An author is always looking for inspiration. We spend at least part of our day dreaming.
Sometimes we imagine fairies playing amongst the trees and bluebells.
Sometimes we people-watch.
Sometimes we dream about the future.
Sometimes we walk the streets of old towns and imagine all the stories of the people who have walked these same cobbled pathways over the centuries.
I’m lucky. I was born in Ireland, just a stone’s throw from mainland Europe. In 2005, I took my first trip to France with my husband and baby son. I was pregnant with our second child and we spent an enchanted two weeks traveling the Loire Valley, staying in old chateaus, eating delicious foods in fascinating medieval town squares, on balmy summer evenings, wondering at the beauty of it all. Eating ice cream from crunchy cones. Fully inspired.
Fast forward to 2009, three gorgeous healthy children safely delivered to Earth, I was introduced to Carcassonne, to attend my Reiki Master training. Blown away. Carcassonne, Mirepoix, Foix, Limoux, Rennes le Chateau, Alet les Bains, Puivert, pilgrimage up Montsegur … Cathar Country. Vous êtes en Pays Cathare, the road sign reads and my body floods with happiness and inspiration.
Every year since 2011, I have returned here with my family for 3 weeks in July. We camp in French campsites, (none involving tents!) and explore the regional towns and villages of the Languedoc.
Two towns provided the inspiration for my book The Bridge Of Now: Pezenas and Sommières.
These 2 weeks, I am here again, ‘camping’ with my family. Evening strolls through these two towns, wine festivals underway in both, food sampling, people wandering around with a glass of wine in hand, beautiful little shops selling pottery and linen and artwork, caverns and archways, stone staircases, the easy way of life, colourful bunting adorning the streets overhead – my eyes out on stalks, feeling a million miles away from the cold, rainy, wintery climes of my homeland, allowing downloads of inspiration to flow into my being.
A character from my first novel comes to live in this region, after a traumatic event at home. She flees here to heal. Her name is Dawn. She is the central character of my next novel Messages At Midnight.
Threading the line between imagination and reality, I ask her to hold my hand, walk with me and tell me everything that happens to her here. I ask her to inspire me, to tell me where she lives; to tell me all about the man with whom she falls in love; to tell me does she start a little business here, selling her jewellery? Does she have children? Does she stay here or go home to face the music? To please tell me the messages she gets at midnight. Last evening, she obliged.
I have 6 more days here to gather as much inspiration as she and Sommières are willing to share with me.
The winter is coming.
And …
I will write.
~ Alvagh