House of Scarabs - Inspirations

Fancy a peek behind the scenes?

In the days of Dickens or Austen authors only had their imagination to lean on but now in the age of the internet many authors create mood boards for the locations, characters and plot elements within their books.

When I started writing House of Scarabs I had a really clear picture in my mind of my three main characters. Ellie was always a prickly red head, beautiful yet aloof. Ben was your typical tall, dark and handsome American and Gerhard was modelled on my friend's Grandfather. Despite knowing them so well I still found it helped me to have images I could refer to, so I cast my net wide to find photos of people who resembled my motley crew.

The locations were easy in the most part as a great deal of the book is set in Egypt and I'd lived there for years so knew most of the locations intimately. For Black Cats, Mandersley and Scarab's Rest I could close my eyes and see them, I could tell you how they smelt, the atmosphere, even the contents of the cupboard under the sink - I had such a clear picture in my mind. Despite this I found it so much easier to describe them when I could look at imagery that closely reflected those locations I'd carried in my mind for so long. I guess I'm a visual person at heart.

I've used Pinterest to gather all the images together in one curated collection. If you fancy a peek at the mood boards and inspirations I used while writing House of Scarabs have a little peek here.