New Orleans - Part One - 2007 The Beyond Series Supernatural Inspiration

I am writing two parts to New Orleans because I loved it so much I went for the second year running. So 2007 trip I stayed at The Sheraton. Very salubriously posh and on a short walk away from the French Quarter, which is where we wanted to be. There was a gym and hotel pool on the roof and I spent a couple days there just chilling and sunbathing, which was gorgeous.

I had been put on the 45^th floor or something ridiculously high like that, I couldn’t look out of the window without suffering vertigo or panicking about low flying aeroplanes! But the rooms were just amazing and sumptuous. Sinking into the double beds (two of them) with more pillows than any sane person required, soft white cotton sheets in billowing fluffy duvets and a fluffy fleece throw to boot. Ahh luxury.

The only problem was we had to change rooms because the door lock kept jamming and we had to travel back to the reception in a super-fast express lift that actually missed the first twenty floors out because I guess the designers of the hotel didn’t think twenty floors warranted extra speed down to the ground floor!

So I got a new room, even higher up! I complained about my vertigo, but the hotel was virtually full, so as compensation I was given a key to the VIP lounge. Now THAT’S what I’m talking about. Free breakfast, free dinner canopies and champagne in a sumptuous lounge overlooking the city and the Mississippi. Brilliant. Yes, I could cope with the height!

As I went to explore the French Quarter for the first time, I was overwhelmed by the humidity and we had to stop at a coffee shop on Decataur. This was before we found the Café du Monde. I wrote about this in Lycan Lamia because I loved it so much and I would sit outside and have beignet (square donuts dipped in icing sugar) and freshly squeezed orange juice while buskers would serenade the customers eating outside by the river.

I went on a tour around the French Quarter on a horse and carriage and stopped off at the oldest tavern in the US and had a Tornado Volcano cocktail as we continued the tour through Jackson Square. I also went on a Ghost Tour and Voodoo Tour around the Quarter.








Some of the stories I remember were quite gruesome, men believing in voodoo to the point where they die of unknown illnesses, a rich merchants wife who used her slaves to torture and drink their blood… (Nicholas Cage apparently now owns the building) and murderous intent at a tavern, then saved by a ghostly spirit.




The best one I went to was a restaurant and at the back was a ghost table laid out for two poltergeists. They believed that by laying food wine and candle at the table every night they prevented paranormal activity in the restaurant. The table was very creepy and a feeling of foreboding and being watched by some malevolent spirit.

I loved it so much we went for a meal there one night to get a closer look at the table and see if could see any ghosts. I was so inspired I wrote several chapters to the Daryavaush Paranormal Investigation team meeting there and performing a voodoo ritual in another landmark St Andrews Hotel, which is known as the most haunted hotel in Louisana. I never stayed there, but I would like to if I ever return.

I also went on a few tours. The first was a tour of the Garden District, which I travelled to on a traditional American tram car or trolley bus. It was so lovely to finally be pointed out all the major landmarks in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches trilogy. I saw the Lafayette cemetery, Anne Rice’s actual home, her second home she used just to house her doll collection and which is now Nicholas Cage’s other New Orleans home and the house used to film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.




The homes were huge and elegant. I loved it here and I decided if I ever became very rich I would buy a place in the Garden District. After the tour I found the most incredible cheese cake shop and café. The portions were so huge one didn’t need to eat for the rest of the day!

 The cruise on a traditional Mississippi steam boat, The Natchez was amazing. I ate a delicious traditional cajun meal, drank bourbon and danced to a live band for a very traditional New Orleans evening.

A trip to New Orleans cannot be complete without visiting some Plantation Houses.




This was where the very rich lived, huge sprawling mansions with cotton plantations at the back of the house, the land leading all the way down to the river. Every house had its own slaves, housed in slavery huts out the back yard. I visited the Oak plantation which was used in Gone with the Wind and Interview with a Vampire films, which is how I always imagine plantation houses to look, all white washed panelling, tall pillars and Grecian style porches.

