A Passion Project – #Suspense #Esoteric #Giveaway @SBPM_Museum

Lisabet: Greetings, Kirsten! Welcome back to Beyond Romance. You write in a wide range of genres – mystery, steampunk and now... this! How do you decide what to work on? Do you choose according to your mood? Also – do you work on one book at a time, or several in parallel?

Kirsten: Sometimes, I really wish I could be one of those writers who sees a topic is getting hot and writes in that genre. But I kind of get grabbed by ideas and just run with them. I think I do my best writing when I’m excited about it—and the writing is certainly a lot more fun.

The Mysteries of Tarot was definitely a passion project. I’d been taking a class in flash non-fiction. Unable to come up with any personal essays about myself, I cheated and pretended I was Hyperion Night from my Tea and Tarot cozy mystery series. One of the students was a fellow Tarot reader, and she suggested I turn the essays into a book. I thought this was a good idea, but as a mystery writer, I also thought there had to be a way to work a mystery in. And there was!

I work on several books in parallel. Normally, I’m drafting one book, editing another book, and have a third set aside to “marinate” before I edit it. And yes, it can get a little confusing. Fortunately, I have patient editors who catch me when I start mixing up character names and places!

The Mysteries of Tarot was a little outside my normal writing schedule. I worked on it over the course of two years, writing a card a week in my spare time in addition to my usual writing. I think the book is fairly unique in the Tarot genre, and I really hope it sparks a sense of mystery in readers—not just the murder mystery, but the real mysteries of Tarot.

Blurb

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.

Excerpt

The Moon

Messages from the unconscious. Mystery. Confusion. Dreams. Illusion.

Last night, I dreamt of a departed aunt I’d had a contentious relationship with. She walked down the hallway of my apartment and sat beside me in the living room.

Suddenly I remembered she was dead and understood I was dreaming. But instead of the dream ending, like it usually does when I become aware, we talked—the kind of talk we’d never been able to have when she was alive. She apologized for some things she’d said and done and helped me understand why she’d said and done them. And her reasons weren’t awful. They made a lot of sense.

I apologized too, because I hadn’t been innocent in the turn our relationship had taken. We forgave each other. I woke up feeling lighter. Free.

The Symbols

I’m still not sure if it was “only” a lucid dream or a visitation from my relative. I don’t know if it matters. It was all very lunar, very moonlike. And not just because the Moon card can represent dreams. Moons with their waxing and waning also represents illusion and confusion, messages from the subconscious crawling up out of the muck like that lobster creeping from the water in the card. A dog and a wolf, representing the refined conscious and the more primitive subconscious, howl at the moon’s light.

And all of those things had been at play in my life. I’d created a false—or at least incomplete—story in my mind of the cause of my estrangement from my relative (illusion/confusion). But the truth bubbled up from my subconscious in last night’s dream. If it hadn’t, I’d still be carrying that burden.

What Does This Card Mean for You?

When the Moon card appears in a Tarot reading, it suggests we may not be seeing things clearly. But the truth is out there — or in there, as the case may be.

How can you bring your subconscious impulses or knowledge into conscious light? The road between the two towers in the card is long, dark, and winding. Have patience. Be brave.

Notes: The Moon

As to The Moon, I feel like I’m swimming in it. At first my father’s death seemed like an accident, a fall from the balcony outside his bedroom. He’s been drinking more than usual lately. But the servants swear he wasn’t drinking that night. And the balcony railing is low. He could have fallen by accident.

I keep replaying our last conversation. Had he been thinking then of taking his own life? Was that why he’d come to see me? Because he knew I’d been a failure when I’d tried my hand at self-deletion? Maybe he wanted me to talk him out of it?

I don’t understand. But I’ll try to keep up with the daily edits, where I feel I have something to add. I need to keep my mind busy.

About the Author

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 https://KirstenWeiss.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/SBPM_Museum

Buy links – The Mysteries of Tarot

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?id=Thq3EAAAQBAJ

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

Kirsten Weiss will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway