The Perfectly Proper PARANORMAL MUSEUM
By Kirsten Weiss
The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum
(A Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum Mystery)
New Series
Cozy Mystery
Midnight Ink (March 8, 2016)
Paperback: 288 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0738747514
Synopsis
When Maddie Kosloski’s career flatlines, she retreats to her wine-country hometown for solace and cheap rent. Railroaded into managing the local paranormal museum, she’s certain the rumors of its haunting are greatly exaggerated. But a new ghost may be on the loose. A fresh corpse in the museum embroils Maddie in murders past and present.With her high school bully as one of the officers in charge, Maddie doubts justice will be served. When one of her best friends is arrested, she’s certain it won’t be.Maddie grapples with ghost hunters, obsessed taxidermists, and the sexy motorcyclist next door as outside forces threaten. And as she juggles spectral shenanigans with the hunt for a killer, she discovers there truly is no place like home.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kirsten Weiss grew up in San Mateo, California. After getting her MBA, she joined the Peace Corps, starting an international career that took her around the fringes of the defunct USSR and into the Afghan war zone. Her experiences abroad not only gave her glimpses into the darker side of human nature, but also sparked an interest in the effects of mysticism and mythology, and how both are woven into our daily lives.
She writes paranormal mystery and suspense, blending her experiences and imagination to create vivid worlds of magic and mayhem.
Kirsten has never met a dessert she didn’t like, and her guilty pleasures are watching ghost Whisperer re-runs and drinking good wine.
Interview
Where are you from?
Hi! First, thanks for having me on your blog. And I’m from
San Mateo, California, a mid-sized town south of San Francisco.
Tell us your latest
news?
The big news is I have a new cozy mystery coming out on
March 8th – The Perfectly
Proper Paranormal Museum. It’s about a young woman, Maddie Kosloski, who
returns to her home town in central California wine country and gets railroaded
into taking over a paranormal museum. This being a murder mystery, you can
probably guess what happens next.
When and why did you
begin writing?
I started writing when I was a little kid, and continued off
and on. My confidence took a knock about fifteen years ago, and I stopped
writing. But I picked it up again five years ago and am thrilled I did.
When did you first
consider yourself a writer?
Though I’ve been doing it for years, I only started calling
myself a writer a few months ago!
What inspired you to
write your first book?
I’d quit my job and was at my wits end. Like Maddie, I was
making the transition from international work to a career in California, and no
one seemed to want what I was selling. So I started brainstorming job ideas and
came up with “metaphysical detective.” (In brainstorming, any wild idea works).
Then I started wondering what a metaphysical detective would do, and what sort
of person would have that job, and what her name might be… And so my first
self-published book, The Metaphysical
Detective, was born.
Do you have a
specific writing style?
Yes, but I’m not sure how to describe it aside from saying I
like “clean” writing – minimal adverbs, a quick-paced plot, snappy dialog.
How did you come up
with the title?
I knew I wanted to set my mystery inside a paranormal
museum, so I just started playing around with the words. What kind of
paranormal museum is it? Why, a perfectly proper one of course! Though now that
I think about it, the title idea might have been influenced by a steampunk book
I was writing at the time, and the perfectly proper Victorian language I was
training myself to write.
Is there a message in
your novel that you want readers to grasp?
My cozy mystery writing is inspired by the stories of PG
Wodehouse. His characters are quirky and get into all sorts of ridiculous
problems, but in spite of their silliness, they care about each other. The
paranormal museum series is at heart about family and community and the
importance of lovingkindness towards both.
What would you like
my readers to know?
Although the book is set inside a paranormal museum, and
there are some paranormal elements to it, I kept the paranormal light for two
reasons. First, because for most of us, the supernatural is that shadow you see
out of the corner of your eye – that thing you can’t quite explain. But also, I
wanted the paranormal to be part of the added fun rather than the mystery
itself.
Author Links
Follow her on Twitter @KirstenWeiss, or on her Facebook page,http://www.facebook.com/metaphysicaldetective or at her blog at http://kirstenweiss.com
Purchase Links:
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Thank you for hosting me! It was a really fun interview.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the interview with Ms. Weiss. This books sounds like one I am going to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI like the synopsis, sounds like a good read.
ReplyDeleteHi there,
ReplyDeleteInteresting interview. I was wondering about the paranormal part because it kept me guessing throughout the whole book whether it was in fact haunted or not. I mean I read the synopsis but still Maddie couldn't 'really' see the ghost, so the paranormal aspect was light.
I also liked your question about when the author decided to call herself a writer.