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#HistFicThursdays - A Shape on the Air by Julia Ibbotson - Spotlight

 This week for #HistFicThursdays, I'm delighted to be teaming up with  The Coffee Pot Book Club  to welcome back  Julia Ibbotson  and her fabulous writing! Here's a spotlight on her brilliant book,  A Shape on the Air . So, let's meet the book... Can echoes of the past threaten the present? They are 1500 years apart, but can they reach out to each other across the centuries? One woman faces a traumatic truth in the present day. The other is forced to marry the man she hates as the 'dark ages' unfold. How can Dr Viv DuLac, medievalist and academic, unlock the secrets of the past?  Traumatised by betrayal, she slips into 499 AD and into the body of Lady Vivianne, who is also battling treachery. Viv must uncover the mystery of the key that she unwittingly brings back with her to the present day, as echoes of the past resonate through time. But little does Viv realise just how much both their lives across the centuries will become so intertwined. And in th...
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#HistFicThursdays - Legends - Writing on the Edge of Reality

 One of the questions I'm asked the most about my books and stories is: where does you your inspiration from come? Well, it comes from all sorts of places, but one thing which has inspired all my writing are legends. That fine balance between truths and facts are where legends come into their own... and so do novelists!

One of my favourite legends is the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and I find the study which has gone into trying to understand this quite fascinating. I have incorporated this legend into a number of my stories, sometimes as itself, sometimes in the guise of something else - a little bit like fairy tale retellings.

But the Pied Piper is certainly not alone. In short stories, I've wandered into the realms of Norse or Roman legends. In books, with my WIP I've delved into Christian legends, and the Caledon series is seeped in Scottish legends and mythology, every detail woven into a historical truth (even if it is not quite fact!). And The Year We Lived? Seeped in superstition and legends!

I find legends make the very best starting point for stories, the reason being that they grow, evolve and adapt with every telling. It's in their nature. Therefore, what is to stop an author from taking that tale one step further and adding a larger backstory? Or an extra set of characters? Or another setting? These stories have withstood the test of time, they can handle a new direction from a modern pen!

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