Youkai: Loosely (very loosely) translated as Japanese demon/nature spirit. For the purposes of this series, the youkai have three shapes: the animal, the human form, and the true demon form. Unlike the demons of the Subterranean Realms, youkai are not necessarily evil by nature.
PLAYLIST FOR AUTUMN WHISPERS
I write to music a good share of the time, and so I always put my playlists in the back of each book so you can see which artists/songs I listened to during the writing. Here’s the playlist for Autumn Whispers:
A.J. Roach: “Devil May Dance”
Adele: “Rumour Has It”
Air: “Napalm Love; Playground Love”
Al Stewart: “Life in Dark Water”
Alice Cooper: “Welcome to My Nightmare”
Android Lust: “Saint Over,” “God in the Hole,” “In the Arms of the Heretic,” “Here and Now,” “When the Rains Came,” “Vereor,” “I Need to Know”
Asteroids Galaxy Tour: “Lady Jesus,” The Sun Ain’t Shining No More,” “Sunshine Coolin’”
Awolnation: “Sail”
Beck: “Que Onda Guero,” “Hell Yes,” “Black Tambourine,” “Elevator Music”
Black Mountain: “Angels”
Blue Oyster Cult: “The Reaper”
The Bravery: “Believe”
Broken Bells: “The High Road,” “Your Head Is On Fire,” “The Ghost Inside,” “October”
Cream: “Sunshine of Your Love”
Creedence Clearwater Revivaclass="underline" “Run Through the Jungle”
David Bowie: “Golden Years,” “I’m Afraid of Americans,” “Without You”
Dizzi: “Dizzi Jig”
Don Henley: “Dirty Laundry”
Dragon Ritual Drummers: “The Fall”
Eastern Sun: “Beautiful Being”
Eels: “Souljacker Part 1”
Everlast: “Black Jesus,” “Ends,” “What It’s Like”
Foster the People: “Pumped Up Kicks”
Gary Numan: “Petals,” “Sleep By Windows,” “Hunger,” “I Can’t Stop,” “My Dying Machine”
Gorillaz: “Kids With Guns,” “Clint Eastwood,” “Feel Good, Inc.,” “Stylo”
Gotye: “Somebody That I Used To Know”
Hanni El Khatib: “Come Alive”
Heart: “Magic Man”
Julian Cope: “Charlotte Anne”
Lady Gaga: “Paparazzi,” “Born This Way,” “Teeth”
Ladytron: “Black Cat,” “Predict the Day”
Leonard Cohen: “I’m Your Man”
Lindstøm and Christabelle: “Lovesick”
Lou Reed: “Walk On the Wild Side”
Mark Lanegan: “Bleeding Muddy Water,” “Riot In My House,” “Phantasmagoria Blues,” “Wedding Dress, “Methamphetamine Blues,” “Like Little Willie John,” “Riding the Nightingale,” “Miracle”
Neil Young: “Cinnamon Girl”
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: “Red Right Hand”
Nirvana: “Come As You Are,” “Lake of Fire”
Offspring: “Come Out and Play”
Pearl Jam: “Jeremy”
Radiohead: “Creep”
Screaming Trees: “All I Know,” “Dime Western”
Soundgarden: “Superunknown”
Suzanne Vega: “99.9F,” “Blood Makes Noise,” “In My Movie,” “Solitude Standing,” “Straight Lines”
Talking Heads: “Burning Down the House,” “Life During Wartime,” “Take Me to the River,” “Girlfriend Is Better”
Tangerine Dream: “Grind,” “Burning Bar,” “Dr. Destructo,” “Gaudi Park,” “Three Bikes in the Sky”
U2: “Elevation,” “Vertigo”
Zero 7: “In the Waiting Line”
Dear Reader:
I truly hope you enjoyed Autumn Whispers, book fourteen of the Otherworld Series. I love writing this world, it develops and grows with each book, and I see so many possibilities ahead for the D’Artigo sisters. This book expanded the war to a huge degree, and much of what was started here will play out over the next several books in the series. The next book in this series will be Crimson Veil, book fifteen, coming February 2014. And so, I’m including the first chapter here, to give you a taste of what’s coming up for Menolly and her sisters.
For those of you new to my books, I hope you’ve enjoyed your first foray into my worlds. For those of you who have followed me for a while, I want to thank you for once again revisiting the world of Camille, Menolly, and Delilah.
Bright Blessings,
The Painted Panther
Yasmine Galenorn
EXCERPT FROM CRIMSON VEIL
The sky was clear for once, though rain was forecast before morning. The moon glimmered, her faint sliver shining down over the cemetery. Soon she would be new, dark, and hiding her face. A steady flurry of gusts rocked the trees, the silhouettes of their boughs shaking like tall sentinels sounding the alarm. It was the perfect night for a funeral. A funeral none of us wanted to be at.
We were gathered at the Seryph Point Cemetery, around the open grave. A small group we were, not many there to send off our friend to the afterlife. There was me, Menolly, and my wife, Nerissa. My sisters Camille and Delilah stood beside us. Derrick Means was there—my bartender. And Tavah, Digger, and Kendra—all from the Wayfarer. Chase had joined us, as did Mallen. We had asked our men to stay home, to watch over the house. As I said, we were just a small group, but everyone here had cared, everyone was here because they wanted to be.
Chrysandra’s casket rested in front of us, over the grave on the lowering device. Her body would fade back to the earth, even as we consigned her soul to the long nights of eternity. At the service—which we’d held in our house—Morio and Shade had worked their magic to seal her body in her grave. Nothing save the most powerful necromancer could ever raise Chrysandra’s remains. She’d be free from the threat of being turned to a zombie. She’d never come back as one of the undead. Her soul was long gone and her body would be free to undergo its natural breakdown, undisturbed from the machinations of sorcery.
We had said our good-byes at the house. We had bid her farewell. Now we were here simply to stand witness to the final act. To the last chapter in our friend’s life. Chrysandra Reece had been a waitress at the Wayfarer since I first came Earthside. She’d stayed on as I moved from bartender to owner. She’d helped me out, done her job and then some. But Chrysandra had been a private person. We still knew nothing of her family. It was like she’d left every trace of her past behind her, put it in a safe box and buried it somewhere to keep it hidden. Even now, in death, all we had left of her were these—her mortal remains.