As a person I often admire the scenery, the unusual, and the sounds around me. As an author I tend to take my phone out to capture the image, knowing that someday I may want to use it in a story.
The purpose of these next few blog posts is to share with you some of the images that have found their way into my books.
Scotland is a land of dramatic scenery, and a place I very much want to return to. But it wasn't the scenery that appeared in my book this time, it was my holiday accomodation - a log cabin (well bits of it anyway).
This was a stunning place and even had a log burner installed - the perfect setting for a hideaway for Lina and Jake (with modifications for their circumstances).
Another thing from Scotland was the unusual, or so it appeared to me. It was on a set of cemetry gates in Aberdeen. We were walking past on our way to the university, so I had to quickly take this snap and hurry on - which was a shame as I'd have loved to have gone inside.
These gates became the entrance to the cemetry that was an important part of Lina's journey of discovery.
The next photo was actually taken at a local landowner's open garden. Their manor house links to the church and upon exploring the graveyard, I found this statue.
She was perfect for the idea I had for a gateway. I embellished her plinth with some necessary carvings to activate her, but otherwise I thought she was majestic enough to be used as she was.
So two objects hundreds of miles apart were now combined in the same cemetry in my book.
There were other things that made it into this story - the cafe is a real place, one that I actually wrote a lot of this book in. The truck is based on one that was for sale in a garage I passed regularly. How I longed for that truck, as I have a love of old vehicles.
I hope you enjoyed finding out about some of the inspiration for things in Different Wings, and enjoy the story with new insight. And if you haven't read it yet, you'll like knowing the background behind some of the places described.
Happy reading.
Marie