Under the Surface

No, there's not a second tarot reading this week. I haven't talked openly much about the tarot poetry collection I'm working on, other than to sometimes mention the fact that I'm working on it. I want to tell you about one of the card decks I'm looking at for inspiration.  "Inspiration" might not really be the best word. It's more like filtering and refining the inspiration. While the booklets that come with tarot decks often keep things confined to the keywords, that is just a starting point. I've been reading tarot for over 20 years. Trust me when I tell you each card has many stories to tell. I can't put it all in the poems, so using a few of my decks to focus on different ways the same card can be depicted helps me narrow things down and weave them together. Sidenote: I refuse to do the "I know, I know... I have too many decks!" thing. No, I don't. I have a bunch of decks! Each one serves me in different ways, though.  Some of...

I decided to use a different deck this time, but the message for this week's tarot reading has to do with community again.  (Three cards from the Greenwood Tarot deck. 5 of Vessels (Cups), 3 of Vessels (Cups), and 2 of Stones (Pentacles).) The five of Cups is often read as loss and grief, but it's ecstasy in the Greenwood Tarot. Think of emotional experiences - good, bad, and especially mixed - that disconnect you from daily life. Those times when you don't know how to get things back together, and don't even know that you want to.  If it feels like you're fighting yourself and creating your own obstacles, you might be your biggest challenge at this time. Don't punish yourself for it. Don't ask why you're being such a problem for yourself. Look at what you can learn from the part of you that keeps doing these things.  Community can be the roots that keep you from completely drifting away. These are also the people who can help you figure out ...

(Three cards from the Rhythm and Soul Tarot deck. King of Roots (Pentacles), followed by the 2 and 3 of Blues (Cups) . ) Success comes in many forms, but community is needed for it to be sustainable. This isn't about building up your follower count, or having a network for making sales. It's about bonding with others and building true community, which includes diversity.  This is a quick general reading. For an in-depth personal reading that is emailed to you as a detailed pdf report, I have spaces open for tarot, tarot plus oracle cards, and dice divination readings. 

There is now an  LK Nesse Payhip shop ! This gives readers another option for buying my work, and as with  my itchio  and  my Ko-fi  , you get pdf and epub. Also, all three of those options for where to buy allow you to choose whether to pay the minimum price or add a little more.  Yeah, there's one more way to buy my work that you don't see me listing in What These Options Have in Common. You can get  my work on Kindle  , but without those choices the other options allow for. Actually, you can only get most of my work on Kindle. You have to go to one of the other places if you want my  Art Grimoire solo rpg + art journal  .  That kind of leads to what I really wanted to talk about, which is a little explanation of my pricing. A few people have told me my prices are way too low. To be honest, I agree with them. I do think I should be paid more for my work. I probably also believe you should be paid more for your work. The exception...

(Three cards from the Rhythm and Soul Tarot deck. The Page of Roots (Pentacles), 4 of Jazz (Wands), and 6 of Jazz (Wands).) We just saw the 4 and 6 of Jazz last week, though not in the same order. I promise I know how to shuffle cards! This is expanding and adding emphasis to last week's message.  Tell your story. Make your art. Sing your song. Don't worry so much about what other people want you to create. Stay true to yourself and make space for those who are drawn to what you create when you pour yourself into it.  Don't get so focused on reaching the big victories that you forget to celebrate the little ones along the way.  This is a quick general reading. I have spaces for personal readings, which are emailed to you as a pdf report that walks you through each step of how I interpret it. Tarot, tarot plus oracle cards, and dice readings are available.

I'm not going to lie and say the idea of being an author closed up in an attic that had been turned into a combination library/writing room, never knowing what day it is or what's happening in the outside world, has never been appealing. I do rarely seem to know what day it is, but that's about my brain not prioritizing keeping track of that. I sometimes wonder if it may be related to my dyscalculia. But there's no reasonable chance of me putting my work down and stepping out of a room to find out no one has seen me in the past three months because I was writing non-stop.  I guess I can see the appeal of letting genAI do the "writing" for you if you just want to get a lot of stuff out there and hope something sells. Believe me, I would love to see consistent sales happening! It's easy to follow that with, "but I care too much about how genAI steals from the people who made what's used to train it, what data centers are doing to our water and to ne...