But also saw on the tour the Laura Plantation, which was a large wooden bungalow on stilts in case of Mississippi flooded. There were two staircases, one for men and the other for women, because their dresses were so wide, it prevented men seeing the women’s ankles when they walked up the staircase and therefore keeping their decency and reputation intact. Oddly women owned the plantations and the Laura was passed down to the eldest daughter. The bedroom was the office and all meetings of business were held in an opulent bedroom with the female head of the household.

I booked on a Ghost, Vampire and Voodoo walking tour around the French Quarter at night which was very atmospheric - this is Pirate Alley and I think you'll agree looks quite spooky and I think was used as a scene in Interview With A Vampire, but more about that in my next New Orleans Blog.
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Why Italy Is The Perfect Scene For A Supernatural Romance The Beyond Series

The first time I visited Italy, I travelled alone on a whistle stop tour of the country’s most famous cities and landmarks. I flew out to Venice airport and immediately thrust together with the other travellers and introduced to my female travelling companion Sarah, who was also single and travelling alone. I shared rooms with her on the tour as it saved money.  When I look back now I was so brave, but also quite skint. However, it was a great way to make new friends.

I took a boat taxi into the heart of Venice and I immediately fell in love with the place. The tightly packed streets winding a curving their way through the water thoroughfare was simply charming to me and I decided that this was going to be a destination my Beyond Characters in the book series would definitely be travelling to at some point in the books series.

We visited the Doge’s Palace, St Marks Cathedral, and The Florian Café to listen to the little orchestra play. The hustle and bustle of St Mark’s Square was incredible with the hourly chime from the bell tower the place was just magical to me. I had my first taste of Venetian gnocchi a rich and creamy sauce rather than the usual tomato based one. Oh my lord it was heavenly and I’ve been to so many Italian restaurants since and no one seems to know the recipe.

I loved all the little antique style masquerade and gift shops too and I fell in love with the Gondolier who sang Amore as he punted through the little canal ways, he was gorgeous and I do think I over recorded him on my holiday video!. So quaint and cute. I didn’t go over the bridge of Sighs until my second visit. I only had one day in Venice on my first trip and as I caught the taxi back down the Grand Canal at night, I looked up at the apartments in the grand merchant’s houses and saw chandeliers and marble walls adorning the interiors and decided there and then that Venice deserved another trip some other time.

I headed to Rome, stopping off at Pisa along the way. I didn’t go up the leaning tower as I suffer from vertigo at the best of times, but I did go into the little Baptist bell tower and I was fortunate enough to hear a demonstration of the acoustics in the place as a monk arrived and began this haunting Grigori chant which echoed and reverberated off the walls of the building. Very spooky and atmospheric.

 Although I didn’t think as a city Rome was a pretty as Venice, but it certainly made up for it with museums, coliseums and amazing Piazza’s. So we had the trip around the coliseum and the old Roman city, and though I find this history interesting, I do love the comparisons of then and now.







So like in Bath the historians give you images of how the baths and the town looked on video screens during Roman times so it makes it easier to visualise and compare the bare stones lying around today. Thankfully I did finally find a book that did just that in Rome, but until then I was struggling to visualise the past.

I saw the Castle of Angels where the Popes used to reside and the Piazza Navona which was once the Chariot racing arena of ancient Rome.

I was particularly excited about the tour company arranging a trip to the Vatican, which was just amazing. Incredibly beautiful inside with untold wealth in antiquities and the Sistine chapel was awesome. To think Michelangelo had painted the ceiling and all the cardinals from around the world would gather there to choose their new Pope.

St Peters was a pilgrimage for Nuns! That’s all I can say. The Cathedral was impressive, but I’ve never seen such a huge gathering of nuns, all dressed in slightly different versions and colours of their uniform from around the world crossing themselves, kneeling and praying and kissing effigies.

I was fascinated because worlds that I think are quite secretive and no-one really enters that secretive world unless invited or become a member. I’m like that with all secret societies, gypsies, Freemasons, Royalty, witches and vampire covens! That sort of thing. Exploring and learning about worlds I probably will never get the opportunity to enter really does feed my imagination.

