TTT Companion Book
Recently our draft copies of the Twisted Tarot Tales companion book arrived, and they couldn’t have arrived at a better time. The weather has been so good lately, and I think in the north of Ireland we’re just not really used to the beautiful sun. The warm summer nights too make it a pleasure to proof read the book outdoors, which I have been doing under lamplight. It’s so peaceful!
Over the past few months I’ve been working on the updated version of the book, trying to bring it up to date with the latest printing of our popular horror deck.
If you’re just discovering Twisted Tarot Tales in recent times, the deck has been out there for close to 10 years in various forms as small print runs / print on demand, but in 2024 we decided to have 500 decks printed, each of which is numbered by hand.
The original book, released in 2016 featured a number of bonus cards which are no longer included in the deck. That’s a whole other story! Over the years, with add on packs and other bonus cards, we had amassed over 100 cards that were not part of the main official 78 card deck.
So with the 2024 printing, we have tried to pick the best of the best from the bonus cards, and feature some of them in the book.
If you already own the book from the first printing, I am not sure if you would glean that much more from this printing. While I sell my wares as an artist, I am not a “salesman” as such; I prefer to slightly undersell a product, because there’s little worse than getting something that doesn’t live up to the hype. That being said I think this updated edition of the book is pretty good…I’ve certainly intended it to be so.
There’s some new art I’ve never shown before, including concepts that were discarded, ideas that I loved that just didn’t make it, and various other bits and pieces. Some cards are touched upon lightly, while others go into quite a bit more detail. The reason behind that is because some cards are reasonably self explanatory, visually, while others may need a bit of a helping hand.
Other cards have a bit of an emotional attachment, while others really don’t, which is why in terms of commentary, some are covered more extensively than others.
So I’m going through the book page by page, checking for grammar and spelling errors. As it’s self published by us, I don’t have an “editor” in the traditional sense.
I think for lovers of Twisted Tarot Tales, the book will be an interesting read. The card meanings from the Twisted Tarot Tales PDF, available on our site, are also included in the book. These were included as a quick go to guide, for example if you’ve already read through the book and don’t want to wade through all the anecdotes and thoughts regarding each card.
As it currently stands, the book is around 102 pages, and its format is U.S Letter (8.5 x 11 inches).
I’m halfway through the book now, and should be done with proofreading in the next couple of days.
Normally It’s hard to find the time during the day to proofread because things are so chaotic and demanding so much of my time, but it has been a pleasant few days to look over the book. For the most part I’ve relegated the proofreading to the warm summer nights when everything has quietened down.
Another addition to the book, which the original did not have, is a complete list of every card we’ve ever printed for the deck. I was a bit reluctant to add the complete published list of all the cards we’ve ever printed, because a good half of those cards are not actually in the 2024 edition of the deck; nor are they currently available. At the same time, throughout the book, some of these are briefly mentioned as part of the TTT timeline, and so I felt that at least for educational, or more importantly, narrative purposes, it would probably be a good idea to add them.
Looking back at all of these artworks that were created over the years for the Twisted Tarot Tales, it almost feels surreal how many were actually created. I really illustrated that many? It was a very creative time, and even today the deck holds a lot of interest for fans just discovering the deck.
I think people enjoy the craziness of the deck; I mean looking at the current state of the world, it’s probably a bit tame in comparison! hahaha - James
When I get the book officially proofread, I will edit the book further, order another proof copy and see if the book is good to go. I estimate it’ll be possibly August, or early September when we have the book available online. If you are interested in when the book officially becomes available, you can sign up for a notification by visiting the listing and inputting your email address in the box at the bottom of the page where it says “Get notified by email when this product is in stock.”