Kris Waldherr Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Kris Waldherr
Author and illustrator Kris Waldherr has won fellowships from the Virginia Center of the Creative Arts, and a works-in-progress reading grant from Poets & Writers for her fiction.

She grew up in a fiercely matriarchal home, where all of the women she was surrounded by seemed to have mysterious powers and quirks.

Kris wrote a book about doomed queens, as she is interested in stories about women, both profane and sacred. These stories are part of her personal history. She felt it was time for her to take a closer look at the darker side of women’s empowerment. Kris wanted to have a better understanding about what will trip women up when it comes to getting ahead in the world, especially since she has a daughter.

Her debut novel “The Lost History of Dreams” was published in the year 2019, and is a historical novel.

In her work as a visual artist, she has created the Goddess Tarot, which has a quarter of a million copies in print. Her career began in publishing working as a children’s book designer and illustrator for a big New York publishing house after she got her BFA from the School of Visual Arts.

After she illustrated a few picture books, she started writing text to go along with her art, and it expanded into creating books that were intended for adults. She was told by her literary agent that she writes really well, and that she should move more in that direction. Which she did, and she prefers writing to illustrating and designing, as it feels much more challenging and richer at this stage of her career.

Kris’ favorite part of creating books is the first spark of inspiration, the moment when everything seems to be promising and shiny. Kris finds many places to find inspiration. She even enjoys traveling to do research. At one point, she went to Weald Moor in Shropshire to take a look at what she had been writing about.

While writing, she knows she is a non-linear and intuitive thinker. She gets flashes of scenes, exchanges of dialogue, and she will imagine the characters. She immediately writes these down before she forgets it. It is a flood from her subconscious. These notes are arranged into a semblance of a story. Kris enjoys unexpected connections that happen while she writes, especially the ones that cannot be logically explained.

When writing non-fiction, she uses a more linear approach. She will start with research before she writes up an outline, before drafting out her chapters.

Her least favorite part of the book process is after all of the research and writing has happened. It is the waiting-to-hear-back portion, when the book is not in her hands and is in the world. Whether she is waiting to hear from some editor or an agent or a reviewer, the publishing wheels move slowly. Kris believes it is good to have multiple books going at once, so that she doesn’t drive herself crazy.

During an average day, she will begin writing immediately after her daughter leaves to go to school. Occasionally, she will go off on a long walk to shift gears, or she will work at a cafe for a while. She has even been known to write while traveling on the subway. Later on, she will reread and edit what she has been writing, and take notes for the next session of work.

If she is on a deadline, she will work as often as she can for as long as she can. Her mind works best when she is able to work with as few interruptions as she can. This is obviously difficult in every day real life, but it helps that she has a family that is highly tolerant. They, too, are creative types, which helps a lot.

She lives and works in Brooklyn in her Victorian era house that she shares with Thomas Ross Miller (her husband and an anthropologist), their young daughter, and a Bengal cat.

Even when Kris was working as an illustrator, she always loved storytelling, so the move to writing novels makes sense. Illustrating kids books is something she thought she would be doing for the rest of her life.

“The Book of Goddesses” was one of One Spirit/ Book of the Month Club’s Top Ten Most Popular Books.

“The Lost History of Dreams” is the first stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2019. Every love story is a ghost story in disguise.

Hugh de Bonne (a famed Byronesque poet) is found dead in his bath of a heart attack one morning. His cousin Robert Highstead (who is a historian turned post-mortem photographer) is given a simple task: take Hugh’s remains for burial in a chapel. This chapel, which is a stained glass folly set on Shropshire’s moors, was built by de Bonne sixteen years ago to house the remains of Ada, his muse and beloved wife. Since that time, the chapel has been abandoned and locked up, a pilgrimage site for the die hard fans of de Bonne’s last book, “The Lost History of Dreams”.

However, Ada’s niece will not open the glass chapel up for Robert unless he agrees to her bargain. Before he will be able to lay Hugh to rest, Robert has to record Isabelle’s tale of Hugh and Ada’s ill-fated marriage over five nights.

The mystery of the couple’s relationship unfolds, and so does the secret behind Robert’s marriage. This includes that of Robert’s fragile wife, Sida, who has not recovered after the tragic accident that occurred three years ago. As well as the origins of his own morbid profession that makes him see things he really shouldn’t. Things that come from beyond the grave.

Kris is able to spin an atmospheric and sweeping gothic mystery about loss and love that makes the line between truth and fiction, present and past, death and life blurred. She is also able to take you to the period of Victorian England as she brings it to life. Each of the characters here are compelling, the prose is exquisite, and this whole story is unique and lovely.