8 Real Places To Inspire Your Next Fantasy Novel

Writer's block got you down? Never fear! Inspiration is all around you! See the world with fantasy author Glenda Larke. These eight destinations are so incredible, they're practically out of this world!

Bryn Celli Dhu Burial Chamber, Wales, U.K.

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There's nothing to match the atmosphere of something begun as a henge as far back as 3,000 B.C.! This site was altered by successive waves of cultures and religious belief. You can walk inside the chamber and let your imagination run riot. Little is known about the pre-literate people who built these stone circles, graves and mounds, so set your mind to invention...

The Red North of Western Australia

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The Australian back of beyond, a country of gorges and desert sands painted an impossible red, a land of sweeping flash floods or prolonged drought -- inspiration for much of the Stormlord trilogy. From the Honeycomb Gorges of the Kennedy ranges to the Gibson Desert, it is both beautiful and confronting. If you want a land to inspire fantasy that gets away from the European model, try this!

Penang Island, Malaysia

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Writing fantasy is all about culture as well as place. Try Asia for inspiration! Penang is perfect, because it has numerous cultures in a glorious mix, customs from modern to old, landforms from ocean to rugged hills and tropical forest, buildings from intricate Chinese and Indian temples to colonial buildings, from Chinese water villages and clan houses to Malay kampongs. All in a small island package.

The Hospital of St Cross & Almshouse of Noble Poverty, Hampshire, U.K.

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If the name alone doesn't inspire you, the complex of buildings which make up England's oldest almshouse will. Stories abound within its gardens, refectory, ambulatory, halls and kitchens -- not to mention the magnificent chapel, the size of a small cathedral, complete with tombs.

The Coral Islands of Borneo

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There are a lot of these -- Sipadan, Tuanku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, Pulau Tiga, Turtle Island, Semporna Marine Park... I have been to most of them. The inspiration for the Chenderawasi Islands of the Va-forsaken Hemisphere, they are all outrageously beautiful, without exception, and teem with marine life, corals, birds and nesting turtles.

Sailing Ships: Endeavour & Duyfken, Australia

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Looking at a variety of sailing ships was essential when I wrote The Dagger's Path. One of these was the impossibly tiny Dutch ship Duyfken, which sailed from the Spice Islands to Australia in 1606 to make the first recorded European landfall. A replica is now tied up in Fremantle harbour. You can even take a sail in it! One of my ancestors sailed on board the original British ship Endeavour captained by James Cook in 1770, and an ocean-going replica of this ship is now moored in Sydney.

The Malaysian Rainforest

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Or any rainforest, if it comes to that. Exuberant abundance overwhelms in a place where plants and insects are larger and trails are tougher than any other forest. And always, always, there is something around the corner you will never have seen before, even if you've lived there all your life. The inspiration for the Chenderawasi Islands of Book 2 of The Forsaken Lands.

The Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Glenda Larke

Any museum will generate story ideas, but the V&A is a favourite because it is such a gloriously eclectic mix of stuff. This is a 16th century carving as large as a window, apparently for the outside wall of a house, depicting what might happen if you are caught thieving from the householder -- the lack of a police force notwithstanding! Note the plates falling from the thief's tunic...

THE DAGGER'S PATH IS AVAILABLE NOW!

If you'd like to see how these destinations inspired Glenda Larke, check out books one and two of the Forsaken Lands series!

Read an excerpt from book one -- THE LASCAR'S DAGGER!