Random thoughts: Welsh influence in stories

When I did my radio interview at the start of June, one of the questions I was asked was whether growing up in Wales had influenced my writing. I said it hadn't; at least no more than in the sence that it would have influenced me as a person.

At the time I was writing "Cubby And The Beanstalk" (which is now pre-released, and will be officially available at the end of this month). I hadn't gotten very far with it, and since I don't have story outlines so the story develops for me as I write it, I wasn't 100% certain what would end up happening in what I hadn't written of the story at that point.

It was only when I came to doing the edits for "Cubby And The Beanstalk" before pre-releasing it that I realized that in the case of this particular story my Welsh upbringging certainly has influenced the tale. I didn't think of it as I was writing it; I just wrote.

It ended up that the giant skybears that Cubby the polar bear meets when he goes up the beanstalk have Welsh names, and the magical chant that one of them uses is in Welsh.

So, I guess the answer to the question about my Welsh upbringing influencing my writing would be "yes" now? LOL!