Hello - and news

baba-prague

Sorry to have been away. Most people now know some of the story behind that (well, I stopped posting for a number of reasons, mainly intuition, but I won't go into detail of what happened next as it's a bit irrelevant here). In general I will keep a much lower profile on the forum for a bit - maybe just focus here and in one or two other areas.

The reprint is now done and we will put it up on the website tomorrow (or Monday if anything goes wrong - like my html!) It's come out well and we are happy with it. There are quite a few changes on the cards, but they are mainly very minor. The new card-stock is different (a little less thick but much "whippier" - it's special playing card stock) and the cards are a slightly different proportion, which means we had to adjust some images. Mainly though, Alex just wanted to work on some parts of the printing and colour - you might not even see the changes, but he does :)

Oh - whoops, edited to say that I should say that the back is now a kind of china blue and black, not sepia and black. That was my doing - I hope people like it, I just wanted to try it out.

We have a few reprinted decks without a LWB - they were spares from the printer so we will sell them at roughly half-price, but just to friends. I want to offer them to people here and to my journal friends. We can sell them for 5 British pounds each (we STILL haven't changed our web pricing to US dollars, though my bank say they really are doing it - it's taken ages) plus postage. Not sure what postage will be. I'll try to weigh one and work it out.

They are perfect, in tuck-box and with the Prudence card instead of the second Death card. But no LWB. They would make good low-cost second decks for use if you already have the LWB or the book. If you'd like one, please let me know.

Okay, with that out of the way, if it's okay I'll jump into one or two of the threads here over the next few days.

It's nice to be able to be around again.
 

janomalee

I would love one of the decks without the lwb. I would need the price in US dollars because I am mathematically challenged. :)

By the way, I picked up a travel guide to Prague that had pictures of some of the art and architecture in the TOP deck. This is an Eyewitness travel guide that I found at an estate sale. It was cool to see some of the images in the deck within this book.
 

Gardener

Me too, me too! I send you a PM but just realized I should probably post instead. Pretty please can I have a second edition without LWB. I already have two first editions just for me, but of course with the new card, I have to have this one too........

Oh and let me say AGAIN how truly beautiful the BBC postcards are. Just divine!
 

Cocobird55

Hi, Karen

Welcome back. I would love a copy of the new version w/o the LWB.

I am enjoying the Bohemian Cat postcards a lot -- thank you.

Sue
 

Jewel-ry

Yes please Karen!

Thanks

J.
 

baba-prague

Well, the good news is that finally my bank have given us a dollar account yay! (they kept sending the forms to the wrong address it turned out, oh well).

So, I will just find out from WorldPay how fast they can set up our payment in dollars. It depends on if they need to security check again I think.

Maybe the best is if I set up payment in UK pounds for now (you can see what it relates to in US dollars and Euros as Worldpay have a currency converter in real time) but then switch it to dollars as soon as possible?

To be clear - WorldPay takes any currency. So whatever the currency shown, you'll be billed in your own currency. But I think it's just easier to have the main price (i.e. the fixed price) in US dollars?

Okay, I will sort this out :)

I do want to get the new reprint into people's hands - just to get some reaction. But we've been so busy recently that it keeps getting put to one side. I have to say I haven't even read with it yet, which is a shame really.

__________

edited to say - more serendipity. Some local people just came in and told us (in no uncertain terms) that the old and new versions have very different energies. Alex is not convinced of this as they have not actually read with either deck yet. We need to see what each version does in practice - perhaps there is no real difference.

What is so interesting is to see how the deck is gradually being discovered and absorbed by the city and its people. It is very slow, but happening the way it should, with people just knocking on the door. These are Praguers, and one thing they said is that only this deck has the "right" symbolism. Of course, that isn't the case, but I think what they respond to is the symbolism that's been around them all their lives - I think this works for some people who live here. We were told, for example, that The Hermit is "right". This is very nice to hear.

More and more I half feel that the city itself did a lot of the design :)
 

baba-prague

Just to keep other things in a different thread ...

Yes, most of the guidebooks here will show some of the same sights. We tried to combine very famous places with less well-known ones in the deck (plus we went with serendipity a bit - just felt that we should sometimes see what revealed itself when).

We used several good guidebooks for cross-checking all the information too, and sometimes just to make us aware of things we hadn't seen. We didn't use any photos from in-copyright books (well, that goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway) we took our own so the view of each place may be a little different (bear in mind that we also cleaned up a lot of pictures - if you ever see the originals you may find that some are not in good condition, although thankfully most are gradually being restored).

This time round, for Baroque Bohemian Cats, we are using probably 90-85% our own photos for the backgrounds, but also working with a professional photographer in Cesky Krumlov as he has access to the Castle interiors, which normally one can't photograph. He is a lovely man and it's working out well. We hope to work with him again.

Whoops - have to run. More later :)

(sun has come out - it's been miserable for days - raining - so I have to rush outside :) )
 

13thFaeChylde

I'd like to sign up for a deck as well, would love to have one that I'd feel comfortable traveling with.

In the past 3 weeks I've acquired two ToP decks, and am very smitten :p. And I hope to be able to visit Prague in the next year or two. I have friends who went last year and loved it.
 

baba-prague

Update -

I have everything half set up to make the deck (with and without LWB) available. However, demands from our printer have intervened a bit - they are doing the first "Cats" proofs today and need things like the box text etc.

I should manage to get it all there, and checked, tomorrow I hope. Again sorry about the delay.

Mad days - but it will be great when all is done and I can settle down and do some reading.

I have also said I will try to teach in some way this autumn at an alternative health centre here. That would be so good - just to sit and focus on the cards with some other people. I think the experience of seeing how being in Prague affects how people see and read the deck would be very enlightening too.
 

le pendu

A third copy of the deck for me? Why, OF COURSE!

Count me in Karen, would love to see the new version and don't need the lwb anyway.

Do you and Alex have elves? I imagine many homes in Prague must. How else do you do it all?

best,
robert