Cumbria and Inspiration

Not having internet access 24/7 is strangely liberating. Instead of me surfing the internet for answers to any questions that come up, I'm spending real thinking time plotting, planning and filling in gaps in my story. My husband, having read Secrets, has become interested in the next book, and is asking all those useful questions like 'how can they get from here to there?' and 'but how does that work?'. I'm really having fun planning without any pressure to actually write (which is sort of the easy bit anyway).


Cumbria is beautiful, but it isn't fertile soil, so it seems bleak and quiet compared to the birdsong and seagulls and magpies at home. Here it's just jackdaws and a handful of quiet sparrows. We have seen deer, but at home buzzards patrol overhead, swallows scream through the valley, rooks and jackdaws gather in thousands along the ridge before an evening jaunt down to the beach. Hundreds of seagulls commute past the house morning and evening. Here the village falls silent at dusk.


The village is great though, it's a miniature slice of Tudor history. Many of the cottages belong to this cottage complex, and many others belong to the National Trust. Odd alleys wind under upper floors of cottages only ten foot wide and wind between tiny houses. They are mostly painted white, and have thick old slates on exposed walls and roofs. A great place to set the next book. The house will certainly fit better into the landscape we have explored and photographed. 

Hawkshead from Latterbarrow

Somewhere to walk a wolf!