Harry Forbes
Harry Forbes asked Brian Staveley:

Just noticed you were from the good ole 802. I grew up around the Stratton area. With the woods as my stomping grounds, spent copious hours stick as sword, battling off fierce non-existent enemies. Alas, those days have past. I still hike and explore all Vermont has to offer, but for my imaginative side I turn to books. I was wondering, are any settings or concepts in the chronicles inspired by the greenmountainstate?

Brian Staveley Hi Harry --

I've only lived in Vermont for a few years now, but I grew up in the woods of New Hampshire, like you, building forts and fighting monsters. I remember being picked up by the police once when I was eight or nine because I was walking down the road with three machetes. I had to explain that these were the perfect tool for the building of forts, durable and versatile. Not sure I used that exact phrasing. At any rate, I did a tour of the old fort sites a few years back -- almost nothing remaining but moss.

As for the influence of New England on the books, it's tough for me to trace anything direct. In the Providence of Fire, however, the northern forests of the Thousand Lakes with their dense stands of fir -- that sort of landscape isn't such a far cry from the woods right out the back door of my house. The Bone Mountains were inspired by the Sierra Nevada range in California (where I've spent a lot of time rock climbing)...

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