Monday, May 23, 2016

A Midsummer Night's Mechanical by Kirsten Weiss Interview, Excerpt & Giveaway





A Midsummer Night’s Mechanical

Sensibility Grey Series of Steampunk Suspense Book 3

Kirsten Weiss



Genre: Steampunk/suspense



Publisher: Misterio Press



Date of Publication: May 1, 2016



ISBN: 978-1-944767-00-6

ASIN: B01DOKO6CA



Number of pages: 224

Word Count: 69,000



Cover Artist: Kirsten Weiss



Book Description:



A Midsummer Murder

The California Territory, 1849



Blamed for burning down the San Francisco wharf, clockwork inventor, Sensibility Grey has spent the last three months in hiding. Now all she wants is to depart the gold-crazy boomtown for a new life in the East. So when the owner of a traveling theater offers her work embellishing his mechanical stage, she turns him down. Then he turns up dead on her doorstep along with his enigmatic stage.



An explorer of the mysteries of aether, Sensibility has her own secrets to keep, and adversaries who’ll stop at nothing to learn them. Is the mechanical stage a part of a bigger game? Or the key to unlocking her true, magical potential?



A Midsummer Night’s Mechanical is book three in the Sensibility Grey series of steampunk suspense.








CHAPTER ONE



San Francisco, California Territory, June 1849.



Sensibility sat cross-legged upon her bed and tried not to think. She tried not to think of the ache where her stays pinched her back. She tried not to think of tomorrow’s journey across the American wilderness. She tried not to think about the clamor of banging drums and tootling fifes and—

Oh, good gad!” She clenched her fist, pieces of quartz crystal biting into her flesh. Sensibility sprang from the bed and threw open the boarding house window. Oppressive heat, acrid from the nearby outhouse, rolled into the room. Wrinkling her nose, she leaned out over the fenced back yard and craned her neck. The afternoon sun streamed through the laundry, hanging limp on the line. From her position, she couldn’t see the street procession. But neither could she avoid hearing their blasted parade.

Something scuttled near her elbow, and she jerked away, slamming her head on the window frame. White pain arced through her skull.

A baby raccoon, not much larger than the palm of her hand, cowered on the other end of the narrow sill. It scrabbled, hunching into a tight ball, trapped on the high ledge.

Ow.” She winced, rubbing her throbbing head and glad her chignon had taken the brunt of the blow. “How on earth did you get up here?”

The raccoon mewled.

You shall have to make your own way home, for you cannot come inside. Mrs. Watson has a strict rule about animals inside her boarding house.”

Gently, so as not to disturb the creature, she shut the window. The raccoon peered over the ledge then looked at her, his expression plaintive.

Attempting to ignore the animal, she paced the denuded room, her brown skirts swishing.

They had ample space to swish. Nearly all her belongings lay compressed into a single carpetbag, set before the empty wardrobe. The bedroom had an air of abandonment.

Unsettled, Sensibility rattled the quartz crystals in her hand and glanced to the window.

The animal stared inside, forlorn.

She tugged at her collar. It was such a small thing. But rules were rules. “You found your way onto the ledge. You can find your own way down.”

Sensibility turned to the journal open on the desk. Her sketch of an unworldly creature she’d once encountered scowl from the page. Frowning, she slammed the book shut. It had been careless of her to have left it open. Strange, she couldn’t remember examining the journal before she’d gone downstairs to retrieve her luncheon.

The crystals pressed into her palm. She was so close to a breakthrough in aether technology, but the clues remained buried. Buried in the remains of her father’s last journal. Hidden in a journal from a traveling occultist. Scattered throughout her own notes and theories. One day soon, she would fit those pieces together. It was madness to hope she could solve that problem today.

Sensibility opened her hand and gazed at the quartz crystals. She’d mastered the use of aether to power small devices. But aether had other applications, such as distance control and distance vision. These applications eluded her. “There has to be a way…”

She glanced at the window.

