Episode 50: Fire Snakes & Wood Tigers celebrate our 50th EPISODE!

In today’s episode of Cliffhangers and Cocktails, Shéa and Amy are reminded that words come from fingers, not faces as they look back over their favorite moments of the last year and a half. And while Shéa was able to choose a single cocktail as her pod fave (a limoncello lemondrop), Amy couldn’t decide between a French 75 (she did her signature Cherry Portuguese 77) and a spicy pineapple margarita.

Join us for a glimpse at some of our favorite moments over the last 49 episodes!

Resources

Find the Cracked Amethyst Tarot by Jessica Bott: https://www.thecrackedamethyst.com/

Get the Murder of Crows Tarot by Corrado Roy: https://www.loscarabeo.com/products/murder-of-crows-tarot

Recipes and complete notes at: https://www.cliffhangersandcocktails.com/the-pop-blog

Watch us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@cliffhangersandcocktails

Visit our sponsor, the Paranormal Women's Fiction Bookclub, for a free monthly book at https://pwfbookclub.com/.

Follow the pod on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/cliffhangersandcocktails/, 

Check out our website at https://www.cliffhangersandcocktails.com/ and sign up for our newsletter!

Don't forget to like, rate, review, subscribe, and share!

Thanks - the Caftan Coven

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Here's a cut of podcast with Amy Sistle. That's me and my fantastic and long-suffering co-host, Shayna McCloud.

SPEAKER_04 0:13

That's me!

SPEAKER_02 0:15

We are USA Today best-selling authors of paranormal women's fiction, among other things, and this podcast is brought to you as always by the Castan Covenant.

SPEAKER_04 0:25

Whee!

SPEAKER_03 0:27

We're very excited.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

So excited because whenever. Because why?

SPEAKER_02 0:34

This is our 50th episode! Holy fucking turn balls, battery!

SPEAKER_04 0:43

5-0, ladies and gentlemen and others. 5-0, guys, gals, and other pals. I am so excited, yo! Woo-hoo! That is so many! That is so many. I can't believe we've done so many. Of course, we have been. And we still like each other. We still like I still like you. I still like you.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

It's probably helped that I moved to Portugal.

SPEAKER_04 1:06

I mean, no, honestly, it didn't. No, because I missed it.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Because now, of course, now you have to day drink.

SPEAKER_04 1:12

Yeah. Now I have well, yeah, now I have to day drink. But I also really miss getting together with our other Coven member, Sam, and like, you know, doing our witchy, getting our witch and our cocktail on around, you know, the fire in somebody's backyard. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Me too.

SPEAKER_04 1:32

I miss it too. Sad. But I am really excited about today because we are going to be celebrating with a look back at some of our favorite moments and our favorite cocktails of the last year and a half since we launched the pod. Yes, and we are, if you are watching on the YouTube, we are holding up our drinks, and we'll talk more about those later.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

And I would like to say that I couldn't decide, just spoiler. So I held up two drinks. To be fair. Hey, it is 8 30 p.m. as we are recording.

SPEAKER_04 2:14

And for me, it's only 12 30 p.m. So it's a little early in the day to be double fisting cocktails, just you know, because I still do have probably some work to do after this. Maybe we'll see. Amy, I do believe you have put together for us an affirmation. Indeed, I have. Excellent. What'd you let us know what this affirmation is so we can affirmate together?

SPEAKER_03 2:47

Let us affirmate, yes. I am thankful for what I am, for what I have, and for what I can do.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

And I just want to add on to that the way I maybe the way I should have read it is I am thankful for what we are, what we have, and what we can do. Because this is about us, this is about Shay and me, but it's also about all of us, everyone who is here listening. I'm thankful what all of us can do.

SPEAKER_04 3:19

Absolutely. I think it goes, I I like it both ways because gratitude, you always kind of have to well, you start from without and and often often it's difficult for us to be grateful within, like for ourselves, because we can't see our awesome sauceness. But we can see the that of others and what's in our lives if we focus. So we start with we're thankful for who what we are, for what we have, for what we can do together, and then that starts that gratitude starts shifting to within. I am thankful for what I what I am, for what I have, and what I can do. And of course, part of what I can do and what I have and what I'm thankful for is you and the pod and our lovely, lovely listeners.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

And every guest we had.

SPEAKER_04 4:12

Yes, every guest we had. I am always excited, like coming up talking to each new guest, and then I'm always excited, like when you tell me how many listeners we've had on, you know, from whatever, and I'm like, I am so excited and grateful for every single one of you.

unknown 4:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

So today, like Shay said, we're gonna talk about some of our favorite moments. Yeah. We're kind of like we're mildly scripted today, but it's probably gonna get a little wild. Yeah, because I mean, first of all, you guys, this is our 50th episode, so you all know already that Shaya and I, even when we have a script, yeah, sometimes go off of it.

SPEAKER_04 4:59

A little bit.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Sometimes a lot.

SPEAKER_04 5:01

A lot, yeah. A little bit.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

So imagine now where we just have like basically props.

SPEAKER_04 5:07

Yeah. Talk about this thing, and we're like, okay. And also she Oh wait, I forgot about this one thing. Shay is a little punchy today because Sha is having allergies, and Shay had a real weird, real long, real ex real like action-y dream last night. So I did sleep, but I'm feeling like I didn't get enough. It was a little too much.

SPEAKER_03 5:35

I think it's a little punchy because it's 8 30.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

I mean neither of which I've really done anything with yet, which is kind of a problem. Um so why don't why don't you kick us off, Shaya, with like one of your favorite moments from the last four the 49 previous episodes.

