I had very powerful and gorgeous geological
inspiration for my novel, Body
Temperature and Rising. It, along with the whole Lakeland Heatwave Trilogy, is set in the English Lake District. It’s no secret that
I’m totally in love with the place. Most of the locations in the trilogy are
real places that I’ve walked and explored while there. However those real
experiences in the landscape also inspired the ‘Magicscapes’ in the story.
Before I go any further, I’d like to clarify
for my American readers just what a fell is, since there seems to be a bit of a
language barrier, and some people have thought that the fells are woodlands. A
fell is an upland stretch of open countryside, a moor or a barren or stony hill. And the fells in the Lake District are
formidable. They include Scafell Pike the highest mountain in England! The word
comes from Middle English and Old Norse and means mountain or hill. There!
Language barrier crossed!
There are lots of places that inspired BTR I
could talk about, all fascinating, all playing roles in the novel, all making
my imagination race with ideas for more Lakeland stories. However, since I’m
the happy guest on the fabulous Ravynhart site today, I would like to talk
about one of the places that inspired some of the creepiest, most sinister,
most magical scenes in the book, and even a scene of sex magic al fresco gone
wrong. The Place is called Raven Crag. It’s on Thirlmere Reservoir in the Central
Fells, not far the town of Keswick.
I’ve only walked it once with a friend of
mine who works for Keswick Mountain Rescue.
We walked it because the weather was bad and the visibility on the higher fells
was not good. I don’t know how many walks I’ve done in the Lake District, but
I’ve climbed at least a hundred fells, and Raven Crag is the first and only
fell walk that I found truly creepy. The ascent up Raven Crag is a gentle
ascent, and yet it feels heavy and thick, almost like one has stepped into
another dimension. It’s a walk through dense dark evergreen forest, treacherous
under foot because of masses of thick gnarled tree roots, exposed above ground.
When we made our ascent several of us took spills because the roots were slick
from rain.
A little way from the top there’s a place
where the trees give way to high grass and bog, which rises to a hill with
earthworks where there used to be an Iron Age fort, though nothing is left now
but the view of the beck running below. The bog, the dark thick forest, the
mist that seemed always to be just waiting to descend made the whole walk seem
other-worldly and silent. Knowing that I was writing Body Temperature and Rising at the time and that the hero in the
novel, Tim Meriwether, also volunteers for Keswick Mountain Rescue, Brian was
keen on telling some of the stories of rescues that he’d taken part in on Raven
Crag. He pointed out one of the darker, danker parts of the wood where walkers
had stumbled onto the body of a man who had disappeared several years before -
a possible suicide. The team had been sent in to retrieve the corpse. The thing
about Raven Crag is that it doesn’t feel like a crag at all. It’s too
claustrophobic, too tight-fitting. It’s an easy ascent, not steep, and there’s
no scrambling. However there’s only one way up, unless you’re a climber. At the
top of the fell, the trees open up onto a precipitous cliff. Though it’s
frequented by rock climbers, it’s also a suicide spot. Voila! I had the perfect
location for sinister paranormal activity.
By the time we descended, back the same way
we came, I found myself wondering if I was creeped out because of the stories
Brian had shared or just because the place was spooky.
Later, as I researched Raven Crag, one of
my best sources of information was Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial
Guides to the Lakeland Fells. The guide to the Central Fells was written in
1958 by the man who knew the fells probably better than anyone else alive. His pictorial
guides are not only still the definitive guides to the fells but are also exquisite
works of art. Wainwright had this to say about Raven Crag. ‘The silence and
gloom of the forest are too oppressive to be enjoyed. In the mist, the final
stages of the ascent (no path) are dangerous.’
If Raven Crag creeped out Britain’s
best-loved fell walker, then I figured there really was something spooky about
the place, and it wasn’t just me.
The moral of the story is location,
location, location. The Lake District offered me inspiration for everything
from hot scenes of sex al fresco, to cave sex, to abandoned slate mines to
creepy magical places for demon encounters, to glorious spring days with
hawthorn in bloom and black birds in full song. It was the inspiration of such
a rich and varied place that made the Lakeland Heatwave trilogy come alive in
my imagination and made the magic seem so believable that I almost expected to
read in one of Wainwright’s guide books about a chance encounter on Maiden Moor
with a mysterious man in a vintage black suit.
Thanks again for having me on Ravynhart and
for reminding me of the places that inspire me.
*****
American transplant to the Lake District, MARIE WARREN,
didn’t know she could unleash demons and enflesh ghosts until a voyeuristic
encounter on the fells ends in sex with the charming ghost, ANDERSON, and night
visits from a demon. To help her cope with her embarrassing and dangerous new
abilities, Anderson brings her to the ELEMENTALS, a coven of witches who
practice rare sex magic that temporarily allows needy ghosts access to the
pleasures of the flesh.
DEACON, the demon Marie has unleashed, holds an ancient
grudge against TARA STONE, coven high priestess, and will stop at nothing to
destroy all she holds dear. Marie and her landlord, the reluctant young farmer,
TIM MERIWETHER, are at the top of his list. Marie and Tim must learn to wield
coven magic and the numinous power of their lust to stop Deacon’s bloody
rampage before the coven is torn apart and more innocent people die.
More info, excerpt and buy links: http://kdgrace.co.uk/books/lakeland-heatwave-book-i/
*****
K D Grace was born with a writing
obsession. It got worse once she actually learned HOW to write. There's no
treatment for it. It's progressive and chronic and quite often interferes with normal,
everyday functioning. She might actually be concerned if it wasn't so damned
much fun most of the time.
K D's critically acclaimed erotic romance
novels, The Initiation of Ms Holly, The Pet Shop and Lakeland Heatwave Book 1:
Body Temperature and Rising are published by Xcite Books and are available from
all good paperback and eBook retailers.
Her erotica has been published with Xcite
Books, Mammoth, Cleis Press, Harper Collins Mischief Books, Black Lace, Erotic
Review, Ravenous Romance, Sweetmeats Press and Scarlet Magazine.
Find out more about K D Grace on her
website, http://kdgrace.co.uk. She's also
on Facebook and Twitter.
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