What inspired the land in the tale of In the Presence of the King? (In the Presence of the King is the name of my upcoming book) I guess I can’t go too far into it since I could easily find myself in spoiler country. But the story definitely provided the parameters of the landscape. I did begin with one thought that there is only one continent in the world.
The continent of Uumbaaji which, taken from Google Translate (so it probably isn’t accurate {insert nervous laughing}), is based of the Swahili word for creation. Why Swahili? Because I wanted to incorporate more variety and a sense of diversity into the world. It really derived from me not thinking of words or the rules of the language on my own. But I loved trying to incorporate this kind of diversity into the book to try and flesh out the rest of the world.
So that is an insight into the language and words of the world. But what inspired the landscape? I wanted to take cool elements of our own world and elevate them. So I wanted different sections in the world, which also relates to the story (hint.hint). So there is some variety in the landscape as well but the area of the map that we zero in on is very much familiar to our own world.
The biggest inspiration for the land that we spend most of our time in the book is a mix of Fellowship of the Rings/Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkien and the states of Pennsylvania and Virginia. If you think of those two states I just mentioned they are very hilly, at least compared to the flatness of western Ohio. But seeing the different hills, sloops and trees really gave me visual descriptions to add to the book while Lord of the Rings just gave me a point in which to start with.
But I’m super excited to release the map in the coming weeks and eventually release this book!
Tell me what places really inspire you and what are your favorite states to visit.
J.E.Rowland 