SPEAKER_04 5:57

So plus oh, yeah, plus, yeah. Well, here's the thing. I love and I don't see these until you post them. So I kind of see them at the same time as everybody else, which is kind of fun. But my favorite moments are always the captioning mishaps, which uh you know, the automatic captioning that it, you know, that is done for the sh for the our recording, it doesn't always translate things quite correctly.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

And the day it gets Captain Kevin, when we say it at the beginning, brought to you by the Captain Kevin, the day that it gets that, uh I think last time, uh my last one, it was Captain Kevin. Captain Kevin. Captain Kevin. This is gonna mess up the transcript so bad. I'm gonna have to do so much work to clean it up. Now that we're yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

Oh my god, that's hilarious. I was actually gonna, I haven't seen the latest one, so I'm literally on Instagram right now. And y'all, if you there isn't any. If you oh, Dad Nabit, but if you follow us on Cliffhangers and Cocktails, you will definitely find some fun transcription errors. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Transcription and I almost always do them on a when I announce that the new episode is up, and I do a little slideshow of kind of what the episode was about, and like here's some key points. The most recent episode that we put up um last week's episode was our interview with Issa Medina. Uh-huh. And so we talked about tea, so I have little tea facts in there. Yeah. Yeah. So it does not have the transcription errors, though. So uh if they're boring or there's not very many, I usually skip it.

SPEAKER_04 7:49

Well, I I'm Or if I'm in a rush. Yeah. I'm looking at the transcription funny from Bell Cane. It said bladed delcane. I just like, you know, I mean it just.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

There's been some doozies and it's it's been real fun. Some of them are a little x-rated, and I'm like, there's no way that I said that. And transcripts transcription software needs to get a grip.

SPEAKER_04 8:13

And what's so funny is it really doesn't like when you do actually transcribe like you do like if you're doing dictation and you do something a little raunchy, it does not always like that. So I think that's kind of how I guess. And I would say I'm trying to think of other like just things. I just the thing is that like I remember our guests and I don't always remember the conversations or like I do remember certain moments, but there's like certain guests that I just like we laughed so much. And that's kind of what I remember is just like just the laughing and like practically forgetting we're supposed to be recording a podcast. CN Rowan was like that, like oh my god. That was like an episode.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

It was first of all, we're drinking whiskey. Yeah, that was our cocktail. Yeah. So we're sitting there drinking whiskey. I did have my disembodied hand um come through the door halfway through because I ran out of whiskey. And I had I texted my partner. I'm like, can you just pass some whiskey through the door for me so I can more? Because like Stan Rowland showed up prepared.

SPEAKER_04 9:32

Yeah, like a whole bottle of whiskey. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

And I was dumb and I did not do that for the interview portion. I did that when we recorded our bookends, and then she the bottle is here with me. I guess I needed a refill. You live and you learn. That's why I have two cocktails right now. Then I had to get up and make a new one halfway through.

SPEAKER_04 9:50

And then he and I got into a little, shall we say, discussion about bourbon? And I was like, but he's right. I mean, he's right-ish. He's actually not technically right, but he's right-ish.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Like when we were talking about like the things that made us laugh and like some of the episodes, like every every author that we've had on, every person we've had on has been fantabulous. But one of the moments that really stands out for me is when we interviewed Heather Harris, and one of the things we were we were all struggling with words, and I don't remember which of us said, and I could go back and review the footage, but it doesn't matter. That words come from fingers, not faces. Because we're all writers and we're struggling to speak. And it's become such a thing that we say now in my house. Yeah. Um, whenever any of us are like stuttering over our words, because I'm an author, my partner's an author, my daughter is writing a book, so I mean she's a writer. So whenever any of us are struggling, we're like, uh, words come from fingers, not faces.

SPEAKER_04 10:59

I'm pretty sure that was you who said that, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

It sounds like me. I'm very clever.

SPEAKER_04 11:05

It sounds like a you thing. It could have come from heaven, it definitely did not come from me, I don't think. I do sometimes come up with clever sayings, but I don't think that was one of them. But you know what?

SPEAKER_02 11:17

It doesn't really matter because it's it doesn't matter because it was amazing.

SPEAKER_04 11:21

It's a true fact.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

And I'm not gonna go review the footage to find out who said it.

SPEAKER_04 11:25

So But if you guys reviewed the footage and could tell us who said that, feel free.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Yeah, let us know who came up with that. But that was that was Yeah, that was amazing.

SPEAKER_04 11:39

And one of one of the I can't I will never forget when we interviewed Stephanie Bercioli and she said her favorite cocktail was a pina colada. And so I'm like, great. And I got it's like a maybe a 14 ounce, um, like it's like a kind of like one of those ninja things where they make smoothies in. And I made mine in that, which was perfect, it was the perfect amount of pina colada. You did something that was uh non-blended because you don't care for blended drinks, but she came out with this massive blenderful of cocktail that was, oh my god, as big as her head. I think it was bigger than her head. To be pretty honest. And the whole time she's just leaning on the counter and sipping out, she drank mm, I think most of it.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

We'd have to review the footage.

SPEAKER_04 12:32

We'd have to review the footage, but my god, it was funny. Because I mean, just this massive blender of pina colada, I think it could have served four to six people.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

I don't know. I felt like it was two servings max. Maybe two. Come on.

SPEAKER_04 12:47

Maybe two, but like it was a it was a massive amount of pina colada.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

I don't know how much it was that interview was super fun. It was super fun.

SPEAKER_04 12:57

Yeah, we laughed so much, so much.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Well, I just say, like, one of my favorite uh moments was when we interviewed Elizabeth Hunter. She was our very first author that we had. She was uh episode number two. And Elizabeth Hunter and I have been friends for quite a long time, and it was just such a delight to have her on for our first author interview and talk about vampires and drink of vampire drinks. And I was in a hotel in White Salmon, Washington, sitting on like a weird little bar stool doing this interview with like no idea what a professional setup should look like or sound like, which might be evident if you go back to uh that episode. But it's definitely it's worth a listen because Elizabeth Printer is fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

She is, and I just remember like when we chatted with her, I we were on for like two and a half hours or something insane. It was a lot. I like you had to do so much editing to get it down into uh you know our format. But it was like we just couldn't stop talking and laughing, and like, you know, we need to like get her on again or whatever because she's just 100%.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

I'm sure she I'm sure. I'm sure she would come back.

