Part of what an author does is create worlds out of nothing. Even when we’re using cities that exist, or points of interest that are easily recognizable, we have to create ‘our’ world within it. Urban fantasy authors have the extra fun of bringing to life monsters to inhabit those worlds. Ones they create from scratch, and ones that are in folklore and legends. .

To be honest, it’s one of my favorite things. Like many other readers, I love to slip safely into a world where interesting creatures exist. Vampires, fae folk, shifters. There’s magic in them, and there’s magic in the words that bring them to life in my mind.

My granny was a warbride from Scotland. She’s the one in the picture. We lived with her for a few of my early years and she would return ‘home’ every year. My brother and I would lie in bed with her at night and she’d tell us stories, using a hooked rug she’d brought back with her one trip. .

One of the squares in this rug was of a strange serpent like creature. There was a shiver in her voice when she pointed that one out to us. The creature was named Nessie, a shy beast of folklore that lived alone in a loch. I was enthralled.

I thought it might be interesting to note, that on this date, May 2, 1933, the first modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster was recorded.

I had thought it an ancient tale, and maybe it is, but the real story for me is the memory of snuggling down beneath a tartan blanket in my granny’s bed, imagining this large beast all alone out there in a lake across the pond. That beast lived a dozen lives in my imagination over the next few years, and I created different homes for it to inhabit so it wouldn’t be lonely.

It’s the kind of thing I continue to do in my writing life, except now, I have the words to build the worlds in my mind. .