B is for Belhanor

Mittenburg, via citypictures.org

I was away from my computer today, so this post is very late.

My husband and I took a trip to Germany in 2001 that inspired much of my fantasy writing. We saw lots of castles, cottages and cobbled villages. I fell in love with the Alps, as well as German folk art. Everything is painted, carved, decorated or molded. They even had intricate molds for butter and for gingerbread. I also collect dollhouse miniatures and was on the lookout for those. My dollhouse now boasts a German-style kitchen with its own set of tiny gingerbread molds.

 

Photo by Museumchick at Tumblr.com

The water flowing down from the mountains is actually turquoise-colored. I don't know why that is, but it was the inspiration for my turquoise-watered lake. That and Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Canada. I've never been there but I have a wall poster of it. I would sit in my office and dream about escaping there.

So Belhanor was born. I call it the "Scotch Canadian Alps" because it's got a little bit of all those places rolled up in it.