Here's the thing about keeping this diary. A year ago I start it, promising myself that I'm going to write an entry every week. It will be a record of V/R's progress, I say to myself. After the deck is on the shelves I'll be able to look back and see how it all came together. Who knows, maybe someone else will enjoy reading it too.
Then I get busy with actually working on the deck (on the book, to be more precise) and stop writing in the diary. Months later, after everything's been turned in, I'm too burned out to write a diary entry. Even more months go by and now I'm feeling guilty about blowing off the diary, which makes it even harder to write.
Well, obviously I got over that stupidity, or you wouldn't be reading this. Scaled back "once a week" to the much more realistic "once a month." But the sad truth is, a month has gone by since the last entry, and I have nothing to report.
Last time brought spectacular news, with the acceptance of the manuscript, the banishment of the "big box with tray," and the plan to include velvet bags in the package. This time, we're plugging along with the revisions to the manuscript. Just like we were last week, and just like we will be next week. How boring is that.
So far this is the first real revelation to come out of this diary. The publication process is boring. Months go by in which the only progress report is "still writing." Months go by without any activity at all.
Not that I'm complaining. Well, I suppose I am. But it's a wonderful thing to have a publisher to complain about; thanks to Llewellyn for providing the opportunity. This is just by way of explanation of why this journal is so drab. I guess it will get exciting again later this year, when they print the actual cards. But that's a long way off.
For now I can only say, dear reader, that we're still writing.
(ps: I do have one thing to report, now that I think about it. We registered for the New York Tarot Festival in spring 2002. If all goes as planned, that will be just after V/R's release. So the festival will be the deck's coming-out party. Hope to see you there.)
(pps: If you want to read an online diary that's funny, detailed, interesting and regularly updated (unlike this one), check out John Wesley Harding's 2001 Tour Diary. And if you get the chance to see one of his shows, then I envy you. He's not coming to Chapel Hill this time, even though he's doing one of my favorite songs ("If You Have Ghosts") at almost every show. If he were doing "When the Beatles Hit America" I would have driven to Virginia Beach to see it, I love that song so. I saw him play at the local Borders once (what a weird place for a show, but it was a great show) and when he asked for requests, I wanted so badly to yell out "When the Beatles Hit America!" I bet he doesn't get a lot of requests for that one. But I just didn't have the nerve. To be honest, I was star-struck. How pathetic.)
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