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I’m away on holiday at the moment – the first one of 2020 because Covid-19 has cancelled the other two – so I thought I’d share five places which I find really inspirational. I should say that, although I love all five of these places, there are other places I love equally or more, but there are ones which really get the creative juices flowing for me! I’ve written them in order of north to south: three are in Scotland and two are in England.
St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney
This massive red sandstone building dominates the Kirkwall skyline as you drive into the town, and this is my earliest memory of it. In fact, I never set foot in the building when we were living in Orkney, but saw the interior for the first time when we returned on holiday in 2001. It is full of fascinating memento mori gravemarkers, which absolutely fascinate me, and the stained glass in absolutely magnificent. Perhaps the most memorable and unique thing about St Magnus Cathedral is the smell: warmth and love, which speaks of the years of Orkney which it has witnessed.
Lose yourself in the sights and scents, while you listen to the sounds of people from around the globe gathering together to admire the magnificent cathedral.
Castle Sinclair Girnigoe, Caithness
This building is just a short distance from where I live, and I’ve got many happy memories of it, like the time we met the founder of the North Carolina Opera Company there, or when we bumped into a group of people dressed as Knights Templar. It is the southernmost castle on Sinclair Bay and is believed to be haunted by the ghost of a man whose brother locked him up with salted meat and no water to drink. When his brother came to gloat over him, the incarcerated man attempted to strangle him with the chains he wore.
Coupled with this spooky heritage and the fact that the castle is built on the edge of a cliff, there’s no shortage of inspiration to be found at the castle.
Killiecrankie, Perthshire
This is where I am for this holiday. In autumn, there is not a more beautiful place in the world. The pass and the surrounding hills have burst into shades of golden, yellow, orange and red. There’s a good chance that you’ll see a red squirrel as you venture and the birdlife is fantastic too, along with evidence of pine martens, badgers and otters. In 1689, there was a battle in the pass, as the Jacobites won a battle which lost them the war, as “Bonnie Dundee” (their leader) was killed early in conflict and they had no one else with his skills as a tactician.
Like Sinclair Girnigoe, it is the mixture of natural and cultural heritage which gives this place the wealth of inspiration it has on offer. Take a camera, but make sure you spend time just soaking in the feeling as well!
Pendragon Castle, Cumbria
This place actually inspired the story that is my current work in progress: a story all about King Arthur’s foster-brother, Kaye. According to legend, it was the castle of King Uther, Arthur’s father, who attempted to divert the Eden so that it would provide the moat for his castle. His subsequent failure to do so was preserved in rhyme. In actual fact, its most famous resident was Sir Hugh de Morville, one of the knights who killed Thomas a Becket in 1170. On his return to Pendragon Castle, he found he was haunted by the fact that the ridge of the nearby hill resembled a recumbent man wearing a mitre!
The castle is usually surrounded by sheep more that tourists, which means you usually get the place to yourself. There isn’t that much to see anymore, but there’s nothing like a good ruin for getting the creative juices flowing.
Thornton Abbey, North Lincolnshire
I feel like I’m pinching this one, because it is such an important place for my sister’s book, Taking Wing. When the monasteries were dissolved, Henry VIII liked the architecture of Thornton Abbey so much that he decided to turn it into a college. Eventually though, it fell into disuse and disrepair, and now the gatehouse is the only part which hints at its former majesty. It too is haunted – by a man who was caught stealing fish from the monk’s pond and who got his head chopped off with a spade!
The way that the imposing gatehouse at Thornton Abbey looms over its surroundings leaves a magical shadow of inspiration around the area: how did the mighty become so fallen?
I’d love to hear about the places which you find inspirational – please tell me in the comments!
Don’t tell anyone, but Kelli spends all her free time listening to folk music. Ok, it’s not what you’d expect from a popular fifteen-year-old, but that’s why she doesn’t want the whole world to know.
When Kelli follows the mysterious Tam Lane, she finds herself in a place where folk songs come to life. As she comes to terms with the world, she makes friends, uses her privilege to help others, and even falls in love.
But Kelli has forgotten the fates which await so many characters in the songs, and she soon finds herself surrounded by heartbreak. Determined to protect the people she has left, can Kelli change a fate which has been sung for centuries?
Enjoy an Excerpt
They left the inn as the church clock began to chime midday and completed their journey in relative silence. As they neared Arlen Manor, Kelli began to feel a strange sensation of being watched, as though a hundred pairs of eyes were following her wherever she went. Looking carefully, she saw there were sculpted birds in many of the trees: great, black, hideous creatures with round eyes which stared unseeingly and followed her as she passed them by.
“They are crows,” William explained. “Centuries ago, before it was Arlen, the castle which stood here was called Corbie. That’s just another word for crow. According to family legend, when a disaster is about to befall the men of the family, the crows of Corbie Castle can be heard talking to one another.”
Kelli felt a shiver stalk down her spine, and she was grateful when they left the woods and moved up the long driveway to the house, which was a picture of gothic splendour in the late afternoon light. She immediately had the feeling that this was the place she had been meant to find, although she could not explain where the idea came from. Climbing down from the trap, Kelli followed William to the door, and stood behind him as he hammered his fist against it.
About the Author:
Judith was born in Orkney, grew up in Lincolnshire and now lives in the far north of Scotland. Her writing is inspired by the experiences of her life so far and she loves picking up on quirks and immortalising them in fiction.
Judith’s new book, Dance With Me, combines her love of folk music and creative writing, and finds her main character in a world where folk songs come to life. Her debut book, The Backwater, was a finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards 2019.
When she isn’t writing, Judith is a primary school teacher who enjoys crafting and music, as well as being a generally doting spaniel owner.
Buy the book at Amazon.
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Launch of a new series for upper middle graders about a girl who has lived as an international thief, now returned to the real world.
Angelica Delfino takes a special interest in the lives of her three nieces, whom she affectionately calls the daughters of her heart. Sensing that each woman is harboring a troubling, possibly even toxic secret, Angelica decides to share her secrets—secrets she had planned to take to the grave. Spellbound, the nieces listen as Angelica travels back six decades to reveal an incredulous tale of forbidden love, tragic loss, and reinvention. It is the classic immigrant story upended: an Italian widow’s transformative journey amid the most unlikely of circumstances.
In 2008, Joanne Guidoccio took advantage of early retirement and launched a second act as a writer. Her articles and book reviews have been published in newspapers, magazines, and online. When she tried her hand at fiction, she made reinvention a recurring theme in her novels and short stories. A member of Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, and Women’s Fiction Writers Association, Joanne writes paranormal romances, cozy mysteries, and inspirational literature from her home base of Guelph, Ontario.
January, 2022: A dark monstrous twin-headed apparition – Apophis – feverishly races past the expanse of the Milky Way galaxy and bolts to the edge of the solar system. Recklessly accelerating, the sinister rock-dyad enters the gravitational keyhole of the blue planet and continues its resolute inebriated journey – to soon arrive with an apocalyptic impact on Earth.
Savinder Raj Anand is an architect and has been teaching Architecture & Design at various Universities in India for more than 12 years. A long-distance runner with a wanderlust to explore the world, and write stories that traverse across diverse cultures. He lives in Goa with his daughter, a dog, and two cats. 
Rachael Reilly is a steamy romance writer living right outside Nashville, Tennessee. She also previously worked as a freelance writer for smaller magazine publications.
