Road-trip Inspiration

I recently returned home after an almost two-week road trip, filled with happy memories and loads of inspiration--there are just so many stories to tell, and so little time to tell them all! I'm a serious history buff--not to mention the fact that both my undergraduate and graduate degrees are in history--so it doesn't take much to inspire me. Pretty much every history-filled place I visit leaves me desperate to write a book about said place. Is it just me, or do others experience this, too??

A few years ago I visited the North Carolina Outer Banks and Roanoke Island, and came away desperate to write a YA book about the mysterious disappearance of the original Roanoke settlers. My bookshelf is full of research books I bought and read, and I brainstormed ideas for quite a while. Unfortunately, I never got around to writing the book.

But this recent trip similarly inspired me. First up, Williamsburg, VA. I'd LOVE to write a Colonial America-set romance. Armed with a new knowledge of the streets, residences, and life in Colonial Williamsburg, I can totally picture a book set there.


Same with nearby Jamestown--I've always wanted to write a YA romance between an early settler and a Powhatan (in the vein of Pocahontas and John Smith--only with teenage protagonists). But after visiting Jamestown....I swear, it was like stepping back in time. I could hear the voices of characters just whispering in my head as I walked alongside the James River and through the shady woods where the Powhatan tribe lived.



Later on the trip, we spent a couple of days in Savannah, GA, which left me longing to write a Civil War era romance set in that moody and atmospheric southern city! And later, we toured the Antietam Battlefield, further fueling my musing about a Civil War set book.



It's amazing how a vacation can fuel my imagination, and how, whenever I'm visiting a historic site, the 'voices' come out to play in my head!

How about you? Any place you've visited that has inspired a book or just a story in your mind? Or made you want to write a book set there? Any historical site/place you've visited that has made you want to read a book set there?

*Photos from top to bottom: Sunken Lane at the Antietam Battlefield; Draped bed in the Governor's Palace, Williamsburg; Path alongside the James River, Jamestown; Dunker Church, Antietam Battlefield.