Danita Minnis

https://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2023/04/vbt-mysteries-of-tarot-by-kirsten-weiss.html

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

Author Interview

1. How did you choose your genre? What made you write this book?

Normally, I write cozy mysteries, including my Tea and Tarot series, set in a tearoom with Tarot readers. A couple years back, I wrote some personal essays by my fictional Tarot reader for a flash non-fiction class (yes, I was cheating, it wasn’t non-fiction!). One of the other students was a Tarot reader, and she thought they could be turned into a Tarot guidebook. But I couldn’t imagine publishing anything without weaving a mystery into it. So I set myself the goal of writing a Tarot card a week and developing a side mystery by the book’s “editor” for the footnotes that paralleled the theme of each Tarot card. It’s experimental fiction, and more of an art project (as well as being a legit Tarot guidebook—I’ve been reading Tarot cards for over 30 years). But I’m really happy with the way The Mysteries of Tarot turned out.

2. Writers write what they know, and must observe the world. Are you a firstborn, middle, or last child and how does this shape your view of the world?

I’m a firstborn, which I think made it easier for me to strike out on my own and take a shot at becoming a writer. (This is not my first career). I think it’s just easier for me to see more things as possible and take risks.

3. Where is your favorite place to write?

In the summer, I hope up in my downstairs office, where it’s cooler and I’ve got a view of the hillside. Deer stop by to peer through my window and see what I’m up to. In the winter, I go to the warmer upstairs, with its view of Pikes Peak. Both views can be distracting!

4. How do you feel about killing your darlings, and what do you do with the remains?

Cutting something I’m proud of writing is painful, but sometimes it has to be done. I always keep the remains, figuring I’ll do something with them, and then I never do!

5. You are introduced to your favorite author. Who is it, and what is that one burning question you must ask them?

I think I’d ask Edgar Allan Poe about how he learned to develop the rhythm in his writing. His poetry and prose are just amazing.

6. Inquiring minds want to know…tell readers something about you that no one knows.

I’m taking a class in close-quarter-combat this June. My sister talked me into it, and it may involve getting shot with simulated rounds. It will definitely involve “stress inoculation,” which is a fancy way of saying they’re going to try to put me under a lot of stress. I’m a little worried about this class…

7. You are stranded on a deserted island with only a backpack for company. What three items are in your survival pack?

A knife. A pot. A flint.

8. If you could have one superpower in your existence, what would it be?

I’d love to be able to fly. My favorite dreams are flying dreams, though I usually come back down to earth fairly quickly.

9. Favorite snack?

Lately, I’ve been making these energy snacks from dates, nuts, coconut, and a squeeze of orange juice, all tossed in a food processor.

10. Indy 500 – Do you know how to get where you’re going or do you drive the speed limit?

Let’s just say I keep it within five to ten miles of the speed limit and leave it at that!

The Mysteries of Tarot

by Kirsten Weiss

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GENRE: Contemporary Mystery/Suspense

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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.

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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 represent 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

44 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. -T

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

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

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

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