I’m really excited to be here
today to celebrate the release of my third book, Whereafter. Whereafter is the
third book in the Afterlife series, which tells the story of a woman named
Irene Dunphy who dies and has to learn to navigate the afterlife as a ghost.
One of the key features of the
series is that it features afterlife mythology from every religion and
culture—both past and present. For every book, the landscape is usually drawn
from one or two cultures and then additional elements are layered in. In the
first book, Hereafter, Irene is stuck on Earth as a ghost. The way that ghosts
behave and interact with the world is built on modern American ghost folklore.
The world is also populated with creatures called “The Uglies,” which are
modeled on Navajo “Chindi” and Chinese “Yuan gui.”
The second book of the series,
Thereafter, is set in the afterlife or land of the dead. The world here is dark
and gray—the sky is gray, the trees are black, the ground is gray and washed
out. This is modeled on the Sumerian afterlife, kur-nu-gi-a, which was
described as a gray, washed out place, where the food is “as ash.” Lilith (from
Jewish mythology), who some historian argue is also the same person as Inanna
from Sumer-Akkadian mythology, makes an appearance as well. The book also pulls
heavily from Greek mythology—Irene has to pay a ferryman a coin to cross the
river Acheron and continue on her journey—and Chinse and Japanese mythology—the
land is filled with “hungry ghosts” modeled on Chinese Nu gui and Japanese
Gaki.
The third book, Whereafter, is
modeled heavily on the Egyptian afterlife. The landscape that Irene and Andras
travel through is an endless wheat field (in ancient Egypt, the realm of the
dead was called Duat, which was also called the Field of Rushes or the Wheat
Fields of Osiris). The Egyptians believed that people were made up of five
separate parts: the body, the heart, the life spark, the shadow, and the spirit
or mind. The Egyptians believed that after death, the shadow gathered food for
the spirit (once it left the body) and fed it. Then, the spirit joined with the
shadow to form a ghost. In Whereafter, this belief is directly translated into
free-roaming shadows that attack any ghosts and steal their shadow/ghost body.
Layered into this Sumerian/Egyptian hybrid world is some modern Christianity in
the form of a giant mansion, the rooms of which are various other versions of
Heaven/paradise (Valhalla, the Garden of Eden, the Aztec “Garden of the Rain
God,” etc.). In addition, Irene and Andras have to cross a bridge the width of
a hair, which is taken from Zoroastrian afterlife mythology, and Irene burns a
paper effigy of a cow, which turns into the real thing, which is taken from
Chinese mythology. There are many other small touches like that throughout all
three books. For anyone who likes afterlife mythology, the books pose a fun
challenge of trying to identify all the afterlife mythology that the various
elements are pulled from.
It’s been fun and interesting—and
very challenging combining all of these elements together. For the remaining
three books of the series, I will be pulling in more ancient Greek and ancient
Roman mythology, as well as mythology from India, various regions of Africa,
and various Native American tribes. What’s been most interesting about writing
these books is how the various myths reveal that no matter where or when we
lived, we all have more in common than we think. Most afterlife beliefs have
many elements in common, and, in many cases, it’s been easier than I expected
to be able to piece all these various stories together to make a coherent
whole!
For anyone that loves afterlife
mythology or wants to learn more about the Afterlife series, during the month
of April I will be participating in the “A to Z Blogging Challenge,” and every
day, I will be posting a video blog (at http://www.terribruce.net) in which I
reveal all of the hidden references to afterlife mythology and “Easter Eggs” in
the series. I encourage everyone to stop by each day and check out the videos!
You can also sign up for my newsletter to stay up to date with all my latest
news. In addition, I love interacting with readers, so please feel free to
email me or connect with me on Twitter!
Whereafter
Afterlife
Book 3
Terri Bruce
Genre: Contemporary fantasy/paranormal
Publisher: Mictlan Press
Date of Publication: March 15, 2016
ISBN: 9780991303649
Number of pages: 345
Word Count: 100,000
Formats available:
Paperback and all ebook formats
Cover Artist: Shelby Robinson – artwork
Jennifer Stolzer – layout and design
Book Description:
How Far Would You Go To Get Your Life Back?
Stuck in the afterlife on an island encircled by fire and hunted by shadows bent on trapping them there forever, Irene and Andras struggle to hold onto the last vestiges of their physical selves, without which they can never return to the land of the living. But it’s not just external forces they’ll have to fight as the pair grow to realize they have different goals. Irene still clings to the hope that she can somehow return to her old life—the one she had before she died—while Andras would be only too glad to embrace oblivion.
