With stories you not only need people, or creatures, aliens, or...well whatever you can think of, but also you need places. Some stories are based in one place, a village, or big town. Others could be a country, or if you're really clever and very imaginative - space.
With my story, not only did I have places in England (all fictional, may I point out) but being as I used portals to destinations, it meant I could send my characters' to any place I wished, without being questioned as to why a kingdom had orange grass, and old people over 400 years old were walking around in bright clothes and being rather "hip".
So with earphones in my ears (yes, Green Day, but also many other songs) the phone disconnected, and a good vibe inside me, I began to write. Why old people in a Kingdom called Onbrier, was one I could not fathom to begin with. I mean, why old people? why not good looking, sexy people, who wore leather thongs, and....well you get the picture. Instead, old people were what this kingdom held, with strange plastic homes, that could be extended when needed, and cars were not around, just walking from place to place.
Onbrier is my main destination for witches, wizards and warriors where meeting were held at the town hall, as well as villains, and vaults to keep your worthy goods in too
As you write, you do put things down, that at first do not make logical sense, but continue, and it unfolds in front of you - and how wonderful that feeling is. Frinda was my first kingdom. I begun this kingdom a little differently when I first begun writing about this place, but I hated it. I could not draw a real picture of this kingdom. This was my first time of writing such an epic story, but having it as a toxic Kingdom, where animals were unable to feed from its lands, and having a forest that is feared by many, soon made its own story. It was always presumed that Prince Amir had taken revenge for his sister Queen Zantha ruling the kingdom instead of he. A birth-right refused by his father King Jared, for causing misery in this kingdom when he was a child. However, delving deeper we do find that there is more to this kingdom than even I had expected.
Obviously with Prince Amir being booted from his sister's palace, he needed to move on. So why not a dark dreary kingdom called Grimsdritch? There Prince Amir begins his own misery to many around, and what an evil man he has become. With the help of the most depraved witch I could find, Julu a' Vanda. I wanted to make it as gothic as I could, whether it is perceived Iam un-sure, but he his a rebel, the black sheep of the family, and as much as I like gothics ( have a few as friends, you know) I needed to have that dark feel to it, where evil soldiers walked around, and hacked heads without feeling guilty about it,( not as though gothic people do that) and having a Prince who enjoyed a good punishment, then Grimsley Castle was the fore front of this kingdom. We do visit another part of Grimsdritch, which is not too bad...but that is in book two.
On Earth I used a fictional village called Westwood and names of streets and lanes, were easy to come by. You don't really need imagination for that at the end of the day. I used street names from where Ilived, or I just looked at things and extended the name a bit. Obviously my earth characters do not live next door to each other, so having characters where Alison visited in this story, I did need to come up with some decent names. I also used a Cenotaph as their hang-out spot rather than a park. Like many towns in England, we all have them, and as this one is on the way to their school, it seemed a rational reason. We all have meeting points, (mines the pub) so why not here?
And that's all I have for you at the moment (did i hear a cheer?) these are the main places that I used for the Realm of wonders Union, but the following stories there will be more (Groan!)
Thanks for coming by, If you have Twitter you can follow me on there @toryjsmith