(Cross posted to FFF).
Been spending a bit of time preparing for my trip to Europe (only another 40 days!) I can’t believe how quickly it all sneaked up on me, but then again, I’ve had a busy few months, what with revisions, and getting married, and all. I want to thank everyone who gave me advice in my last post. You have no idea how helpful you all were!
So far, I have rooms booked in Rome and London, tickets for the King Tut exhibit and for the Villa Borghese, and I’m slowly winnowing down the list of what else we want to do. Rome, for the most part, will be a “wander around at will” situation, though there are a few day trips I’m dying to take (and I am taking my husband down to Pompeii for an overnight, as he’s never been). And though we both think it’s a super long shot, we might head over to that place in London where you can snag returned and unclaimed tickets last minute to see if there is any chance of catching Ian McKellan doing Lear (hey, a girl can dream!)
The irony of this whole trip is that it was originally envisioned as a research trip for Rampant, but Rampant will be almost done by the time I actually get to go. Mostly, I’m hoping that the trip will help me fill out a few scenes, jogging my memory in terms of setting. Even just researching the trip has been a major inspiration for me. As I read about the places on my “must revisit” list, I was reminded again of why I wanted to use them as settings in my story:
The Basilica of San Clemente: An 18th century restoration of a medieval church, built on top of a 4th century church, built on top of a Pagan Temple to Mithras, built on top of Roman republican apartment houses. In many ways, this church is a microcosm of all of Rome, and its very existence, each layer adopting form and function from the one below it, each ancient layer becoming more and more lost to the passage of time and the piracy of the succeeding generations… it’s the heart of my story.
Villa Borghese: A large and picturesque park in the north of Rome. Home to the Galleria Borghese, one of my favorite places in all of Rome, and — wonder of wonders — I just realized TONIGHT that it has on display one of the images that jumpstarted the entire story of Rampant: Raphael’s Woman with a Unicorn:
I’ll be able to see her in person! I’m so excited. I don’t even need Lear now.
It’s a bit unusual for me to be doing a research trip this intense. True, setting and location are paramount in the Secret Society Girl series, but for the most part, I was writing about places I knew as well as I knew my own apartment. I’d lived there, on those campus streets, in those dorms and classrooms and tombs and cafes. I’ve visited Rome, but I’m no native (fortunately, neither are my characters!), and, of course, I’ve invented the Cloisters of Ctesias from near-scratch. Carrie Ryan can attest to the challenge I faced describing architecture that I was making up. (Can you believe that was a year ago, Carrie?) But in the end, it’s all worth it. I’m a firm believer that, particularly when you are writing fantasy, you have to get the audience to trust this huge thing you’re making up, so you have ot make sure that everything else is as believable as possible.
Of course, so much of Rome is so otherworldly that maybe I’ll have to tone it down some for the book!
Does the setting inspire you when you write? What kind of research do you do to make sure that it all rings true?
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