Dear Readers,
Carlos and I are gearing up for our Kickstarter for Negocios Infernales—a thing that has been five years in the making.
One of the things we’re doing over on my Instagram page is drawing one card a day from la Baraja del Destino (“the Deck of Destiny”) to inspire playful ekphrastic responses by all manner of creatives. It’s Day Four today, and I just posted it…
(This is today’s prompt. Day 4 of 31: “The Fruit Desires to be Devoured.” (Carne suit.)
…so what I’m about to show you is only some of what’s been shared with us in the last three days alone!
Responses So Far!
All right. You know my collaborator Dr. Mary Crowell? I mentioned in April that she created harmonies for us in the musical we put up in March at Arts on Site, Ballads from a Distant Star. And I mentioned in May that she’s one third of the Tripartite Goddess (Tina Connolly and myself being the others) that is making an 8-episode musical theatre podcast called The Devil and Lady Midnight. (Hey! We’re more than halfway done now! With the rough drafts, anyway…)
Well! Mary’s been making a SONG A DAY based on our Infernal prompts. She has started a SoundCloud Playlist, which you can follow below:
Listen to Dr. Mary Crowell’s “Octimbre 2023 SoundCloud Playlist!”
But also, she has made several of the songs—and her process notes!!!—public on her Patreon, which, seriously, music lovers and music makers? Follow for process, for joy, for momentum, for SHEER DELICIOUSNESS!
Oct 1 “Cold Blows the Sweetest Cloud” (“The Soul Loves All, the Mind But Some”—the Aire suit)
Oct 2 “The Muse, She Rides” (“The Artist Would Possess You”—the Sangre suit)
Oct 3 “It’s Not Love” (“Desire is the Reason of Reasons”—the Rayo suit)
Not only that, but Mary has the “infamous fiddler” herself, Amy McNally staying with her. Amy and Mary are busily collaborating on music, but ALSO, Amy’s been writing POETRY to the prompts over on Instagram. With her permission, I give you:
Oct 2 “The Artist Would Possess You” (the Sangre suit)
Amy’s process note:
Dr. Mary Crowell clued me in to this project, and today’s card really inspired me. I began to think of what the possessed might have said in order to be such a complete and visceral muse, and I wrote this poem.
Amy’s poem:
Find my essence and possess it
It’s there and I saved it for you
Take it whole, take no prisoner
I demand it, I require that you
Tear me apart upon your canvas
Paint me like one of your French corpses
Only my blood is the right color
for all your rusted dreams
No muse is an island
My heart has unfurled
My veins have disbanded
I will be this world.
Speak from my throat,
Stand tall on my back.
Take it entire from me
No tidbit, no crumb,
No portion; succumb
Oct 3: “Desire is the Reason of Reasons” (the Rayo suit)
Amy’s process note:
“Ooooh! This is so gorgeous. I like to imagine that the ship in the border is hers, somehow, driven to her by her steadfast desire."
I wanted to incorporate the repetition on the card (the reason of reasons) into this poem, so each first half of a line is repeated.”
Amy’s poem:
Reason of reasons, my ship through the storm
Reason of reasons will keep me from harm
My own desire, inviolate, true
My own desire is strongest for you
She stands at the parapet, heart in her hand
She stands at the parapet, heart made of sand
The ship rocks, the ship flies through fiery lash
The ship rocks, the ship flies until calm at last
Her desire has landed, the rowboats ashore
Her desire has landed, the reason for more
Separate once, now together again
Separate once, never parting again.
Rhiannon Parker-Cooney’s NAIL ART responses!
My eyelash-artist, miniature-making, DMing Goddess of a sister-in-law has been making the most FABULOUS NAIL ART in response to the prompts. I am GIDDY with these:
ZigZag Claybourne’s Fiction and Poetry Responses!
Oh, and a note: Ziggy’s incredible Kickstarter for his warm and witchy novel is still in its firts week, and he’s already SEXTUPLED his goal! It’s on “Projects We Love” and is part of the great “Witchstarter” project! All of which to say, we love ZigZag, we love his work, and we’re so honored he’s playing with our cards!
Oct 1: “The Soul Loves All, the Mind But Some”
ZigZag’s poem:
For Love
She spent her days never looking at water
Never thinking of home
At night she refused to
remember
she could change
Oct 2: “The Artist Would Possess You”
ZigZag’s notes:
“I love this deck. It speaks too me.”