SPEAKER_04 14:12

She's definitely had a few books out since then. She just had one out recently, actually. I think.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Did she? I think so.

SPEAKER_04 14:19

Yeah, I I think or coming out, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Well, I can tell you, I I also, full disclosure, am her developmental editor. So I know that I have her next book open on another screen right now.

unknown 14:37

Oh!

SPEAKER_04 14:40

Would you like me to read it to you? Uh no, I well, I yes, and Do you think she'd kill me?

SPEAKER_02 14:48

She'd never come on the show if I started reading her book.

SPEAKER_04 14:51

Exactly. That's just not that's just not copacetic.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

So uh I would never anyway. Like that was a joke.

SPEAKER_04 15:00

Absolutely joke, yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Um because you know who else's books are probably on my share drive. I've got Loretta Hignett's next book on there, too.

SPEAKER_04 15:08

Oh, Loretta Higgins.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

And see Thomas Lafayette.

SPEAKER_04 15:11

I could read his next book to us. Oh, yeah. And you know, I wouldn't mind hearing like any or all of those, but that just doesn't seem right.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Okay. So I am not 100% positive that I could find that, but my partner is her editor, so I'm sure it's somewhere in a shared drive. Uh probably. Now that I've threatened to do acid call misdeeds.

SPEAKER_04 15:51

One of our more recent ones uh interviews that we did was with Dell, who they came on and talked about Oracle and Tarot and Divination through the cars, and that was such a great episode. Very hoot.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

It was like so the breadth and depth of knowledge about tarot and oracle was just impressive, and I am hoping they'll come back on sometime in the next 50 episodes to do some more tarot talk with us because that was fantastic. And we're talking about people who aren't necessarily authors but who have been guests for the witchy part of our podcast. Absolutely. We can't leave out Samantha Hargrove.

SPEAKER_04 16:37

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

She's been on two times already.

SPEAKER_04 16:39

Right, talking about to talk about magic rocks or crystals. Magic rocks, yes. And she is just she is also just a wealth of knowledge about you know healing and crystals and energy work. And she's so great. And and of course, you know, she's the third member of our Caftank Coven. And so just having her on is just like you know, exactly. Get her little Witchie hats on. Like she got mine. It just is it just my little Witchie hat tattoo. I love it. See, I still need to get mine. I haven't got mine, but we'll you know, we're gonna that's uh I gotta get big and brave. But yeah, so having her on is just like a natural extension of us, I you know, and it's just her uh energy is great, her uh information is great. I mean, it's just I love having her on. Oh, but I have to tell you this back to Del. Sorry. So one of my friends who listens to the pod loved that episode so much, and she's like, I want a reading from Del. And I'm like, you know what? So do I. So she made a date for us to go see Del and get readings. So we're going tomorrow. My friend is gonna pick me up and we're gonna drive over to see them and have them read our cards and etc.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

So for those of you uh listening/slash watching, it's in the past already.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

She has already had this done. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

And we'll presumably comment somewhere on the Instagram post or somewhere and say that it was awesome. I'm just telling her right now she's gonna do that, presumably. If I say it here in recording when I do the editing, it will remind me.

SPEAKER_04 18:29

I have no doubt it's gonna be amazing. And I just had such great resonance with them. I it was just I really like how they approach it. I like their energy, and so I'm really kind of I'm really excited about this actually. So tomorrow, tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

I don't think we can probably mention everybody that's been on.

SPEAKER_04 18:54

No.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Uh because then I I still will have to edit this because it still has to not be 70 hours long. Right. I can't do like I can't just do a parade of everybody has been so awesome. And I want everybody to come back on again. And the people that we've mentioned were fantastic, people we haven't mentioned were fantastic, but like Lee and Renee, at least if you know and Renee Rose, when they came on to talk about manifestation. That was so great. Terrific.

SPEAKER_04 19:28

Yeah, I mean, keep in mind that's a lot of.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Well, Reddit obviously was one of my favorites. Uh she's one of my favorite authors that we've had on. They're all my favorite authors. Sorry, everybody is my favorite author.

SPEAKER_04 19:37

Everybody. Seriously, every single person is my favorite. And that was why it's so hard to come up with like standout moments. And also, you know, we this has been a year and a half of us doing this. So we're I'm my poor Perry Menopause brain is trying to remember what happened a year and a half ago. You know, listeners may have just found it and like binged them or something, but like we're having to reach into the far distant past.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

You know who my favorite author is that we've had on though?

SPEAKER_04 20:07

Who? You oh well, you know what? You know who my favorite author is?

SPEAKER_02 20:14

Well, I thought you were gonna say somebody else that's gonna be like no, it's actually C.

SPEAKER_04 20:21

Thomas. Oh, C Thomas not the letter number one in your heart.

unknown 20:26

No.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

Sorry, C. Thomas. Amy Sissel is number one in my heart of the interviews. Sorry. That's okay, yes. Woo! This this lemoncella lemon drop is a little bit punchy. And speaking of, our next favorite thing is like we've had many cocktails throughout the recording of the podcast. Because if you're listening to this and you know anything about this podcast, if you can read, like at least, one of our primary concerns is cocktails. And so we always ask each of our guests what their favorite cocktail is, and then we make that cocktail and drink it. Let's talk about favorite cocktails. Amy, do you have a favorite cocktail over the last 50 episodes?

