Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

EP 287 - Vulnerability in Writing, Performance Art, and Tarot Readings with Liz Worth

Jan 19, 2023

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Mark interviews Liz Worth, a professional tarot reader, a poet and author.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update and a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

In their chat, Mark and Liz talk about:

The many things that Liz "slings"
Satisfying that craving Liz and her husband have to be surrounded by "vintage things" via owning an antique shop
The importance of helping take something inherited off someone's hands in a meaningful way and to someone that will find use in it
How Tarot, the occult, and writing have always been a part of Liz's life, and her mother's influence in this area
Growing up going to psychic fairs, learning astrology and card reading
Being draw to punk and goth culture in the 90s in high school
Making her own goth zine (Last Breath Escapes), photocopying it, and making it available through a local record store
Doing something similar for her poetry
How zines were a precursor to the niche market ability of eBook digital publishing nowadays
The first book projects Liz worked on
How "Punk" is an entire ecosystem of creativity and not just a style of music and dress
Liz's work not only doing Tarot readings but teaching others how to do a Tarot reading
The things Liz would do during her performance poetry that she would never do in other professional aspects of her life
How, logically, Tarot is a thing that shouldn't work
The vulnerability and expectations that a person has going into a Tarot reading
How you're always going out on a limb when you're interpreting and giving a Tarot reading
Looking for narratives and story in the images and how do things make sense
Some of the intangible things about Tarot that are difficult to explain
Things that Hollywood, Television, and writers often get wrong about Tarot readings
The importance of running with something in a creative way rather than feeling like everything had to be so "tamped down"
Liz's latest vampire novel, The Mouth is a Coven
And more...

After the interview, Mark reflects on that importance of letting one's creative license work its magic.

Links of Interest:

Liz Worth is the author of eight books. Her newest novel is called The Mouth is a Coven, published through Manta Press. She has been nominated twice for the ReLit Award for Poetry, and her writing has also appeared in FLARE Magazine, Chatelaine, and the Globe and Mail. She works as a professional tarot reader by day.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0