Maggie Blackbird

Today, author Kirsten Weiss is guesting. She’s talking about her latest release Legacy of the Witch, book one in The Mystery School series, a paranormal, women’s fiction mystery. Don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.

****

Legacy of the Witch Inspiration:

I’ve been fascinated by all things magic from a young age. When I worked overseas, I made a point of learning about the local folk magic and traditions. But there are plenty of interesting magical traditions in the US, including one where my father’s family came from—Pennsylvania. It’s called Powwow, or Braucherei.

When I was young, my father told me a story of his uncle removing a wart from my dad’s hand by rubbing half a potato on it and then burying the potato beneath the light of the moon. At the time, I thought it was just a weird story. I didn’t realize his uncle was practicing Braucherei.

Now everyone in my family with any knowledge of the practice is gone. Fortunately, I still had ties to Pennsylvania, and was able to travel there to dig up more sources on the practice. The Penn Dutch region is by turns charming and haunting. Its rolling hills and hex signs and dense forests made me more convinced I had to set a mystery novel there. 

At the same time I was exploring Braucherei, I felt I was coming to the end of my witch mystery series, The Witches of Doyle. In the last (?) book, the Doyle witches created a mystery school, hinting of more adventures ahead. I thought I could combine these ideas in Legacy of the Witch, with my heroine in Pennsylvania signing up for the mystery school online. The mysterious messages she receives from the school parallel the spiritual and magical challenges she goes through in the course of the murder mystery.

Then, as often happens in writing, idea tumbled after idea. Mystery schools typically use Tarot cards as a teaching method. Why not create a deck for my school? And so, the UnTarot was born, and then an app for the UnTarot, which I included in the book.

Things spiraled even more out of control, but I won’t spill any more secrets. I’m thrilled with the way this book turned out, with the collision between Braucherei and the mystery school, and the other fun surprises in Legacy of the Witch.

****

Title: Legacy of the Witch
Series: The Mystery School, book one
Author: Kirsten Weiss
Genre: Women’s Fiction, Paranormal, Mystery
Length: 295 pages
Release Date: April 30, 20204

Seeker: As societies grow increasingly fragmented, hopelessness, nihilism, and division are on the rise. But there is another way—a way of mystery and magic, of wholeness and transformation. Do you dare take the first step? Our path is not for the faint-hearted, but for seekers of ancient truths…

Blurb: All April wants is to start over after her husband’s sudden death. She’s conjuring a new path—finally getting her degree and planning her new business in bucolic Pennsylvania Dutch country. Joining an online mystery school seems like harmless fun.

But when a murdered man leaves her a cryptic message, she catches glimpses of another reality she’s unwilling to acknowledge. A reality where bygone enchantments cast cryptic shadows, and the present brims with unanswered questions.

As April works to unearth the mystery, every step brings her closer to a truth she’s been evading. And to a conspiracy of hexes that may end in her demise.

Legacy of the Witch is a spellbinding, interactive tale of a woman’s midlife quest to understand the complexities of her own heart. A paranormal women’s fiction murder mystery for anyone who’s wondered if there might be more to their own life than meets the eye…

Book 1 in the new Mystery School Series featuring the UnTarot, a deck of cards for meaning making. Start reading now!

Goodreads | Amazon

And there was someone inside the yellow coat. A silver-haired man.

For a moment I thought it was a bad joke, he wasn’t real. Then, heart banging, I hopped over the stone ledge.

Heedless of the brambles tugging at my clothes, of the muck squelching beneath my shoes, I stumbled to the supine man. He lay staring with one broad hand pressed to his chest. Blood stained his neck and pooled in the hollows around him.

“Oh my God,” I breathed, fumbling for the phone in my jacket pocket.

His head turned toward me, and I yelped.

I dropped to my knees beside him. “You’re alive. It’s okay. I’m calling for help now.” What had happened to him? Had he tripped and fallen? But what had he been doing in the circle?

“Can you put pressure on the wound?” I asked. If he couldn’t, I’d need to. I’d need a cloth, something to staunch the flow.

But first, help. Hands shaking, I called 9-1-1.

He lifted a hand and pointed toward the trees. “Look beneath,” he whispered. “The brotherhood.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m calling now.” I pressed the phone to my ear. “I’m calling…” My voice faded.

His blue eyes grew as cold and impersonal as the Atlantic, and he stared without seeing at the sky. A thick dullness fogged my chest. I was too late. He was dead.

****

I believe in free-will, and that we all can make a difference. I believe that beauty blossoms in the conscious life, particularly with friends, family, and strangers. I believe that genre fiction has become generic, and it doesn’t have to be.

My current focus is my new Mystery School series, starting with Legacy of the Witch. Traditionally, women’s fiction refers to fiction where a woman—usually in her midlife—is going through some sort of dramatic change. A lot of us do go through big transitions in midlife. We get divorced or remarried. The kids leave the nest. Our bodies change. The midlife crisis is real—though it manifests in different ways—as we look back on where we’ve been, where we’re going, and the time we have left.

Now in my mid-fifties, I’ve spent more time thinking about the big “meaning of life” issues. It seemed like approaching those issues through witch fiction, and through a fictional mystery school, would be a fun and a useful way for me to work out some of these ideas in my own head—about change and letting go, faith and fear, and love and longing.

After growing up on a diet of Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha Christie, I’ve published over 60 mysteries—from cozies to supernatural suspense, as well as an experimental fiction book on Tarot. Spending over 20 years working overseas in international development, I learned that perception is not reality, and things are often not what they seem—for better or worse.

There isn’t a winter holiday or a type of chocolate I don’t love, and some of my best friends are fictional.

Follow Kirsten: Website | Facebook | Twitter

****

Enter for a chance to win a $10.00 Amazon or B&N Gift Card.
a Rafflecopter giveaway