SPEAKER_03 21:25

Yes, I have seven.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

However, I managed to whittle it down to two-ish, really. Um, we've had, I think, two French 75 episodes. At least, yeah. And two spicy margaritas. So I have here my spicy margarita. And this is my spicy pepper that I found at the grocery store. Because I can't find a jalapeno here, which is when I did the spicy margaritas, both of them were recorded before I moved to Porto. So we had spicy. Pineapple jalapeno margaritas with Loretta Hignett last summer, about a year ago. And then with Lee Sabino and Renee Rose, Lee's was the spicy margarita. Right, which is the same. So I'm doing a spicy pineapple margarita. And I couldn't find a jalapeno, but I have this red pepper. And the other, I had another red pepper that I chopped up and put into the tequila. So I'm having my spicy. Spicy margarita. And I also I do want to call out that my other favorite cocktail that we had is when we recorded Shea's birthday episode the first the first year in 2025. I she had an old fashioned, a maple old-fashioned or something, and I said because I don't like old fashioned. And so I just drink champagne because I love her. And champagne is so celebratory. But I am not drinking champagne tonight. Although. Oh my god. My second favorite cocktail. Uh-oh, it's stuck to the coaster. This one is still very full. I haven't had it yet.

SPEAKER_04 23:07

French 75, yum, yum.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

So this is a cherry French 75.

SPEAKER_04 23:12

Ooh.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Made with homemade cherry liqueur.

SPEAKER_04 23:17

Yum. That I made.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

And this is what we had for my birthday this year for my birthday episode. And also, we did French 75s with Del when they were on. And so, yes, I'm having my cherry French 75. I'm having my spicy pineapple margarita. And then because I had to open a bottle of bubbles to make the French 75, obviously, after this episode, I can have another glass of bubbles to like fully celebrate our 50th episode. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 23:51

And meanwhile, like I have so many. I was looking through the list of all the different ones, and I was like, but I love that one and I love that one and I love that one. Like, I mean, I love an old fashioned, as you know. I'm always up for an old fashioned, whether, you know, like the maple one that I had for my birthday or like the bergamot one that I had for Adele's uh episode, which I think you know. And I the spar the spicy margarita that Loretta, the spicy pineapple margarita that Loretta did. Oh my goodness. So good. But I think the number one of all the ones we did was the lemon cello lemon drop. Well uh Tara West for her episode did you know how we had a lemon drop. But of course I always have to put lemoncello in mine. So mine lemon cello lemon drop because it's just so bright and happy, and it's all about cleansing and protection and prosperity. You know, it's for just attracting all the good things, and apparently it's supposed to be for mental clarity. That is up for debate with me today, I will say.

SPEAKER_03 25:01

Well, have you finished it yet?

SPEAKER_04 25:03

Um, there's still some in there.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

So yeah, you don't get the mental clarity until it's all gone.

SPEAKER_04 25:12

Gotcha, I'm doing it wrong.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

I I forgot to say I got to put I forgot to say uh the the um magical properties of my pottails. Yes. Um so in the French 75, because I'm having my cherry French 75. The bubbles, of course, are celebration, which is out. Um the gin and the citrus are for protection and healing, and the cherry in a French 75 is for love, protection, and luck. So yay! So I've got a spicy, no, a celebratory luck. Yeah. Love, cocktail. And then the spicy pineapple and margarita has got abundance, love, and protection. I'm so protected after these two cocktails, y'all.

SPEAKER_04 25:59

You are so protected.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

The pineapple is prosperity and luck, spicy peppers for protection and purification. And of course, tequila is all about fire, it's transformation, it's creativity, it's got heat that makes everything go woo. Woo! I'm almost done with my margarita, so I'm feeling a little feeling a little woo. And I And we'll drop the recipes in the show notes for sure.

SPEAKER_04 26:25

So and I thought it was interesting because I was looking up the magical properties, and of course, we've talked about lemon and everything before, but I don't know that I've ever looked up specifically lemon cello, and the properties are slightly different, but apparently in folk magic it's used to banish negative energy, j you know, just like the lemon, um, and attract prosperity and love. So we're having a lot of love, y'all. The love fest, up in here. We're on a level. The love fest. Jo the love fest.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

Uh join I went with Love Shack, and what did you go with?

SPEAKER_04 27:05

I don't I it was something like Marvin Gay, I think. Wait, who didn't we?

SPEAKER_02 27:10

And I'm on B-52s.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

Who did Love Join?

SPEAKER_02 27:13

I can't remember.

SPEAKER_04 27:13

Join the Love?

SPEAKER_02 27:15

I was there, I'm B-52 Inc. over here.

SPEAKER_04 27:18

B-52s are most excellent. So we're also gonna do Oracle and Tarot draws from our favorite decks. So we are.

SPEAKER_02 27:31

Do you want to go first?

SPEAKER_04 27:33

Sure, I'll go first. So I've only I think I've only used this once on the pod. I've used some of my others multiple times, but um this is a deck that just really speaks to me being uh a February baby being an Aquarian. It's the Cracked Amethyst Tarot by Jessica Bott. And I just love the imagery. It's just very the the cover is just like a dark night, but it's it's kind of a greenish. So pretty yeah. And then with the moon, and then below is the mushrooms, and the back has little standing stones.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Don't say the N-word.

SPEAKER_04 28:15

Huh? Oh yeah. I forgot.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

All right, shrooms.

SPEAKER_04 28:19

No recovering. All right, but the back of the cards are green with a wreath of little white flowers. Are those keys? Yeah, and keys. Yeah. I love it. And then like little crescent moons and stars just hanging. So it's just very sort of like witchy core, which I love. Um, and I actually forgot, I'm gonna move my laptop back a little bit. Um I forgot to uh shuffle this deck before because I am just not with it today, y'all. I'm here to celebrate, I am not here to think. I guess.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

Oh my god, I love 175 so much.

