This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Kirsten Weiss will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Welcome to It's Raining Books. Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?
There are so many elements of cozy mysteries that I love. The humor, the friendship, the romance, the quaint settings, and the puzzle. There’s something intensely satisfying about both weaving a good puzzle and solving one. I think the idea that people can make things right is comforting. It’s not always true, but it’s comforting.
What research is required?
It depends on the series. Usually, my heroines run a business of some sort. I try to get the work aspects right. I got lucky with my Tea and Tarot series, that The Mysteries of Tarot spins off of. I had a friend who worked in a tearoom. She was able to explain the daily schedule and all the in’s and out’s.
Name one thing you learned from your hero/heroine.
I learned to be a lot more positive. Hyperion focuses on taking positive action (and the more fun, the better). He’s really inspiring. Which I know seems weird since he’s an imaginary character…
Do you have any odd or interesting writing quirks, habits or superstitions?
I am an extremely disciplined writer, which in the writing community can be considered quirky. (At least judging by the horrified looks I get when I explain my writing pipeline.) I have three books in the pipeline at once. One I’m drafting when I first get up. The second I’m editing later in the morning. And the third sitting on my computer, waiting to be edited. (I like to give myself some distance between writing and editing, so I can see the book more clearly).
Are you a plotter or pantser?
I’m a hybrid. I draft a loose plot, with lots of room to play.
Look to your right – what’s sitting there?
A box full of notes on writing.
Anything new coming up from you? What?
I’ve got a short mystery in my Paranormal Museum cozy mystery series coming out at the end of June called Deadly Divination. And then another full-length mystery novel in the same series coming out in July. That one’s Dead End Donation.
Do you have a question for our readers?
Ebooks or paper?
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
Ace of Cups
New love. New relationship. Awakening of cosmic consciousness. Channel for spirit. Gratitude.
It’s a little depressing how often I’ve drawn the Ace of Cups. Aces are about beginnings and initiation, and cups about emotions and love. So for me this card has usually indicated a new relationship, though not necessarily a lasting one. Until one day, when the relationship this Tarot card was nudging me toward had zero to do with romance.
I’d been reading Tarot for a couple years by that point. I knew the classic meanings, I could put them together, and I was even starting more intuitive work with clients. I was doing (and still do) my own daily Tarot card reading—just one card. That day, I’d drawn the Ace of Cups. And though I wasn’t expecting a good day, the Ace gave me a lift of hope.
Its meaning unfolded later that day. I was in the hospital visiting my aunt. We’d been taking her there on an almost weekly basis after a cancer diagnosis—I won’t go into the details. But she’d been coming down with one infection after another, with no end in sight.
I was bored, sitting outside the examination room. So although the spring day was drizzly, I wandered to the balcony garden outside. At the moment, the clouds parted, and a sunbeam struck the ocean. The light glimmered, the ocean whitening around it.
And suddenly, I knew. My aunt was going to be okay.
I returned inside. The doctor emerged from the exam room and told us my aunt was in remission.
It was my first knowing. My first true connection. Did I channel? Did I forge some connection with the universal mind?
I’m still baffled. Until that moment, the idea of awakening cosmic consciousness in myself had been entirely theoretical. There are some things you can’t entirely understand until you experience them.
I’m still not sure I do understand. I don’t have these moments of insight on tap. My knowings don’t come on command. But they do still occasionally come.
Aces. Someone once told me that the first card in the suit contains all the energy of that suit. In that moment at the hospital, I felt all the energy of the Cups—intuition, spirit, connection—flowing through me. I was initiated that day by something bigger than myself.
The Symbols
A golden chalice floats above a pool dotted with water lilies, the latter representing eternal life. Five streams (representing the five senses?) overflow from the cup.
The cup is commonly believed to represent the Holy Grail from Arthurian legend. In the story of the knight Parcival, a dove magically empowers the Grail, and in this card, a dove with a communion-type wafer dives toward the cup. The cup also resembles a baptismal font, implying a spiritual initiation.
What Does This Card Mean for You?
How can you be that over-flowing chalice? Because it’s by being loving that we attract love of all kinds to us.
Notes: Ace of Cups
85 Adelaide came to the cottage today with her latest rescue (a Chihuahua). She’d learned about my brother’s threatened conservatorship and wants to help. I’m grateful.
She told me Charles has been trying to get more control of our father’s company for years. I had no idea it mattered to him that much. He’s been the Chief Financial Officer since last spring. I’d assumed he was on track to take the company over, and I would have been happy to let him. I don’t care about managing the money or the company. But I don’t want to be on an allowance at my brother’s mercy either. At least my sister, for all her faults, is on my side.
About the Author:
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…
Website: http://www.KirstenWeiss.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SBPM_Museum
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C18BKGXB
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-mysteries-of-tarot-kirsten-weiss/1143066958
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Kirsten_Weiss_The_Mysteries_of_Tarot
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-mysteries-of-tarot
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6447194167
Author Website: https://bit.ly/tarotmysteries
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you for hosting... and, Kirsten, to answer your question: both + audio :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting me today!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a terrific book.
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