Whispers in the Pines: A Different Kind of Story

The upcoming release of Whispers in the Pines on December 21 represents a change for the series. In the past, the early books focused on location as the main anchor point. Every story was tied to one area or region. This book is more character-driven and introduces us to the history of who Ölrún Karlsson is.

How the Story Unfolded

Tegan's grandmother was first mentioned during the events in The Loveland Frog and the Narrow Path. Tegan experienced a near-death event (as we came to learn, it was a real-death event) which triggered visions and communications. It was during this period that Puddlesquat, the pukwudgie, revealed that he saved her life to repay a debt owed to her grandmother. Tegan learned that her grandmother was a Valkyrie who had helped banish the Jersey Devil in 1736 and 1911. With those two plot points, I built the story out.

From Tegan's solo story, Tegan Stone and the Gibson County Beast, I included a hypnotherapy session where many pieces of Tegan's history were discovered. She said she grew up in Oxnard, California. She had a brother and a sister. She was raised by a single mom because her father left when she was ten. That gave us a more in-depth look at Tegan than we had seen before.

There were mentions in other books about Tegan's grandmother battling the Jersey Devil on two occasions, including Kareem's solo adventure, Kareem Ortiz and the Menehune of Kaua'i. There we saw how Kareem's ancestor Uriel played a role that related to Tegan's grandmother. So with these various breadcrumbs, the story developed.

Her full name, Olivia Karlsson, was revealed when the team interviewed Mrs. McAlister, an elderly local resident of Leeds Point, NJ. Mrs. McAlister stated that Tegan's grandmother was Olivia Karlsson, one of the three witches (along with Henrietta Jordan and Eliza Whitaker) who performed a ritual to trap the Devil in a well in 1911. The shortened name, Liv, was also used when referring to her. Henrietta Jordan's personal letters refer to her close friend as Olivia Karlsson and often use the shortened name Liv in The Jersey Devil and the Intergalactic Silky Pajamas. Liv also appears in The Lizard Man of Lee County and the Sope Creek Cryptidweizen.

The biggest building blocks focused on the periods of 1735-1736, when the Jersey Devil sightings first began, and 1909-1911, when the next major real-world sightings took place. In Into the Dark with the Maryland Goatman, I mentioned Teddy Roosevelt went to the East Coast to search for the Snallygaster, and in 1912 he went looking for the Jersey Devil but didn't find it. That framed my narrative. He was known as a great game hunter, including an interest in cryptids, and he couldn't find it, so it must mean it wasn't there. And it wouldn't be there because Liv banished it in 1911.

But this book is more than the Jersey Devil, so those two periods became plot points in a larger story.

I started at the back and tried to build up the lore of Liv. Valkyries are from the Iceland/Norway region, so I decided to begin the story in Iceland, and she needed to have a legend. She would have a reputation as a fierce warrior, and she wouldn't be called Liv there, so I came up with Ölrún Karlsson, thinking that sounded more region-appropriate. When she would eventually make it to America, that name would stand out, so she would adjust it to Olivia, shortened by friends to Liv.

I decided if she is eternal, why not begin well in the past instead of just 1735 for the Jersey Devil? I picked 1602, and that was during the time of a famine, which helped frame the beginning chapters of this story. In each transition of scenes, Liv confronts the danger and disappears without saying goodbye. She does not die, but she travels into the mystic realm, the astral plane, or whatever you want to call it. That helped get us through the Jersey Devil encounters ending in 1911.

But there had to be more.

Since we knew Tegan grew up in Oxnard and she had previously described her family dynamics, I had to get her there, and that would be through her grandmother living there. But Tegan needed a mom first. So TIME Agency genealogy was compiled to create Tegan's mom, her brother, her sister, and her father to bring that part of Tegan's life into focus.

Since Tegan had a mom, and we knew Liv was her grandmother, she had to have a grandfather.

But I decided to add another stop between 1911 and the late 1950s. Enter Patterson Quinn, Carson's grandfather (you'll learn more about him later). 1944, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia represents a previously unknown but important encounter in the TIME Agency lore, and it begins here in Whispers in the Pines.

Why Read It?

I think this is my best story yet, given the depth with which Tegan's grandmother is explored. It was in writing this story that I began to realize the series isn't really about beer and cryptids. That is certainly a prominent theme, but those are surface-level topics.

This one is about supernatural creatures, a summoned demon, and a few historical figures, but mostly it's about jealousy, love, difficult decisions, infidelity, hope, the next generation, eternal love, and just one beer.

I think people who haven't read a prior book in the series can read this one and enjoy it as a standalone. Its focus is more on emotions and connectivity than earlier books.

Whispers in the Pines releases December 21, 2025. Just in time for your Christmas Eve Jólabókaflóðið celebration. Pre-order now on Amazon, Ingram Spark, Books.by, and MythsAndMalts.com.

—Mark