SPEAKER_04 29:02

So I'm just gonna kind of Okay, we've got this uh thinged you know, thinged.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

You've got it what?

SPEAKER_04 29:09

Thinged. Um, okay it's thinged? Shuffled. Oh yeah. And I have to show off I love the edges because they're like a shimmery silver.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

Oh, I love shimmery edges.

SPEAKER_04 29:20

So I'm gonna cut the deck. Okay, let's see what this card has to say. This is four of cups. And the card is a like a kitchen cabinet, one of those white kitchen cabinets with the little window panes in it. And it shows a little red coffee mug sitting on the shelf. I love that. Isn't that great? Uh one thing I really like about this deck is how simple the cards are. This I can make it a little hard sometimes for me to read it because her book is really simple too. Like it's just like this. This is um this is the page here. With it like sort of she has a little simplified drawing of the same image, and she has very little she just has sort of the highlights, and so sometimes it's a little hard for me. I'm I'm not super great at reading cards, but like Dea.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

I'm gonna need you to do me a favor. Yes, ma'am. And I'm gonna need you to stop doing my disclaimer every time.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Do you remember what Dell told us?

SPEAKER_04 30:30

That's right. Yes. No, what did she say?

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Del said as long it doesn't matter if you have if you have memorized all the cards. Uh or whatever. Even if you didn't know in the book.

SPEAKER_04 30:41

Yeah, they did say that.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

It doesn't matter. They said that you're a reader and you do so you don't have to do the disclaimer every time.

SPEAKER_04 30:51

See, I am doing the same thing that so many newbie writers do, and I chastise, or not even newbie writers, even old-time writers do this, and I'm always chastising them for doing this very same thing, and I do this with reading the cards because I always feel like because I can't immediately like I'm I don't have the cards memorized, I don't I can't always know the meaning of the card just from looking at it. I kind of have to think about it, and so I always sort of put myself down because of that.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

And it's harder too, because a lot of if you're using the traditional writer wait deck, right, then you can kind of follow the story, and right the the cards can be expressive enough that you can look at them and be like, I know what this means. Yeah. But if you're using a non-traditional deck, which is a coffee cup in a in a cupboard, in a cabinet, it's just hard to know what that's gonna stand for unless you already know what it means.

SPEAKER_04 31:52

Right. And that's very true, and I have to remind myself that. And I need to do, I need to practice what I preach. I don't think I am gonna call you out. Thank you. I do need calling out from time to time, and I am absolutely gonna call you. I'm calling you in. Calling me in. Yeah, there we go. That's what we should do. We're c I'm calling you in. I'm not calling you out, I'm calling you in. Um so Four of Cups. This is interesting. It says apathy, boredom, withdrawal. So in the cupboard where it always is, all alone, high up and hard to reach, behind the glass, we can see but not touch. And I see I'm that kind of confuses me. Maybe because I don't know what four of cups traditionally stands for.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

Well, so for this, it's really about saying no to stuff. You're you're maybe you're feeling a little bit withdrawn or a little bit apathetic, but it also might mean that you need to put yourself in the cupboard and take some time to evaluate what you really want. Are you saying no because you're not interested or because you're just feeling apathetic about a situation? Oh is your cup too full? Is it overflowing? Do you not have room for more stuff in your cup?

SPEAKER_04 33:14

Interesting. See, I love that. I love when you clarify things for me because it's like I'm like, the minute you do, and it starts turning in my mind, I'm like, oh, yeah. Duh. That's so great.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

That's gonna say that I often will look up the meanings because I hate being wrong, especially wrong and recorded.

unknown 33:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

So I do often double check what I'm saying before I say it. Um, I don't have every card memorized. I know generally what's gonna happen within the overall major arcana, and I know the themes of the minor arcana. Because a five in a minor arcana is generally a very conflict heavy card, regardless of the suit.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

Right.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

So I know where things are, but also I like right, so this is not a conflict one.

SPEAKER_04 34:12

But it's just time alone.

SPEAKER_02 34:15

Yep, so I know what a three means and a ten means and a five, but I do like to double check.

SPEAKER_04 34:22

And you've been, I think you've been doing this tarot journey for a lot longer than I have. I'm very Yeah, sometimes about twenty. Yeah. And while I was So, you know, five, six years. Yeah. I was always curious five or six, yeah, see, and for me. Almost thirty. I've only, I think, really seriously, like I've been collecting tarot and oracle for a while. And occasionally I would do a little reading, but for myself. I have I haven't really gotten into it as seriously until we started this podcast. So I don't really uh I'm still learning. I love that because it's always good to learn and stretch and grow. But yeah, that actually really I don't know if that speaks to our listeners, but it definitely speaks to me, that card. For sure. And if I if I hadn't had you here, I would have looked it up on like probably Biddy Tarot is my go-to to because it's a really clear interpretation or like information.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

That's my favorite online resource.

SPEAKER_04 35:23

So that's a great one.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

And that's that's one of the resources I use for our two-minute tarot.

unknown 35:28

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

Shorts. Um, that will be uh continuing apace throughout the summer. But okay, I'm gonna do my deck now.

SPEAKER_04 35:37

Yeah, your deck. Which deck have you chosen today?

SPEAKER_02 35:41

So I was gonna do my favorite deck, which is Crow Tarot by MJ Cullen. That's my everyday deck. But then I pulled out instead my Murder of Crows Tarot by Karato Roy. Let's see, can I get a focus? Can I get a focus?