The tour then took us to Assisi, where we saw lots of Monks, who had taken a vow of silence, just going about their daily chores. One actually nodded and smiled at me which I felt quite honoured that he’d even acknowledge the ordinary folk who sin on a daily basis! I just remember with Assisi that St Francis was from there, the monastery was dark and lots of cellar type chambers and a very steep hill to walk up. It nearly killed me.

I then headed out to Florence.

The Ponte Vecchio with lots of boutique shops piled on top of the bridge.

The Medici Palace was amazing. It doesn't look much from outside....

But just look at the decadence of the interior. Imagine that this was once filled with rich materials and sumptuous furniture too. The finest in Italy. A very powerful family of it's time.

Florence is beautiful and the Uffizi museum more than makes it a great city to visit, I saw all the greats, Michelangelo’s David statue, Botticelli, Raphael’s. Beautiful and I could have stayed in that vast art gallery all day. We walked over the Ponte Vecchio bridge with its little shops and I ate in the main Piazza  della Signoria





Naturally Florence did also end up in my book Vampire Sorceress as Amethyst and Galleano self-indulgently had a flying tour of Italy. The Medici Palace was amazing and I think I managed to cram a lot into that day, but I still think Venice has the edge. I feel like I come home when I return to Venice. Maybe I lived there in a previous life!

So on my next visit we had another look around the Doge’s Palace, which was great thinking of the Borgias TV series, which absolutely loved. I made friends with some of the locals this time and they kindly sowed us around the real Venice, little winding backstreets with bustling bars and parties the tourists never normally see.





I was given a guided tour at 3 am and it was truly beautiful. So peaceful, our guide sat us in a gondola and we just soaked up the silence except for lapping water and the odd voice echo around the canals in Italian. Lovely.

We also took trips to Venice’s’ surrounding islands, Murano, famous for its glass blowing and amazing glass ornaments and chandeliers, Burano, famous for its brightly coloured fishing houses, Casa Nova’s House on the edge of the water and finally Lido. An ultra-modern island where the rich and famous live. It has its own beaches and trendy bars and we stayed to sunbath for the day and party on the beach at night. Needless to say the Lido beach party crops up in the latest Beyond novel - Lycan Lamia too. God I love Italy!

Eastern European Tour - Prague Vampire Laird For the Beyond Series

Prague

I travelled to this amazing city just before Christmas and as I was writing Demon Lupus at the time, it also felt so magical and mystical. The main square was decked out with a traditional European Christmas market, with handmade baubles and decorations, gifts housed in cute little wooden lodge type stalls. The aromas of smoked sausages and mulled wine wafted around the bustling market and in the centre was a beautiful winter wonderland nativity and ice skating rink. They really know how to make Christmas feel so cosy and wholesome here.

Surrounding the Square were café’s, shops and restaurants and even in the bitter cold one could eat their famous goulash outside on the veranda and soak in the atmosphere with outdoor heater and soft fleece blankets to keep one warm.

I decided that culture was the name of this holiday and we attempted to soak up as much as I could so I attended an classical music recital in a beautiful old public building, complete with grand marble entrance and staircases and huge chandeliers. I also attended a puppet opera of Don Giovanni. Granted it was a puppet show, but it did play it true to the real opera and come on, puppet opera?! Who wouldn’t love it?

I ate at amazing restaurants like the Three Ostrich Feathers and I had the most amazing Ostrich dish ever in opulent surroundings. 

I tried absinthe for the first and only time because it made me feel very tired, but I’d never had it before and so it had to be tried in one of the backstreet absinthe bars. And I decided to dance the night away in a nightclub called Club Lavka, which I used as the name for the nightclub in the first Chapter of Vampire Sorceress 

We crossed Charles Bridge that Tom Cruise went running across in the opening scenes of Mission Impossible when he realised his team of spies had been compromised.

And best of all, I found the Natural History Museum in Wensless Lass Square and as soon as I walked into the criss-crossing staircase, I realised I was on the set of Mission Impossible again. This time it was the scene right at the beginning when Tom Cruise was disguised as some politician at dignitaries some party. I was very excited and the big kid I am I began running around, ducking and diving whilst singing the Mission Impossible theme tune.

