Kirsten Weiss is a fun author of cozy mysteries and more that I have featured over on my book blog at Andi’s Book Reviews. Today she sat down for a Q&A about her newest book, The Mysteries of Tarot, which I will soon be reviewing as well. Please enjoy the interview and an excerpt and then follow the tour for even more. Best of luck entering the giveaway!
The Mysteries of Tarot: A Work of the Imagination
How to Read the Cards for Transformation
When Tarot reader Hyperion Night sent his manuscript, The Mysteries of Tarot, to a friend to edit, it was a simple guide to reading Tarot. Hyperion couldn’t anticipate that his editor’s notes would evolve into a murder mystery, or that his friend would go missing. Shockingly, the annotated manuscript eventually made its way back to Hyperion, who forwarded it to the authorities.
Now this astonishing Tarot guide is available as a book. The Tarot guidebook features:
- Tarot basics―How to manage different interpretations of cards in a spread, how to read court cards, and a clear and simple method for dealing with reversals.
- Detailed card breakdowns― Keywords, flash non-fiction narratives, and a deep dive into the symbols of each of the 78 cards of the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana.
- Questions to apply to the cards for transforming your life―Insightful questions for each card to help you dig deeper into your Tarot reading practice.
Bonus feature: the guidebook also includes his editor’s comments on the more esoteric and philosophical interpretations of the Tarot, as well as his notes on the baffling mystery that engulfed him.
Gain deep insight from the cards, transform yourself, and solve The Mysteries of Tarot with this work of experimental fiction that’s part Tarot guidebook, part murder mystery.
Read an excerpt:
The Suit of Pentacles
Earth
Abundance
Foundations
Fertility
The physical world
Health and home
Notes: Suit of Pentacles
50 I’m regrouping with a thorough cleaning of my temporary home. And yes, the caretaker's cottage was already clean, but I felt driven to… Start fresh now that my father’s gone?
Adelaide stopped by, catching me in the middle of scrubbing behind the stove. She thought I was mad not to call in the servants. But that wasn’t the point. The point was rolling up my sleeves and getting dirty. Laughing, she left me to it.
What finally stopped me was discovering an old plastic yellow house at the back of the closet. It was my mother’s. When we were kids, she’d bring it out for Christmas and create a little village beneath the tree. An old mirror became an ice skating rink. Cotton for snow. This was before my father got big and mom got cancer. You know the rest.
I cried for the first time since his death, not just for the past but for what could have been. Could things have changed between us? It seemed like he was trying. Like something had changed. Why, Hyperion? Why did he do it? -T
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Describe your book in one sentence or fewer than 25 words.
It’s part Tarot guidebook, part murder mystery!
What was the inspiration behind this book?
I was taking a class in flash nonfiction, and had to come up with what was basically a personal essay every week. But at the time, all I was doing was sitting at my computer writing—not riveting material for an essay. So I pretended to be Hyperion, the Tarot reader from my Tea and Tarot cozy mystery series, and started writing essays based on Tarot cards and his imaginary life and clients. One of the other students in the class was a Tarot reader, and she suggested the essays could be turned into a book. I thought it was a good idea, but I couldn’t imagine publishing a book, even a Tarot guidebook, that didn’t include a murder mystery. So I decided to weave in “editor’s” notes, with the editor experiencing a murder mystery that paralleled the themes of each card.
Which character was your favorite to write?
I love writing Hyperion. He’s such a fun character, but in the Tea and Tarot cozies, he’s written through his tearoom partner, Abigail’s, eyes. I got to write this in first person, and go a lot deeper into Hyperion’s life and character.
What do you hope people will get out of your book?
The symbols in Tarot stretch back to ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, and they have a surprising resonance for our modern world. The book looks at these deeper philosophy’s through the “editor’s” eyes, through Tarot as a practical way to sort through issues in regular life, and it’s got the level of the murder mystery flowing through the Tarot cards as well. So I hope the book will inspire a sense of mystery and wonder and joy in this magical ride called life.
How do you make yourself stand out in this genre?
I’ll frequently play with elements of experimental fiction in my “normal” cozy mystery novels—not hugely. They still read like genre-standard cozy fiction. But I’ll play little literary games inside the books, so readers can think, “Ah-ha, I see what she did there!” Occasionally, like with the Mysteries of Tarot, I’ll go full experimental, and spin-off a piece like this as a supplement to the series.
Another example is my Doyle Witch In-betweens. One of the characters in my Doyle witch mystery series, Karin, writes paranormal romance. The In-betweens, starting with Spirit on Fire, is ostensibly a paranormal romance by Karin. But in between each chapter is another weird little mystery of something odd happening in Karin’s “real” life.
On what are you currently working?
Right now I’m hard at work hammering out four (four!) Paranormal Museum mysteries. I don’t usually write so many in the same series in a row, but the paranormal museum is growing and changing, and once I had the ideas in my head of how the museum and its curator, Maddie’s, life was evolving, I had to just keep writing. This June 30th, the first of the four, a novelette called Deadly Divination launches. The next full-length cozy mystery in the series, Dead End Donation, launches July 31st.
Kirsten Weiss writes laugh-out-loud, page-turning mysteries, and now a Tarot guidebook that’s a work of experimental fiction. Her heroes and heroines aren’t perfect, but they’re smart, they struggle, and they succeed. Kirsten writes in a house high on a hill in the Colorado woods and occasionally ventures out for wine and chocolate. Or for a visit to the local pie shop.
Kirsten is best known for her Wits’ End, Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum, and Tea & Tarot cozy mystery books. So if you like funny, action-packed mysteries with complicated heroines, just turn the page…
You can find Kirsten at KirstenWeiss.com
Twitter: twitter.com/SBPM_Museum
Author Website: https://bit.ly/tarotmysteries
Thanks for hosting!
Thank you for hosting me today!
This sounds like an interesting book.
The cover looks great. Very intriguing book.
Very intriguing author interview!! I enjoyed reading it!!