SPEAKER_04 36:02

It doesn't want to focus on the phone.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

There will be pictures. And it's so fun because every side of the box is a little bit different.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Ooh, I like that.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

And then if you take the cover off, it's the same images but in black and red. And I will put pictures of this up on obviously on Instagram. Um the back of the decks is just a pretty basic. I mean, there's nothing groundbreaking about it. It is a cool, like, um, but it's not it's black and white, right? Yeah. Alright, so I have just pulled the Knight of Swords. Okay, so there's like this crow warrior, crow headed warrior carrying a sword with a crow on their shoulder, maybe, and they're riding a horse. And the horse looks a little sad. I don't know. The horse is probably terrified. I am not entirely sure what's going on with this. With the horse. Um I'm terrified, frankly. Um, the knights, night cards are usually like very action cards. These because knights, nights, air, they're all off doing adventures and stuff like that. So this is not a passive card, usually. This is a card that's out doing stuff. And swords is swords are the air sign.

SPEAKER_04 37:28

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 37:30

Yes, swords are air.

SPEAKER_04 37:32

I'm an air sign, so does that mean I'm a sword?

SPEAKER_02 37:36

I mean, if you want to be.

SPEAKER_04 37:37

Sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 37:38

I'm a cup. Cups are water.

unknown 37:41

Ah.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

Um, so air sign, so this is very so that's like really action-y. That's a really action-y card. It's not, it's not wands, which are fire. Yeah. But it's this is so this is a card of ambition. This is a card of action. This is a card of success. Uh this this knight is going places, he's like out there, he's like, Yay, look at me, I got my sword. I'm gonna win stuff, or something. I don't even know. It's a it's somewhat on a mission. Your mind is set on something, there's nothing stopping him now, basically. And because it's an air sign, and air is correlates with intellect. Uh-huh. So this is you're getting to where you want, but you brains. It looks like a brawn card for sure, because you know you got your swords, but air is brains. Air is intellect.

SPEAKER_04 38:36

I'm definitely not brawn.

SPEAKER_02 38:42

So this is a card of ambition, of um success, of being driven. It's it's not a card of planning ahead. I'm gonna just lay that out there. It is not, it is a card of high energy, it is not a card of careful planning, uh, but it reminds you to be assertive, to go for what you want, to, but to also keep in mind that this means things are not being thought through all the way. But it's a reminder to put yourself in the center as the creator of your own future. Like, this is not a card where things happen to you. You're the main character in your own story. Oh, this is the thing. You make the things happen. This is a do the thing card. This is a do-the-thing card.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

This is a do-the-thing card, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:36

It's a don't overthink. So I think it's really fun that this contra contrasts with your four of cuts. Because that one is, hey, is my cup too full? Am I saying no to something because I'm apathetic, because I'm scared, because whatever, or is it because I don't have room for it? Should I rethink it? Your card is such an introspection card, and mine's like, do it!

SPEAKER_01 39:58

Do the thing all the time.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

My body says it's fine. It's so funny too that I'm the air sign and yet I got the water card, and you're the water sign and yet you got the air card.

SPEAKER_02 40:14

Maybe we were reading for each other.

SPEAKER_04 40:16

Maybe. Maybe you need to think about why you're saying no to a thing. And I need to think about doing a thing. But some ways they're some ways they're two two halves of the same thing. They're sometimes you do need to have that introspection to realize why you're saying yes or why you're saying no. And then but then sometimes you need you can't stay in the introspection. You need to just do the thing.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

Yeah. At some point.

SPEAKER_04 40:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

Cups are heart.

SPEAKER_04 40:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

And swords are brain.

unknown 40:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:58

And that really does, I think, correlate really well when you think about um Shea being an air sign and having that high intellectual thing, but also being a cold-hearted snake. No, I'm just kidding. Um, but you you do have like the high, the high intellect, the high um when we talk, we've talked, I know before about Clifton strengths, and you are very high intellect and very high analyzer and all the things. And so am I too. But also, I'm on I'm a Pisces, and I probably could stand to to air sign a little bit more sometimes. Just saying.

SPEAKER_04 41:42

And I mean it's true, I sometimes air sign maybe a little bit too much and overthink something. I mean, yes, air sign too much and overthink things, but I in my Clifton Strengths, I do have um activator uh in at number five. It's like at the bottom of the top five. And so it I'm fortunate in that I have that because like my moon sign, for instance, is in Leo, which is a very big loud, that's a fire sign, you know, and I my rising is in Aries. So that's an Aries sign. Also fire. I mean, also fire, yeah. So I've got the fire in the air. So I do have a little bit of that going on in it, you know. So fortunately, as I worked with my strengths, I've gotten better at not just sitting there thinking too much, but I also have to balance it with not thinking at all.

SPEAKER_02 42:42

Well, I guess maybe that's why this is good, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:46

I need to have that little moment in the cupboard from time to time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:53

My um rising sign is Sagittarius, which is air, I think.

SPEAKER_04 42:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

Is it?

SPEAKER_04 43:01

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

Um now I'm googling. Uh no, it's not. What is Sagittarius? Sagittarius is fire. I think Taurus is my earth, is Earth, and that's my moon.

SPEAKER_04 43:16

Yeah. Yes, because Sam is Taurus. I is her.

SPEAKER_03 43:23

No, Sam is Aries.

SPEAKER_04 43:25

Sam is Aries. Oh, Aries, that's right. Aries, not yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:29

She and my daughter are both Aries, and their birthdays are very close together. So that's right.

SPEAKER_04 43:35

That's right. Aries. I got them swapped. That's a fire, air, and water in our but you've got the stabilizing earth.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

So I Yeah, thank goodness.

SPEAKER_04 43:47

I know. Could you imagine if we had no Earth? Oh, that's so funny.