Ah, happy days. And although I haven't written Prague into one of my  Books in The Beyond Series yet, I know I will eventually... Maybe in Lemurian Dimension Book 5 in the series...

Romania - More Than Dracula's Homeland The Beyond Series

As a supernatural fantasy author who loves all things vampiric I just had to make a pilgrimage to Romania. In particular Transylvania. As my books would eventually take the reader to Poiana Brasov high in the Carpathian Mountains and then onto Rasnov citadel, I thought it only fair to do the research for the settings. After all, every place I take you to in my Beyond Series, I have actually visited.

Poiana Brasov is a ski resort that wouldn’t look out of place in a Heidi movie in Switzerland.

The Hotel looked like one huge log cabin, although the interior did look like something from the 70’s in décor. The Swimming pool did remind me of a Russian physical education info-mercial. It was incredibly dated – we’re talking 1940’s, or earlier, décor style for a swimming pool and changing areas. The Club Lavka I described in the first chapter of Vampire Sorceress was a disco my friend and I went to a few times whilst we stayed in Poiana Brasov and again the blue velour décor reminded me of roller disco rinks of the 70’s and 80’s. 

Rasnov is a beautiful fortified Citadel with a grisly past and was the perfect location for Amethyst and Michael Romanov to meet their distant relatives Ursula and Abraham who seem to be much more informed on their families illustrious gypsy past than themselves. They also seemed far too knowledgeable of Elemental Demons living in Egypt!

I did sit out on my hotel room balcony too as the mist crept in over the pine tree tops and I did hear dogs howling at night. Whether they were wolves or not, I don’t know, but it was very atmospheric and although cliché, it was the perfect location for my Romanov Witches travel to for answers about their history and for the great Galleano Vampire and his sidekick Lucas to follow them there to spy on them.






Bran Castle was part of a sightseeing tour we went on and as it was the castle Bram Stoker claimed to use for his Dracula tale I did leave it out of Vampire Sorceress, but I may go back to it in my writing at some point as it was a beautiful fairy tale style castle, rather than the dark and mysterious picture painted in modern day films. 

Bucharest was less impressive and it took a very long taxi drive to Nicholae Ceausescu’s palace, which was ridiculously large, floor to ceiling white Italian marble and a ballroom the size of a football pitch. It cost so much money the Romanian people are taxed extra to pay for it! Unbelievable.



The taxi driver took us around a gypsy ghetto as they were forced off the roads and into houses in the 80’s by Ceausescu. My fascination with the gypsy life and history began at an early age. Firstly because they lived in caravans and I used to holiday with my family for one week a year in a caravan and I thought it would be cool to live in one all year round.






I took a trip through the countryside to a typical Carpathian village and was fed by the locals with their famous goulash and polenta dumplings, which I recommend everyone must try if you visit Romania.

My father then moved us to a little village in Cambridgeshire countryside when I was 10. The village was surrounded by apple and gooseberry orchards, which during the summer attracted the travellers for fruit picking work. Forget 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding', not all gypsies are that rich. 

Anyway, the gypsy children would briefly attend our village school and I would make friends with them – mainly because the other children bullied me and the gypsy kids for being different, so it felt quite natural for me to hang around with them. And that’s how it all began.

But I digress. Back to Transylvania and I then went to Sighisoara and other old citadel where they claim Vlad the Impaler was born. This reminded me of the city in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang where the child catcher skips through the streets with lollipops.

There was also a stately home, Peles Palace in Sainai which was incredibly beautiful and we had to wear special slippers to walk through the palace to preserve the delicate flooring. Although the palace was very beautiful, it was actually the ski resort and hotel I stayed in that inspired me to write my third book Vampire Sorceress

The hotel was incredibly dated in style, but added to a great atmosphere for the beginning of the book. Judging by the interior photos here, I'd say they've finally given The Alpin a bit of a facelift, but still very Eastern European Ski Lodge feel to the place.

All this inspired me to write just three chapters of a book. I didn’t want to overkill the ambience I created for the place, but I think I did it justice. And hopefully I can use the Bucharest and other experiences for some other series or trilogy I intend to write in the future.

Didikai Witch The Beyond Series Book 1