Hi all! This week marks the 6th month since I published my novel, The Lightbringer. It’s been a truly interesting journey filled with joy, frustration, excitement and a humbling sense of belonging to the wider community of independent authors. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be time to talk about how my writing and travelling passions came together in the creation of my book. If you’ve read my blog posts before, you’ll know I’m an avid traveller and that I’ve tried to combine my passion for nature with my research career and photography. From the Amazon to Iceland, from the Egyptian desert to the Alps, my journeys around the world have taken me to some pretty unbelievable places. Every country has been magical in a different way, and every trip has been a true adventure filled with new cultures, new faces, new foods, new smells, new habitats. This is something I tried to convey in my novel too. After his shipwreck, Jason catapulted into a fantastical reality. As he travels through the land of Valkadia he is exposed to a completely new world to which he must adapt. He meets new people, discovers strange creatures, and is introduced to new cultures. It isn’t simply the concept of travel that I tried to replicate in my novel, but also the feeling of escapism and wonder that comes with embarking on any journey. Those sensation of uncertainty anytime something unexpected occurs. The fear and discomfort of being somewhere unfamiliar coupled with beauty of curiosity. The instant gut response when you meet somebody new that tells you if they’re trustworthy or not. The fight in your mind that compels you to keep going or have a break on a long hike. Of course, that priceless moment when you look into the distance and realise where you are, and you’re far away from home, and there’s nothing you can do but appreciate it because those are the times in life when silence and introspectiveness are obligatory. Valkadia spread in front of him like a surrealist painting. With the bright moon and the stars shining in the clear skies, laying a blue hue over the landscape, all Jason could think of was Van Gogh’s Starry Night—but this was not a mere oil on canvas. It was real, and it extended before the photographer’s astonished eyes. Valkadia, the magical land that Jason stumbles into when he steps through the Elder Stone, takes its inspiration by many places I have visited, both mundane and exotic. In the above passage, Jason is looking out to the expanse that lays before him as he stands on top of Mount Dormund, just before an epic battle occurs. The snow-covered mountainous landscape, with jagged peaks, cold breeze and an ominous silence, is a scene I tried to recreate based on my trip to the Jungfraujoch in Switzerland – Europe’s tallest peak, where I had the opportunity to stand above the Aletsch glacier. The observatory located on top of the nearby Sphinx peak, placed seemingly precariously on its rocky summit, is the inspiration for Öken’s house. Surrounded by tall mountains, permanent snow and glaciers, this location provided the perfect setting for one of the most intense showdowns of the novel. Other memorable fictional settings inspired by real-world places are the forests of Valkadia – the Iron Wood, Thorwyn’s Forest and Gartruth Forest. After my time spent in the woods of Italy, Wales (UK) and Peru, I built a repertoire of green spaces that I could easily pick from. Thorwyn’s wood, thick and lush, is based on the ancient woodland Coed Felenrhyd in Wales, near Maentwrog. Also known as the Celtic Rainforest, this place has an aura of mystery and antiquity. It is also a setting for an epic battle in Celtic lore, where the hero of the Mabinogion Pryderi faces his enemy Gwydion. I thought this would be the perfect location for the battle between Lok and the Erythian guards, led by the ferocious general Sigrid. Gartruth Forest, with its gigantic trees and never-ending greenness is, of course, based on the Amazon. The colourful birds and monkeys that Jason and his companions encounter are reminiscent of my trips to the rainforest. A troop of iridescent blue monkeys jumped above their heads from one tree to another, trying to find fruit to eat. When they were done eating the strange purple fruits growing in the highest branches, they threw the pits on the ground, almost hitting Jason on the head. What I wrote in the above excerpt is something that really happened to my guides and I when we trekked the swamps of the Pacaya-Samiria National park. The monkeys weren’t iridescent blue but actually capuchin monkeys, though the fruit they threw at us was truly purple (and stinky). The Iron Wood owes its inspiration from Norse mythology. Taking its name from Járnviðr, a forest in Midgard inhabited by gigantic wolves and other terrible monsters. It is also said that is where Fenrir dwells, the gigantic wolf that will eventually eat the sun and kill Odin and cause the end of the Earth – Ragnarok. This is the reason why the beastly Ulkar inhabits the Iron Wood. While this isn’t entirely inspired by my travels to a specific wood, this place is rather inspired from what I learnt when travelling to Scandinavian countries such as Iceland and Denmark, or even the Viking city of York in England. These places are saturated with Norse history and it’s easy to become inspired by their magical tales. What about places that aren’t natural settings - what about the cities? While some locations, such as Niteria, may seem completely fictional, they are built on true places around the world. If you remove the enormous trees and the zany magical inhabitants from Niteria, you are left with a setting reminiscent of the Austrian Sud-Tirol. The wood-framed houses, flowers cascading from balconies, wooden bridges and gazebos, clean cobbled streets. However, Niteria isn’t just a quaint village but a bustling capital, and the essence of its fervour is owed to my trips to Spain, in particular Barcelona. In particular, the Ærindel, the Palace of Kings is based on one building specifically. Its two golden domes dominated the inhabitants’ wooden houses, and its taupe sandstone walls were peppered with immense oval windows of irregular shapes and sizes. The undulating roofs, topped with a golden mosaic and an array of chimneys that spiralled upwards to the sky, reminded Jason of Antoni Gaudí’s ‘Casa Batlló’ in Barcelona. I could go on writing about every place in the book, but I would like to end with one location which based on my hometown. As you may know, I grew up in Milan, Italy – or I should say Milano. Cleverly hidden with an anagram, Milano plays an important role in Jason’s journey. Here, he meets his other companions, learns what his path will be, and earns a Væsnar tunic. In The Lightbringer, Milano turns into Malion. The white buildings, imposing monuments and wide cobbled streets are all resonant elements of Milan. Of course, Milan has no enormous lake beside it, but I could imagine a building like Rennhall’s Library, with its golden domes, its white marble walls, and its many arches to exist in my hometown. That would be cool. While travelling to all these locations, a part of me was always thinking of my book. Now that this novel is finished and my dream of publishing became reality, my travel experiences so far will always be a part of The Lightbringer. However, The Lightbringer is just half of the story, so I look forward to travelling more and becoming inspired by new places. Who knows what magical locations will appear in the next book? Stay tuned and stay wanderlust, Dael
0 Comments
|
Archives
June 2021
Categories |