Voice of the Trees Deck, Edits Done!

Well, it's been a busy week at the art table this week writing, and I didn't blog this weekend because I had a house full of adolescent boys over for my sons birthday, and I wouldn't have made sense anyway, as you can imagine!
I'm happy to report that I've finished the edits for the Voice of the Trees deck, and they've been sent off to my publisher. It was fun to revisit the manuscript, and I found that once I had added the extra material they had asked for, I really liked the improvements. I got to add some personal stories, and some more tree magic which was very fun!

The cover art for the packaging of the project was chosen by Llewellyn, they'll be using the "Willow" piece (see above) for the front of the box! It's a very magical piece, but not the one I thought they would pick, but I think it will work nicely. *Disclaimer* This picture is not what the box will look like, the art is the same but the lettering will be created by Llewellyns art department, maybe a cool Celtic border, or something. They're coming up with something great I'm sure, this is just my little mock-up version. The extra piece that I created an planned for the cover of the box is a Celtic Warrior chick, (see below) and will actually be the cover of the book. I'm pleased with both of their choices. The book will be called, "Voice of the Trees Companion." I'm really very happy, once the material is submitted it's in the hands of the publisher and sometimes many changes are made, but they are really staying true to my vision and even gave met the opportunity to expand upon it, so I'm really happy about this project so far. Both my aquisitions editor and my book editor have been a dream to work with.








This is the image they're
using for the cover of the book
"Voice of the Trees Companion.







Instead of including a thin organza bag like they have with some decks in the past, I was given the opportunity to include simple instructions for making your own bag to store the cards in, which is really nice because the organza bags tended to tear easily, and how fun is it to make your own bag? I made the instructions really simple, and I actually constructed a bag to make sure the instructions were clear, and took photos as I went to base the illustraqtions on. The bag I made turned out nice, I used some fabric left over from my costume I wore to the St. Louis Witches Ball last year when Dan and I went as Sweeny Todd and Mrs Lovitt. That was a hoot! Anywho, I'm adding some decorative flourishes to this sample bag and will be offering it as a give away at some point, so watch for that.


Dan and I as Sweeny Todd and Mrs. Lovitt, and in real life as ourselves.

Incedentally and mostly unrelated, I looked at those heather plants from Aldi, and they are good ole Scottish Heather! I nearly brought one home, but beset with birthday parties and other expenses, I decided that money spent on a plant that will likely croak this winter is money better spent elsewhere, they sure were pretty though.

Thats all for now, we'll have a new movie later for the Monday Night Magical Movie. Yeah!
Fare thee well! Mickie