Ask the Author–Have There Been Any Places That Have Inspired Your Writing?

It’s September and I’m bringing my posts back to their regular schedule. That means this week we have a question I get to answer.

Have there been any places that inspired your writing?

I can see two directions this question could go. One is if I have a place I go to write where I just feel more inspired. I would have to say, not really. I’m not in a position to treat writing like a full-time job. In order to get any writing done, I have had to teach myself to write nearly anywhere and in any amount of time I can find. So, wherever I happen to be at the time I find a spare moment to write, that has to hold enough inspiration.

On the other hand, I have definitely been inspired by some places I have been to. The mountains close to my home inspired the mountains in Aviandria. The bay at Haifa in Israel is a fair bit how I picture the bay in Accipitridaelynn. Also, some of the seaside cliffs I saw near San Diego were the inspiration for a setting I describe in the third book. The Mississippi River was also an inspiration for the river between Aviandria and Draconland. In Keys of Aviandria, the landscape of Moraiethiea is much like the landscape of Oklahoma where I spent eighteen months. If I really thought hard, there are probably more, but I won’t take the time to list all of them. And there are many parts of Aviandria that are just Aviandria. It brings it’s own inspiration much of the time.

So, no, I don’t have somewhere I go to be inspired, but I am inspired by places I have been. Though Aviandria Aviandria is its own place, it certainly has an element of home.

What are some of the most inspirational places you have been?