Hi All - please welcome my friend Kristen Weiss to the blog. If you want to catch up with me - I'll be at www.dianaorgain.com - hope you all are having a great summer!
Blame Nancy Drew by Kirsten Weiss
Like many mystery authors, Nancy Drew novels sparked my dream of writing mysteries. Granted, initially I wanted to be a girl detective, because let’s face it, Nancy Drew rocks. She drives a sporty car, has loyal friends, goes on amazing adventures around the world, and gets taken seriously by criminals and police chiefs. But I figured out fairly quickly – age six? – that becoming a teen detective was not a realistic ambition.
So mystery writer I would become instead. It’s one of my few childhood goals that I actually pursued through adulthood. (Becoming an astronaut was out – I hate flying. And math.) But I’m beginning to realize that Nancy Drew’s influence on me and on my writing has been deeper reaching than I expected.
The first manuscript I submitted that was taken seriously by a publisher came back with the comment: It’s like Nancy Drew meets Zorro! I’m not certain that was meant as a compliment, but I took it as such. In the end, the book wasn’t published, and rightfully so. It was young, foolish. Maybe I’ll try to rehabilitate it someday, because Nancy Drew meets Zorro seems pretty damn awesome to me.
While my latest mystery, The Alchemical Detective, was going through the final editorial process, one of my beta readers told me there was a Nancy Drew about alchemy, The 99 Steps. I bought a copy, feeling curious and a little rueful. I’d thought my alchemical mystery was original, but Nancy had beaten me to the concept by nearly fifty years. And as I was reading the book, I realized every chapter had something exciting/dangerous/suspenseful going on in it, and that I do the same thing. A chapter without some sort of conflict or danger seems a waste of pages. Did I get that idea from her?
Today, I’m not sure if Nancy’s hold on my subconscious is a blessing or a curse, but she’s still there. I can’t get rid of her.
About the Author:
Kirsten Weiss worked overseas for nearly fourteen years, in the fringes of the former USSR and deep in the Afghan war zone, and she blames Nancy for that as well. 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.
Now based in San Mateo, CA, she is the author of two paranormal mysteries available on the Kindle: the urban fantasy, The Metaphysical Detective, and The Alchemical Detective. The latter will be free through Kindle Direct from the 4th of July through July 7th. She is hard at work on the sequel, The Shamanic Detective, due on Halloween, 2012.
Kirsten has never met a dessert she didn’t like, and her guilty pleasures are watching True Blood
and drinking good wine.
Follow her on Twitter @RigaHayworth or on her blog at http://kirstenweiss.com
Nancy Drew has inspired a lot of women writers and survived so many different incarnations (From books to movies to Tv to comics and beyond.) I'm wondering why she never got a speeding ticket though, with all the fast driving she did in that sports car.
Posted by: Michael A. Black | June 25, 2012 at 09:09 AM
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