SPEAKER_02 43:53

Um I don't know my daughter's complete star chart. I know she's an Aries, and I know she was born in the year of the dragon. But not the fire dragon. That's this year. Uh water dragon. So at least there's some of that. But if if I did her star chart and found out that she was like an Aries with like Leo rising and her moon and Sagittarius, that's all fire signs. None of that would surprise me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:18

Yeah. I've got a lot of fire with my hair. But actually, I was born in the year with a wood tiger. So that adds a little bit of that grounding element because wood is kind of earth-ish.

SPEAKER_02 44:29

Well, I don't know what my um element with my uh Chinese astrological sign is, and I'm going to Google it right now because I care about you, Shaya, and also all of you. And I know you are desperate to know.

SPEAKER_04 44:46

I am absolutely desperate to know what is your because you're what's your animal? You're you're uh I am a snake. I'm a fire snake, y'all! You're a fire snake, oh my god. That's wild, y'all.

SPEAKER_02 45:00

That's a wood tiger, right? That is awesome. I'm so excited. I'm passionate and charismatic and decisive and fiercely driven in my pursuits like a knight of swords.

SPEAKER_04 45:10

Oh yeah. Wood tiger. I don't remember what mine. Okay, yeah, yeah. Uh daring and charismatic nature of the tiger is blended with the wood element. That doesn't help. Oh, friendly and pleasant towards everyone around them. It says they're less self-sufficient than other types of tiger, but I don't know that that's true.

SPEAKER_03 45:37

Exceptional at rallying others at all.

SPEAKER_04 45:40

And that's probably like a lot of um it it's true that I mean it's like I've got that that part of liking to actually work with others sometimes and be like, let's do this thing. Um I probably work with others better than some. And that's maybe where that comes into the because I have had people a little bit surprised that I was other aquarians recognize me as being a fellow aquarian, but like non-Aquarians sometimes think I'm not an Aquarian because I don't act what the typical like what's that word? What people think of as an Aquarian. I forgot the word. Because I don't know. Fingers do words, not mouth.

SPEAKER_02 46:29

Words come from fingers, not faces.

SPEAKER_04 46:32

That's right. That one.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

I have to make a graphic for that now.

SPEAKER_04 46:36

Exactly. No, you know, people have this idea of how certain science should behave. And I don't totally match a typical I'm not in my head as I'm pretty in my head, but I'm not maybe in my head as much. And a lot of people think of Aquarians as being quite cold. Um and I I guess I can be that way, but people when they meet me, they don't see me as being cold. They see me as being very personable and not at all standoffish. And they think of Aquarius as being kind of standoffish.

SPEAKER_02 47:08

Okay, like I'm looking at this, it says emotionally detached, because you're cerebral.

SPEAKER_04 47:13

Yeah. And I'm also just stubborn. I am very stubborn. Yeah. Or I can be like I can be, but the thing is I've got that thing where I can work with other people. And if I someone has an idea and it's different than mine, but it is good, I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_02 47:33

This also says deeply caring in their own way.

SPEAKER_04 47:40

That's very true though. In my own way.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

But humanitarian, unconventional, innovative, yeah, a visionary. That's fine. Yes, and uh all those things. Yeah. Prone to ghosting.

SPEAKER_04 47:57

I mean, I suppose there's a level of avoidance of discomfort and confrontation, but I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily prone to ghosting. I have ghosted a couple of people because they wouldn't just take no. And so I was like, you know.

SPEAKER_02 48:20

I'm prone to ghosting.

SPEAKER_04 48:23

Well, if you ghost me, I know where you live and I know who you live with. So I'm not gonna ghost you. That would be so weird. That'd be really weird. I just show up to do the podcast one day and you're not like there. And so I like call the police in Porto and like you should call Chris first, probably. Probably I should call Chris first, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:46

Um, I looked up the theme on the same thing, the stereotypical Pisces. Yeah. And it's like overly sentimental, indecisive, uh tendency to flee from direct conflict and reality. Do you think it's a good idea? But also. Why do you think I left the United States? Limitless imagination, emotionally intelligent, healing and nurturing, but idealistic and gullible.

SPEAKER_04 49:19

I wouldn't think you were necessarily gullible. I mean, I'm not sure, maybe, but not gullible. I mean, yeah. I think once it took a while. Yeah, once you had a certain age, like gullibility kind of 40. Yeah.

unknown 49:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:36

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 49:43

Do you think that's which is unfortunately true?

SPEAKER_04 49:46

I have a rich inner life.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

You have what? A rich inner life.

SPEAKER_04 49:51

Oh, well, see, I have that too, but I think you know, that's a writerly thing as well.

SPEAKER_02 49:55

I think so too.

SPEAKER_04 49:57

But and of course being being that whole cerebral thing and having lots of thinking strengths that's just Oh no, I'm shit at boundaries.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

Maintaining my own, not at honoring others. Maybe that too. It doesn't say that specifically.

SPEAKER_04 50:13

I have troubles with that. But I also think that's uh a fe a female thing, like a raised raised as a woman thing, or socialized as a woman thing.

SPEAKER_02 50:24

At least you're deeply caring in your own way.

SPEAKER_04 50:27

In my own way. Yeah, it's true. Like, I probably won't run across the you know, unless I'm being like you know, I'm letting my inner Leo out to play, but like I'll be much more calm, typically. It depends on my mood.

SPEAKER_02 50:43

I wouldn't do that either. And apparently I'm very emotional. And I kind of got the feeling that it was trying to say on balance. Which fair.

unknown 50:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:56

We've talked about my mental breakdown here.

SPEAKER_04 50:59

Uh I got a feeling it was trying to tell me I'm a cold-hearted snake, but you know, I mean, yeah, I do that that's in there.

SPEAKER_02 51:05

But I'm the snake, I'm a fire snake.

SPEAKER_04 51:07

I know, but you're the snake and I'm a tiger.

SPEAKER_02 51:08

I'm a fire snake, look into my eyes.

