Karen Azinger's Blog: The Silk & Steel Saga - Posts Tagged "liandra"

My inspiration for writing The Silk & Steel Saga comes from everywhere! From history, from the beauty of nature, from the diversity of travel, from reading books and watching movies, and even from talking with good friends. I guess my two favorite sources of inspiration are history and travel. To me, history is fascinating. There are so many larger-than-life personalities in the past. It's interesting to explore the problems they faced and study the solutions they tried. So many problems of the past are repeated today. If you want a crystal ball, just look to the past, human nature hasn’t changed all that much. One of my favorite characters in the saga, Queen Liandra, is based one of my historical heroines, Queen Elizabeth I, a lone woman ruling a kingdom in deep peril.
I also find inspiration in my travels. Travel makes you look at the world from a different perspective, a different culture, a different history. Travel also provides inspiration for fabulous settings. In my travels I’ve found settings that resonate with history, or beauty, or wonder, from the mysterious ruins of Machu Picchu, to the natural wonder of the majestic Sequoia trees, to windswept castles overlooking a turquoise sea. I try to imbue the settings of my saga with the wonders of far away places. An example of this in my saga, is The Ghost Hills, inspired by the beehive formations of the Bungle Bungles in Australia, and The Deep Green, inspired by the forest of giant Sequoia trees in California.