Friends, this week on the blog, it is my honor and privilege to introduce you to Kristina Brune, author of Weight of Memory. Kristina and I met probably seventeen years or so ago (has it been that long?) and worked together for a while in social services. Our lives moved on and then years later we reconnected over, what else, but books. I owe a lot to Kristina. Without her support, encouragement, and professional expertise, I wouldn’t have written my first three books, and I am so happy to share her new book with you today!
Weight of Memory is Kristina’s first novel and it’s something you’re going to want to read. The moment she told me the premise of this story at a Bread Co. over coffee and dream-talking, I knew it was something special. You’ll soon discover this too.
Below you’ll learn more about what inspired her storytelling and how she feels about writing. Weight of Memory is a book that is fiction but wholly personal. Trust me when I tell you this is a story you don’t want to slip from your grip.
What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters?
This is a great question. I didn’t intentionally model any of the characters off of people in my life – I actually thought I was doing pretty good job of NOT doing that. But in all honesty, there are many elements of my personal experience within my book.
Weight of Memory is a really personal book – much more than I intended it to be. My brother Nathan died in a car accident in 2006. I started writing a memoir about losing my brother, but I realized pretty quickly that I probably wouldn’t ever be willing to put that book out into the world. It was just too personal and painful. So when I had the idea for this story, it ended up being both fiction and a bit autobiographical. As the writing progressed and emerged as a story about a woman who lost her brother and would give anything – anything – to speak to him just one more time, I almost stopped writing.
This is stupid, I told myself. This will just make you feel worse, I thought. This is a silly story about a haunted book and witches and ghosts, I said as I rolled my eyes at my computer screen. You can never talk to Nate again, I repeated. But I kept going. Because in the end, while it’s still true I can’t talk to my brother, the story I ended up is, in fact, a kind of scary story about a haunted book, but it’s also one about hope. It’s about fighting to find a way through trauma and pain and grief into a life where all of those things still exist right alongside happy memories.
So while I don’t think anyone who served as an inspiration to characters in my book would be upset or that I owe them something, I really hope that it’s a story my brother and the other people in my life can be proud of.
Do you view writing as a kind of spiritual practice?
For me, writing is the way that I best process everything and anything going on in my life, good or bad. So yes, I feel like writing is always spiritual for me, even if it’s for work. It’s the best release I have and brings me calm. Writing Weight of Memory was most definitely healing for me. I processed a lot of emotion I had about the death of my brother and was able to share that experience with others and hopefully people who have experienced the loss of a sibling will find something hopeful in it and that resonates with their own experience.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
I would tell myself to start now and not be afraid of the hard work. I didn’t start writing my first novel until I was 36. And while that’s certainly not old, I had always wanted to write a book. But I just never started. I would tell myself that I didn’t have the time to do it, that I didn’t know what I was doing, that my ideas weren’t good enough. I would let all of those voices of self-doubt take over and talk myself out of it. But in 2017 I had an idea that, when I started outlining it and then ran it by other people, seemed too good to not at least try to explore. And I began to realize that if I never started, it would never happen.
I eventually just forced myself to just begin. It started with what was basically just a stream of conscious idea dump that quickly coalesced into an actual story outline and I went from there. And it was a lot of work. Not just the writing, but the editing, working with beta readers, then querying for an agent, and eventually finding a small publisher and working toward publication. In that, my younger self was correct – it’s a scary amount of work, lol! But I also enjoyed it so much and every hour that I put in was totally worth it.
What happens when a book changes each time you read it?
Lara’s brother is dead and she’s a mess. Worst of all, the only thing she has left of him—her memories—have disappeared. Unable to function and severely depressed, she’s not sure she’ll ever get back to her normal, unremarkable life.
When she stumbles upon an old book that tells the story of Violet Marsh, a 19th century woman who lost her brother and found a way to rebuild her life, Lara finds comfort in its pages. That is, until she reads it again. This time it’s different. It’s dark and sinister and hints at something evil. Soon, the terrifying things happening to Violet in the book begin to mirror the strange happenings in Lara’s own life.
About the Author: Kristina Brune has loved books for as long as she can remember and has put her passion for words to work as a copywriter and editor. She has worked with businesses and entrepreneurs around the world, including digital influencers, small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, and one of the largest investor-owned utilities in the Midwest. Her work has been published in Forbes, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Inc.com, and various other publications. Kristina lives outside of St. Louis, Missouri with her husband, two kids, and two dogs. When she is not busy being her kids personal shuttle to hockey, baseball, softball, and rehearsals, she always has her nose in a book and is eagerly awaiting the arrival of her laundry fairy. Weight of Memory is her first novel.
Weight of Memory is a supernatural thriller that examines grief and healing (think of it as Jodi Piccoult meets Stephen King :). It is available for preorder now everywhere you buy books and will release on March 30, 2021!