Meanwhile, Jonah desperately searches for a way to cross over to the other side, even if doing so means his death. His crossing over, however, is the one thing that could destroy Irene’s chances of returning home.
Too many obstacles, too many people to save, and the thing Irene most desperately wants—to return to her old life—seems farther away than ever. Only one thing is clear: moving on will require making a terrible sacrifice.
Excerpt #2
They crossed into the previous room, navigating carefully
between the jostling throng. Jonah barely paid attention as his mind worked
furiously.
“What do you mean, someplace else? Where else do the dead go
when they cross over if not here?”
Jonah’s scowl deepened. As usual, Char wasn’t getting the
hint that he didn’t really want to talk anymore. “Lots of places.”
“Like where?”
A pang went through him as the ever-present image of a
burning lake of fire burned in the forefront of his mind. “In one of her
letters, Irene said she was in a city and then in a forest—a dark, creepy
forest. Based on the description, I think she was in the place where the
Restless Dead go.”
“Sounds charming.”
Grimly, he said, “Exactly.”
And then she
took a boat to Hell.
“Look, I’m sure she’s fine,” Char said hurriedly, in an
obvious, though fruitless, attempt to reassure him.
He stared straight ahead as they wove through the crowd,
trying to block out the nagging worry growing inside of him.
They crossed back into the Norse room and then into one of
the gardens and then into an unfamiliar room. Jonah paused for a second, trying
to get his bearings. “Did we come through here before?” he asked.
Char shook her head. “I think you took a wrong turn out of
the garden.”
There had been only one way out of the garden—Jonah was sure
of it. A feeling of unease started to take hold of him as he turned around and
headed back through the doorway they had just come through. He stopped short
the second they stepped across the threshold. Instead of passing back into the
garden where they had just been, they now stood in the white room with the
harps.
“What the…” Jonah looked around, his unease growing. “Wasn’t
this just Tlalocan?”
Char stared at him, her eyes
wide, and nodded.
“Come on,” Jonah grabbed her
hand, a sinking feeling spreading upwards from the pit of his stomach, and
headed for the far end of the hall. In all the stories, getting into the
Underworld was easy; it was getting out that was hard. He recalled Persephone’s
warning, and his stomach lurched. He sped up and they passed through the
doorway into another unfamiliar room.
“Wasn’t this where Valhalla was?”
Char asked, but Jonah didn’t pause—he just strode resolutely forward, his jaw
set, dragging Char with him. They passed straight through the room and in the
next instant found themselves back in the blue ballroom.
“I don’t understand,” Char said.
“How could we possibly be here again?”
The sinking feeling was getting
worse, giving way to an uneasy sense of inevitability. However, he refused to
admit defeat just yet.
“Maybe it’s a different room that
just looks like the room we were in before?” Char said, clearly grasping at
straws.
They turned around and headed
back through the doorway they had just come through. It should have led to the
room they were just in—the white room—but instead, they found themselves back
in the blue ballroom.
“But… but… this is impossible!”
Char cried, stopping dead in her tracks. Jonah tried to tug her forward, but
she yanked her hand from his grasp. “What the hell is going on?”
Jonah tried to keep his face and
voice perfectly neutral as he spoke—to keep both Char and himself from
panicking. Panic wouldn’t do either of them any good. “The rooms move.
Nothing’s fixed.”
Char stared at him, the color
draining from her face. “You say that like it’s no big deal.”
Jonah bit his lip and didn’t meet
her eyes, hoping that she couldn’t hear the hammering of his heart. “It’s a big
deal,” he said, his voice tight.
“How are we going to get out of
here if we can’t find our way back to the entrance?”
He didn’t answer—couldn’t answer;
he didn’t know.
More forcefully, Char said,
“Jonah?”
But he didn’t have to say
anything—he knew she could see it in his face.
They were
stuck.
About the Author:
Terri Bruce has been making up adventure stories for as long as she can remember and won her first writing award when she was twelve. Like Anne Shirley, she prefers to make people cry rather than laugh, but is happy if she can do either. She produces fantasy and adventure stories from a haunted house in New England where she lives with her husband and three cats. She is the author of the Afterlife Series, which includes Hereafter (Afterlife #1) and Thereafter (Afterlife #2) and several short stories including “Welcome to OASIS” (“Dear Robot” anthology, Kelly Jacobson publisher) and “The Well” (“Scratching the Surface” anthology, Third Flatiron Press).
Website/Blog: www.terribruce.net
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/TerriBruce
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorterribruce
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