European Inspiration - Part 1

Hi, Trish Morey here, fresh from six weeks travelling around Europe and home with so much inspiration I could burst and I have no doubt that many of the locations I visited are going to become the settings for some Presents reading to come. So here's a first glimpse of a couple of the fabulous places I visited and some of the sights I saw. Maybe you might recognise some of them in a future Trish Morey story?

First stop was London. What isn't there to love about London? Here's a picture of the Liberty of London Building, a gorgeous Tudor revival building built in only 1924, but from the timbers of two old ships, so it really has a much longer and richer history.

I can imagine a heroine from a Presents novel inside, wandering through the rooms, searching for inspiration for that special piece or fabric with which to redecorate some old family pile in the country, for a reclusive and distant billionaire who is as mysterious as he is strangely compelling...

And here's the tiara she might wear on their wedding day once she's found and melted his heart, a tiara spotted in a shop window and which spoke to me.

Of course, it's been in the hero's family for generations, probably via the Austrian Princess connection (it's amazing what a little imagination can do with a shop window display:))

(And no, I didn't buy the tiara. I was actually afraid what the answer might be if I asked how much.)

Next stop was Tuscany and more fuel for the writer's imagination. The best kind of fuel...

Would this do for a hero's family home? Or maybe the home he was never invited to because he was the illegitimate son? Or maybe he was the housekeeper's child, maybe even the love child of the rich owner?

I love Tuscany (gosh, who doesn't?) I loved the misty sunrises and colourful sunsets, I

loved the local sparkling Prosecco we had with dinner on the terrace on warm autumn nights, I loved the discovery of large frozen octopuses in the supermarket freezer section and I adored the flower and plant stall in the nearby market in Fivizzano.

So much to see and this was just my first week! I will have to come back and include some more pictures in a Part 2 post soon. Meanwhile, I should get in a plug for a story I adore, The Storm Within, coming out in Presents in November (but is probably already on shelf now) in a 2-in-1 with the fabulous and talented Caitlin Crews, and called, A Royal Engagement.

The Storm Within is my first Gothic style story, albeit with a happy ending, but still with so many of those Gothic elements that we've come to expect of the genre - a crumbling castle atop a rugged cliff on a storm-tossed island, dark tunnels beneath the castle filled with ancient pirate history, and a reclusive Count, scarred both physically and mentally. Into this world comes a beautiful young conservator, whose presence on the Island is as unwanted by the Count as the discovery of the pages from the ancient book that has brought her to his isolated Island.

I had a fabulous time bringing these two characters together. I hope you enjoy reading their journey too!

With much love,

Trish

xx