The animal raised itself on its hind legs and pressed its tiny black paws to the glass.

Sensibility groaned. “I know I’ll regret this.” Pocketing the crystals, she opened the window.

The raccoon cowered.

You,” she said, “being a wild animal, will attempt to bite me if I rescue you. But I will have none of it. I shall pick you up, I shall take you outside, and you shall neither bite nor scratch. Do you understand?”

In a swift motion, she grasped it by the scruff of the neck and lifted it inside. It writhed, and her grasp on it loosened.

She gasped. “Don’t….”

The raccoon dropped to her desk and shook its head. Whiskers twitching, it scuttled to her abandoned luncheon tray and made free with a bit of toast.





About the Author:



Kirsten Weiss worked overseas for nearly fourteen years, in the fringes of the former USSR and in South-east Asia. Her experiences abroad sparked an interest in the effects of mysticism and mythology, and how both are woven into our daily lives.



Now based in San Mateo, CA, she writes steampunk suspense and paranormal mysteries, blending her experiences and imagination to create a vivid world 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 red wine.



Sign up for her newsletter to get a free copy of the full length urban fantasy novel, The Alchemical Detective, and updates on her latest work at: http://kirstenweiss.com

Interview
Where are you from? I’m from sunny San Mateo, California! It’s on the San Francisco peninsula, which is why I use that area for my writing quite a bit.
Tell us your latest news? My big news is my third book in the Sensibility Grey series of steampunk suspense is here! I’m so excited, because I love the steampunk genre, and it’s just in time for the Clockwork Alchemy convention in San Jose, CA, where I’ll be speaking.
When and why did you begin writing? I’ve been writing since I was a little kid, but I didn’t get serious about it until about five years ago. Now, I can’t imagine doing anything else.
When did you first consider yourself a writer? About a year ago I started writing full time – both fiction and business writing. Only now do I feel like I can call myself a writer, which is kind of silly. I’ve been a writer my whole life.
What inspired you to write your first book? I was unemployed and brainstorming potential jobs. When you brainstorm, no answer is bad, and the crazier the better. I came up with private detective, then “metaphysical detective” popped into my head. I started wondering what a metaphysical detective would do, and The Metaphysical Detective was born.
Do you have a specific writing style? My writing style is still a work in process, but I like Elmore Leonard’s advice to leave out all the boring bits, and try to follow it.
How did you come up with the title? My first book in the series was Steam and Sensibility, a riff on the Jane Austin novel, Sense and Sensibility. Then I found myself stuck trying to find titles that match classic novels! A Midsummer Night’s Mechanical fit the book well.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp? Life is a marvelous adventure!
How much of the book is realistic? I tried to set it in “real” San Francisco, 1849, though I did fudge some bits. Of course, steampunk is alternative history, so the real San Francisco didn’t have aether weapons and clockwork devices. But it did have a vigilante group called The Hounds and very little law and order. I use that in my book.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life? The feelings and reactions are real, but this is alternative history, so the action is pure fantasy.
What books have most influenced your life most? Nancy Drew novels – my first mystery inspiration.
If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor? There are so many – Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, PG Wodehouse… Do I have to choose just one?
What book are you reading now? I’m reading Witch Crafting. I write a lot of supernatural mysteries, and I very much enjoy reading about magic.
Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest? I like Candy Korman’s work quite a bit. It’s eerie and rooted in classic horror, but she definitely goes her own way.
What are your current projects? I’m working on a trilogy, The Witches of Doyle, which is a supernatural cozy, as well as a supernatural suspense story – The Mannequin Offensive.


What would you like my readers to know? I had a ton of fun writing the Sensibility Grey series, and I hope you enjoy reading it!




Twitter: @KirstenWeiss











Tour giveaway


Grandprize: ebook copies of The Sensibility Grey Three-Book set, and the entire Riga Hayworth series of seven urban fantasy novels.



Second prize: ebook copies of The Sensibility Grey Three-Book Set




a Rafflecopter giveaway

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