SPEAKER_04 51:12

Uh-oh. Uh uh, the tiger. Fire dance. The tiger dance, I mean.

SPEAKER_02 51:19

I'm a fire hard snake, look into my eyes. And I'm the tiger dance.

unknown 51:27

Tiger.

SPEAKER_04 51:28

Oh, the tiger. I oh the tiger. I uh snake teams, big teams.

SPEAKER_03 51:33

And also, feeling like a fishy. Because I'm a Pisces. Uh I don't know how to carry this hair.

SPEAKER_04 51:43

Oh, that doesn't look great.

SPEAKER_02 51:46

No, okay, you guys, honestly. I appreciate however you choose to consume this podcast, but I would suggest that today might be a good day to come watch this on YouTube. Oh no, why is the cocktail gone? Oh no. Oh, it was Pirate Paul. Okay, yes, so here we are. Yeah. Um announcing. We are here towards the end of our 50th episode, and we have a few announcements for what's going on coming up. This is not of the last episode. Um, you know what I didn't say earlier when we were talking about our favorite moments is how much I loved our live Yule that we did for 2025 Yule.

SPEAKER_01 52:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 52:42

When we just had authors that we had on um that year come and pop in. We did an oracle card draw for them. I think we made Clark really sad. With the card that we drew for him. I'm like, I'm really sorry about this, Clark.

SPEAKER_04 53:00

But maybe we need to touch faces with Clark and make sure he's okay.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

He hasn't spoken to us since. He hasn't. But we're we'll be doing it again this year. We'll be doing another live duel, and we'll be inviting all of the authors who can to pop in. And because we're a multi-time zone situation that we've got going on last year, we had people from the west coast of the United States all the way to the east coast of Australia come on at various times. So that was really fun to be doing that again in six months. So mark your calendars.

unknown 53:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:40

But so that was one of my favorite moments was our live Yule episode.

SPEAKER_04 53:43

That was super fun. I'm so glad.

SPEAKER_02 53:46

We'll be doing that again. That's just that's a thing we're just gonna be doing because it was amazing. But um, announcements. Announcements. July and August, we will be doing a semi-hiatus in that we won't have any new author episodes come up. We'll be running some of our more popular interviews as reruns, and so those will be popping up every couple weeks just like they do now. I'm I'll record a special little intro for them just to remind you of what's going on with us if we have any cool stuff to say about us. Um, but we'll also have our so-called mini sod, and those will be new um every other week, except for Lunata, which will be a rerun of last year. So we are going to be doing that.

SPEAKER_04 54:34

Oh, yes, speaking of mini sods, they're not really that many anymore, are they? They are not. So we'll be um after uh after this hiatus, I think, we're gonna be switching up the format a little bit so that all episodes, whether they're author interviews or not, they're gonna be about the same length. Um we're we're still gonna be altering interviews with the craft episodes or what we were calling mini episodes. But so you'll be getting the books, the boos, the the boos that you've come to expect, but they will be in a more reasonable uh sized bite, I will say, because I think we're gonna try and keep them to 45 minutes to an hour.

SPEAKER_02 55:23

Um yeah, we were trying so hard to fit so much information into our author episodes that it was just getting to the point where there was too much to reasonably edit into a 90-minute episode, and I'd rather have them shorter, and then at the beginning we were trying to keep our mini sodes so small that we were, I think, cutting corners on information. Yes. So I think we're gonna try to make a happy medium.

SPEAKER_04 55:53

Yeah. We're gonna try. Anyway, so that's gonna be our new format, and so basically every episode, we're not gonna be calling them mini sodes anymore. They're just all gonna be episodes.

SPEAKER_02 56:04

And and this is our 50th episode, and that includes the mini sodes. Yes. So from now on, it's not gonna be episode this or mini sod that. It's just gonna be the next episode you see will be episode after today, it'll be episode 51. And it's just gonna have that numbering format going forward. If it's a rerun, it will not be in the numbering format. It will say rerun! You know what? This this has been so fun. 50 episodes plus two live episodes. Because those aren't counted in the overall.

SPEAKER_04 56:36

So we're really gonna, we're really at a full deck.

SPEAKER_02 56:40

We are we are a full deck. Uh it's been amazing. This journey has been amazing. The support has been amazing. We have after our summer interview, hiatus, we've already got some authors that will be coming up that we have scheduled. So, you know, there's gonna be a continuation of the fantabulousness that is this show. If you are an author or know an author that you'd like to have us interview, please let us know because we do have a couple slots open left for this year. But of course, we're happy to schedule for 2027 as well as we will continue going on with this. And as always, if you have an idea for something you'd like us to talk about, if it's writing craft, witchcraft, I forgot our third craft, cocktails, craft cocktails, cocktail, hold on, hold on.

SPEAKER_04 57:42

As she takes a sip of craft cocktails to get her her mental juices flowing. Uh let us know what you want to hear, and we would love to we'd love to hear about it. Absolutely. And thank you for joining us today on our 50th episode. Please leave a comment and let us know if you like what you liked. What was your favorite moment? What was your favorite cocktail? And what was your favorite deck? Let us know.

SPEAKER_02 58:12

Yeah, we want to know. Tell us everything. Comment here, comment, and here being wherever you're listening or watching. Uh, Instagram at Clip Fingers and Cocktails. Um, you can visit our website to sign up for our newsletter. Like, subscribe, follow over here, share, please. It's 50. We're at our 50th, 50th episode. Please come subscribe to us on YouTube because we are 10 subscribers away from 100. Yes. And that's a milestone for us. Yes. Because I know by our 100th episode it's gonna be uh way more than that. So much more. But let's let's hit let's hit 100, okay?

SPEAKER_04 58:57

Yes, yes. Okay, that's okay. Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. Smash things! Smash things, we are like that. And until next time. And we'll see you then. Bye.