Guest Blog NICOLE ZOLTACK – Inspiration for the Kingdom of Arnhem

I just wanted to welcome my friend and fellow fantasy romance author Nicole Zoltack to my blog today to talk about what inspired her to write her wonderful series. Since I love to hear where writers get their great ideas, Nicole was gracious enough to share:

Thank you, Renee, for being one of the awesome blog hosts for the Champion of Valor tour!

Today I wanted to talk what inspired me to write the Kingdom of Arnhem series.

I love the Middle Ages – the chivalry, the notion of knights and their ladies, romance. I have often gone to the local Renaissance Faire dressed in garb. Even my wedding was Renaissance-themed!

And I loved to do research into the time period. One time, I was looking up famous knights and I wondered, knowing how women were treated back then, if any women had been female knights. I assumed there weren’t.

I was wrong.

There were female knights, including an entire order called the Order of the Hatchet. I immediately pictured a young girl petitioning her king to become a knight, citing those brave female knights.

But the Kingdom of Arnhem series is not purely historical.

I also love fantasy – magic, sword and sorcery, wizards, dragons, etc. So I created a fantasy world – a parallel world to ours, one set in the Middle Ages – in which the Americas don’t exist. Instead there is a different continent – Alethereia – that contains all of the magic.

Woman of Honor, the first book, is definitely the most historical-inclined of the three books, as it chronicles Aislinn, the first would-be female knight.

Knight of Glory takes place beyond Arnhem and begins to explore more the of the fantasy aspects of the world.
Faith was such an important aspect to the medieval people, and I tried to reflect that within Champion of Valor, while also exploring more of the fantasy. There are mages and selkies and trolls that dance on the wind. Drow are evil, and there are icthyocentaurs.
 

Combining fantasy and history was so much fun. Medieval fantasies are some of my favorite books to read. Do you like to read medieval fantasies? Which ones are your favorite? What inspires you?

You can check out more about Nicole and her work at:
http://nicolezoltack.com/ and  http://nicolezoltack.blogspot.com/
Be sure to leave a comment to be entered to win some signed post cards and magnets. Each comment during the Champion of Valor Blog Tour gives you an entry for the grand prize: a copy of the entire Kingdom of Arnhem trilogy – Woman of Honor, Knight of Glory, and Champion of Valor.