There are many sources of inspiration—and perspiration.
By Samreen Ahsan
Writing in any form—essay, short story, journal, novel or series—is a combination of sleepless nights, haphazard ideas, personal experiences, research (lots and lots of it), inspiration and the result of a creative mind. I am passionate about travelling and art, and most of my stories are set in places I have visited or wish to visit. If those places don’t inspire me, I won’t write about them.
The same is the case with art – in any form: paintings, music, etc., are all my creative building blocks. It could be an art I visited in a museum or a piece of music I listened to while writing a particular scene.
My current time travel romance is a true depiction of my travel experiences, interest in history, medieval architecture such as castles, palaces and cathedrals, and my love of arts. I’d like my readers to read what I see and feel through my eyes and mind when I visit something artistic. In Once Upon A [Stolen] Time, the first book of the series, you will find yourself lost in Hue Castle: a barren, colorless fortress, closed to the public for centuries. Though the castle is purely fictional, some part of it, as well as the entire series, is a combination of my imagination and travelogues.
In the second book of the series, Once Upon A [Fallen] Time, readers are introduced to le Roman de la Rose, which King Stefan happens to admire.
Le Roman de la Rose (The Romance of the Rose) by circa 1230, Guillaume de Lorris, is a medieval poem written in Old French and presented as an allegorical dream vision.
The main characters are purely fictional, but I have introduced the characters of Cosimo de’ Medici and the Renaissance artist, Donatello, who happens to be alive in 1415. For my novel, I made them travel to England 🙂
Cosimo di Giovanni de’ Medici (27 September 1389– 1 August 1464) was an Italian banker and politician who established the Medici family as effective rulers of Florence during the Italian Renaissance. He was a patron of arts, learning and architecture. (Source: Wikipedia)
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (c. 1386 – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello, was one of the first to use one-point perspective in sculpture. (Source: Wikipedia)
Both the characters shown in the novel are young gentlemen of the noble class and are introduced in book 4, Once Upon A [Hidden] Time.
The main character, Edward Hue, is an admirer of poetry who often quotes verses from Dante’s The Divine Comedy.
The Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia) is a long Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered to be the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. (Source: Wikipedia)
The Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia) is a long Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered to be the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. (Source: Wikipedia)
The Hue Castle itself is inspired by some of the existing and marvellous architectures of time. One of the main inspirations is Windsor Castle in the UK due to its enormous size.
Myra Farrow, our female protagonist, is a lover of art. In one of the scenes in Once Upon A [Broken] Time, she admires the digital painting of Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, a painter of the Dutch Golden Age.
Other places, art and literature used in the [Stolen] Series for inspiration are:
The Royal Palace of Madrid: (Spanish: Palacio Real de Madrid), the official residence of the Spanish royal family in the city of Madrid, although now used only for state ceremonies. The palace has 135,000 square metres (1,450,000 sq ft) of floor space and contains 3,418 rooms.
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his 1859 translation from Persian to English of a selection of quatrains (rubāʿiyāt) attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), dubbed “the Astronomer-Poet of Persia.” (Source: Wikipedia)
In my story, Myra has been gifted Hue’s own and personalized version of Rubáiyát by King Stefan.
Cligès (also Cligés) is a poem by the medieval French poet Chrétien de Troyes, dating from around 1176. It is the second of his five Arthurian romances: Erec and Enide, Cligès, Yvain, Lancelot and Perceval. The poem tells the story of the knight Cligès and his love for his uncle’s wife, Fenice. (Source: Wikipedia)
All these manuscripts, places and art are part of my writing inspirations in [Stolen] Series, but it’s not just the inspiration or experience; it takes a lot of research to go through the facts, even if they become part of my fictional world.
Samreen Ahsan
is an internationally acclaimed, multi-award-winning author. She is a traveller and a history buff by heart. However, art and literature are her passions. She loves digging out information about prophecies, divine miracles and paranormal events that are mentioned in history and holy books, that don’t sound possible in today’s modern world.
“My favourite genres for reading are literary fiction and historical fiction, especially WWII stories.”
Since childhood, she had been into reading and writing—and yes, it can’t happen without imagination, which luckily has no boundaries.
She loves visiting historic cities and their architecture. Her obsession with castles and palaces is quite evident from her travelogue. She has an impossible dream of time travel to the sixteenth century, and meet Leonardo da Vinci.
“I love visiting art galleries and admire Medieval and Renaissance art.”
For further information, please visit samreenahsan.com.