Yasmine Galenorn on Whisper Hollow…

What inspired you to write your wonderful Whisper Hollow series?

The idea for Whisper Hollow came out of ANOTHER concept I was working with. Part of that idea just didn’t fit, and so I took it out but I couldn’t shake the idea of the spirit shaman out of my head. Then I started dreaming about a place called Whisper Hollow, and the spirit shaman fit right into it. I knew I had to set it over on the Olympic Peninsula — it’s a haunted, beautiful place over there, and Lake Crescent — and the entire area — has a history of all sorts of odd things happening. The legends go back to the Native tribes who lived/live there.

You’re a prolific urban fantasy writer, and Whisper Hollow is a slight departure as it leans towards paranormal romance. What made you take this direction?

I didn’t deliberately choose to do that — the story just came out that way. I feel like it’s ‘closer to home’, so to speak. It’s only one step away from reality as opposed to being farther out there like the urban fantasy. And while I love writing urban fantasy, I needed to try something new — to delve deeper into the darker, haunted aspects of my storytelling.

Can you tell us a little about what we have to look forward to in AUTUMN THORNS?

Autumn Thorns is a wild, windswept romance. The perfect story for the Samhain/Halloween season — the town of Whisper Hollow invites you into a world of magic and mythology and spirits — a dark, beautiful realm where spirits walk among the living, and the lake never gives up her dead. Kerris Fellwater, daughter of the Morrígan, must walk in two worlds, the world of the living, and the world of the dead, as she attempts to return wayward spirits to their graves. But an ancient enemy is rising, and has the entire town of Whisper Hollow in its sites.

Have you always wanted to be a writer? What do you love most about your job?

Yes, ever since I was three. I’ve known I wanted to be a writer since I was three years old and learning to read. I actually remember the day when it *hit* me that people actually made the books I was learning to read. Right then, I knew I wanted to grow up and ‘make books’…and I’ve never wavered from that.

What I love most about it? Getting to tell these magical stories to people for a living — getting to spin tales and be part of the great family of storytellers from the beginning of time. I consider myself a modern bard, in a sense, although I don’t sing. Creating a world and populating it, and having people fall in love with that world? Not much better than that. And helping people escape from their problems, or just get away into a different realm for awhile through my words? That’s really a wonderful thing.

Back in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit NOLA, I received a letter from a woman who was sitting in a shelter, waiting to see if she had a home to go back to. She told me my books were keeping her sane. I receive letters from cancer victims, from people in chronic pain, who tell me my books help them escape their problems for awhile. To me? Helping people through my work? That’s an honor and higher praise than any award could ever be.

Do you have the most fun creating your heroes or your heroines?

Well, actually…*grins* I love creating the villains. And the entire world, as well. I LOVE world-building. My characters drive the stories — I know them inside-out, but tossing them into the fray? That’s when the fun starts!

Do you have a favourite hero or heroine from your books or by any other author?

From my books? I most love writing Camille from Otherworld, and I really think Kerris from Whisper Hollow will be giving her a run for her money. I also am having a blast with Shimmer — a dragonshifter — from my new Fly By Night Series.

Who are the authors you read for pleasure?

I read almost anything and everything. My very favourite author is Ray Bradbury. I also love Daphne du Maurier, J.R.R. Tolkien, Richard Adams, Amy Tan, Diane Mott Davidson, JA Jance, Patricia Briggs, Greg Bear, Michael Crichton, Rachel Caine, Shawntelle Madison, Holly Black, and others.

If you could take only three essentials with you to a desert island what would they be?

A utility knife. A copy of Les Stroud’s survival book. A plastic tarp.  NOW…if I already had shelter and food waiting: A laptop, a generator with a huge supply of gas, and chocolate.

Who would be on your dream dinner party guest list, dead or alive?

Ray Bradbury, Daphne du Maurier, David Bowie, Gary Numan, Brian Froud, Les Stroud, Steve Irwin, Rachel Caine, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Holly Black, Shawntelle Madison.  It would either be a glorious mayhem-filled funfest, or an awkward ‘what the hell do I say’ disaster.

What are your guilty pleasures?

I don’t feel guilty for things I love. *grins* So my pleasures are:

My cats: My cats keep me sane. I love cats. I’m an ailurophile. Cats make me happy and I’d be lost without them.

Television (reality show cooking competitions (Chopped, Cupcake Wars, Next Food Network TV Star, Top Chef; Survivorman, Project Runway, Criminal Minds; Lost Girl; re-runs of Buffy, Medium, Murder She Wrote, I Love Lucy, Sex and the City, Bones, Twin Peaks).

Movies (too many to name but some of my favourites are: Alien, Aliens, Terminator & Terminator 2, Event Horizon, Fargo, Tremors, Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion, Breakfast Club, Rebecca, Rear Window, Psycho, Sleepy Hollow (Johnny Depp version), The Halloween Tree, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Innocents, Mad Max: Fury Road, Star Wars (the original three), The Mummy & the Mummy Returns, and then the old movies like Godzilla, Robot Monster, The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, etc…

Makeup and Perfume: Yes, this deserves a category of its own because I’m a makeup junkie. I also love getting tattoos, and every tattoo I have has a deeply spiritual meaning to me. I love retro pin-up fashion.

I love to cook — and with food allergies, I have to be creative. I love hostessing dinner parties and holiday gatherings for friends. I’m learning to shoot and have a pretty good aim. Love going to the ocean and just listening to the waves crash on the shore.

Favorite foods: Steak, lobster, tomatoes, chocolate, raspberries. I miss French bread but that’s long gone with the food allergies, and I miss cheese, but again — all dairy is out of the question.

There’s so much interest and excitement around romance fiction right now. What do you think that romance readers are looking for in the romances they read today?

Honestly, with as much variation in romance as there is, I think that depends on the reader. I don’t write HEAs, but I do write HFNs, and I think the readers generally want a world where things work out all right — where, even if it’s not perfect, you know the bad guys will get theirs in the end, and that hope and love will prevail.

AUTUMN THORNS, the first in Yasmine’s Whisper Hollow series,

is out on 27^th October!

Look out for book two, SHADOW SILENCE, out next year!