Heights of fantasy
By Pamela Kelt
I don’t have a head
for heights. I get dizzy on a stepladder. So why did I suggest a trip alongside
the infamous Ladder of Cattaro to a monastery perched high in the mountains of
You guessed. It was
all in the name of research for a new fantasy series I was planning.
It all began with my
daughter, Lauren, who in her teens attended advanced circus skill classes at
our local youth theatre. She specialised in silks, aerial hoop, trapeze,
acrobalance and rope. The shows these youngsters put on were breathtaking. If
you’ll excuse a shameless piece of name-dropping, Lauren’s best friend there
was Sophie Turner. (Yes, that one.) When Sophie landed the part of Sansa Stark,
everyone was talking about Game of Thrones. Fantasy fans were beside
themselves.
It crossed my mind,
though, that a younger generation of readers (and viewers)
Lord Byron himself was
one of many visitors taken by its spectacular scenery and gushed: ‘At the
moment of birth of our planet, the most beautiful meeting of land and sea was
on the Montenegrin coast.’
The old name for Montenegro was Illyria ,
which is a little hard to say, and so Liria was born. The sheer diversity of
the country, due mainly to its huge mountains, led to a concept of a six
adventures in six contrasting settings.
The opening scene is
in a villa based on a church overlooking the Bay of Kotor
I devoured the guide
books for inspiration and became captivated by a famous warrior bishop/poet.
His name was Petar Petrovic Njegos, a national hero, for whom a massive
mausoleum was built on Mount
Lovcen
This had to be seen.
Despite my fears, I suggested the trip and off we went.
We left Kotor and
took the road that followed the Ladder of Cattaro, a zigzag path of almost impossible
hairpin bends. It was a former mule track that linked Cetinje, the traditional
capital of Montenegro
Up we climbed, almost
into the clouds, past subsistence-level farms and orchards as the scenery
shifted from coastal to alpine. The medieval past of Montenegro
The mausoleum is
perched on a grey mountain, approached by a flight of nearly 500 white marble steps
with precipitous drops on either side, so vertiginous my palms sweated. The panoramic
views of the Montenegrin mountains were epic. I can’t even describe the fear of
the trip back down to sea level. I sat in the back of the car with the guide
book, not even daring to look out of the window. However, the plot for the
first book began to form, featuring a mountain citadel called Gorach that you
can now see on the book’s cover.
The Balkan theme also
came into its own when it came to the characters’ names. I decided to have two
complementary protagonists who would be my young questers. In keeping with the
aerial skills that had originally sparked the story, it seemed fitting to make
them athletic and physically gifted. Svila (Serbian for silk) is a silks
specialist (think Cirque de Soleil), haughty, instinctive, confident. Her
younger companion is
The fun thing about
the Balkan theme for English speakers is that the names are so totally different
that you have no preconceptions of what a character might be like. Mirko – good
or bad? What about Kurto? Lukas? Dmitri? Dvora?
The history of
One day, I would love
to return to the Balkans, but next time I’ll stick to the coast.
LINKS
Find Pam on Twitter and Facebook.
There is a Legends of Liria blog,
featuring The Cloud Pearl, and click here
to see the book trailer. Pam also has a blog and author page.
Read Chapter One of
The Cloud Pearl here.
Fascinating trip, wonderful story and amazing story-teller!! Thank you Pam for being a return guest on my blog.
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