There's a lot of scenery in the wolfkin stories so far. I am so inspired by things I see; the right landscapes speak to me, and that finds itself into my writing. Wyrd of the Wolfkin and Knight of Grey are no exception.
The Northern Crown, the setting for Wyrd of the Wolfkin (as well as the short story 'The Hearth in the Hills' and the upcoming chapbook 'Midwinter's Gifts), was inspired by the Great Smoky Mountains. I live in their shadows, and spend a lot of time wandering those trails. The trail between Gurrentown and Brandr's home, in particular, draws from that, as does the Journey to Sigmar's house
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One of the principal locations in Knight of Grey is the ruin of Tor Tanidel, an elven fortress that had become the human fastness of Valestone before it was all but destroyed in the second mage war. The castle is practically a character in of itself; and the seeds of it formed in my mind when I visited Conisbrough Castle, an 11th century Norman Fortress in England.
The landscape leading up to Tor Tanidel is bare, rising into foothills. The imagery for that is drawn from some of the uplands near Boise, Idaho, and the kind of bare but not entirely bleak hills there. I think it creates an important mood as the characters traverse the setting toward the ruins, especially as the late autumn slowly turns towards winter.
There is so much power in landscape. It fills me with emotion and energy when I'm out in the wild, or walking by crumbling ruins, and I hope to put just a little of that magic into what I write.
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