Kirsten McKenzie’s time travel series The Old Curiosity Shop has been likened to 'Antique Road Show Gone Viral' – and that’s appropriate, because Kirsten is a former antiques dealer who is fascinated by the power of previously loved objects.

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and Kirsten talks about historic time travel and her passion for unearthing ancient objects from archaeological digs.

Six

things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

Kirsten's passion for digging up the pastThe serendipity of her first bookWhat she wishes she'd learned earlierHer time as a Shortland Street extraSpeed dating readers - and why she loves itThe importance of finding your tribe

Where to find Kirsten McKenzie:

Website: https://www.kirstenmckenzie.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiwimrsmac/

Facebook: @kiwimrsmac

 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kiwimrsmac

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.nz/kiwimrsmac/

What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

Jenny: And now, here's Kirsten. Hello, Kirsten and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us.

Kirsten: Thank

you for having me, Jenny. I appreciate it.

Jenny: Look, I

like to always start with the Once Upon A Time question, but people like to

know the answer. Was there something that made you feel like an epiphany? That

you had to write fiction? And if so, what was the catalyst for it?

Kirsten McKenzie - mystery and thriller author

Kirsten: A

catalyst was a slow day at work, and it seems so banal. I was at work at my

family's antique shop. There was an old Crown Lynn beehive Pudding basin on the

counter. And that one item just made me go, "Oh, I've got a notebook in my

handbag. Oh, there's nobody in the shop. I might write a book." And I

don't even know where that came from. I went from being a customs officer

thrust into helping run the family antique business to being a novelist, all

because of that Crown Lynn Beehive Pudding basin. I don't know what it was.

Jenny: So you

can't quite pick what it was about that particular basin?

Kirsten: No. But

that was the exact moment where I thought "I'm going to write a

book." And then when my brother, who I worked with, turned up, I said,

"I'm going to write a novel." And he said "You never finish

anything." And I was like, well, wow. Here we go. He issued the challenge.

He did. And then it backfired on him because after my second book, I quit my

job and started writing full time.

Starting out as a writer

Jenny:  So how did you get from there to historical

dual timeline novels?

Kirsten: Well,

the pudding basin made my character really, because works at an antique shop

-  which is what the main character in

Fifteen Postcards does. And then, if I thought back to the pudding basin when

it was brand new. . . I mean, if you think about everything in an antique shop

or a second hand shop,  everything was

loved at one point.

Crown Lynn Beehive Pudding basin - catalyst for a Kirsten McKenzie book

So who was it who loved that pudding basin when it was first

manufactured? And I know a lot through my work about the Victorian times. I'm

not so au fait with the 1930s and 40s,