ZigZag’s story:
In 1903, the tiny village of Gregor produced not one but 13 astounding sculptors. 13 elders in a period of 13 years, all told. They formed a club to work on the same giant piece, a man bathing. The cascading water alone was worthy of prayer and praise. Each elder had dabbled with clay in their youth; who hadn't in Gregor? The forever clumped soil begged to be molded. And no one found it remarkable that these 13 suddenly, one by one, became passionate. The elderly were masters of the spurious. When one died (3 were found with their hands drying into parts of the bathing man) someone else quickly took their place, showing skills that pleased their doting families. The Bathing Man of Gregor brightened the gray skies of that tiny village clumped at the foot of tiny mountains that bored even goats. The sculptor who had started it, Thielbond Caymn, dead 13 years, was never considered more than a curiosity by the village. She'd only produced 2 works her long life, both gigantic: a child sleeping against the side of a calf, and a tree, practically tree-sized. Full of leaves! Who would sculpt such a thing! But she was left to it, since she baked excellent bread to sell to afford her arts and privacy. She died with the 3rd piece sitting as a hill of wet clay on her flat land.
2 days later, Ayel Shew draped a shawl over his shoulders, tottered from the group hospice--tottering was encouraged, and there were few places to go, plus to die under sunshine was agreeable--and entered Thielbond's work yard, finding her pottery shed, knowing exactly which tools to use, and settled in to do the work. The dapple of the huge clay tree shaded his back. Ayel lived so much longer than anyone expected. The other 12 did too. But died they all did, as the elderly, the unlucky, children, strong men, and enterprising women did. "Death never preferred a type," was an old Gregor joke. "It will take even you!" The Sculptors Club, however, finished the Bathing Man. There is no plaque of the names involved with it, but if there were it would lead with a ghostly Thielbond Caym, visible only out of the corners of the eyes or as a remembrance of someone barely known enough to be forgotten. When it rains, water cascades down the sculpted spray where the Bathing Man splashes his face. He wakes up every day as if prepared to live for something. The village of Gregor loves that.
Cla(i)rification
Mind you, the Destino deck is not the game. Negocios Infernales the game is a TTRPG about the Spanish Inquisition being INTERRUPTED by aliens! It’s awfully fun and I can’t wait to tell you even more about it when our Kickstarter goes live on October 10th!
But we do use the Destino deck—separate from the game—to encourage people to write stories, poetry, plays, songs, or even make other kinds of visual art. We occasionally run something we call our “Infernal Salon,” where we invite a bunch of writers and artists to a Zoom (or to our friend Greg’s Twitch channel) to create art LIVE in response to our card prompts—under a 20 MINUTE TIME CONSTRAINT—PUBLICLY!—and then read it aloud!
Ah! It’s the good stuff. In fact, we’re having one on Halloween, from 3:30-6:30 Eastern Standard time, if you want to stream in and listen. A Twitch subscription is not required. You just go to the URL: twitch.tv.arvaneleron and peek in.
Just so you know: we always draw card prompts for the AUDIENCE too, so maybe you’ll want to—spookily! Ghostily! Hauntily!—make some art of your own!
On Halloween, we’re gathering a bunch of Horror, Mystery, and Dark Fantasy writers. Plus a musician. And hopefully some visual artists as well! My Guest List is GROWING as we SPEAK!
La Baraja del Destino
Aside from being awesome creative prompts, the Destino deck is our game’s central mechanic. What that means in our RPG setting is that instead of rolling dice to make a check, you draw a card from the deck instead!
If the suit of the card you draw matches one of the four cards you drew to make up your Character Sheet, your check is a success. You narrate your great triumph, inspired by the image and text on the card.
But if the suit doesn’t match… your check is A DISASTER, DARLING! (As Desiree Armfeldt would say.) And narrating your disaster is EVER SO MUCH FUN!
October Events for Negocios Infernales
October 10 (Tuesday) All Day at negociosinfernales.com
LAUNCH!
October 11 (Wednesday) 4-8 EST on Twitch.TV/arvaneleron
Negocios Infernales full play-through, Part 1
Featuring Cassandra Khaw, Brandon O’Brien, Will Sobel, Anna Russell, and wrangled by our very own Carlos Hernandez.
October 18 (Wednesday) 4-8 EST on Twitch.TV/arvaneleron
Negocios Infernales full play-through Part 2
Featuring Cassandra Khaw, Brandon O’Brien, Will Sobel, Anna Russell, and wrangled by our very own Carlos Hernandez.
October 31 (Tuesday) 3:30-6:30 EST on Twitch.TV/arvaneleron
Halloween Infernal Salon!
Featuring: TBD—but so far the confirmed participants are: Dr. Mary Crowell, Eden Royce, Steve Toase, Lynn Emery, LaShawn M. Wanak, Emma J Gibbon, Carina Bissett, Kenesha Williams, Elijah Woodruff… and more to come!
Thank you so much for reading! Isn’t it all so marvelous???
Yours truly,
C. S. E. Cooney
This is such a wonderful project.
The music!! The poetry!! The **nail art**
I love it all. (I am sure I will love ZigZag's story, too, but I haven't yet read it.)
In the poems, of course I like the line "paint me like your french corpses," but also the line "no muse is an island" and what follows. And in the next poem, I love the heart of sand--gorgeous.