, dispose of the usual question list.”
Please don’t. Those are the ones I prepared for. ”
I’m going to have so much fun with this one. It’s finally cooling down here in Southern California (for the moment) after so much heat, and though I’ve, as usual, got some weird health things on the table, I’m feeling good about the work I’m doing. Hope you all are having a good end to the summer and start to fall!