by Linsey Hall
Thank you, Ben, for everything. There would be no books without you.
Thank you to Jena O’Connor and Robin Marcus for your excellent editing. The book is immensely better because of you!
Thank you to Orina Kafe for the beautiful cover art.
Author’s Note
Hey there! I hope you enjoyed Queen of Light.
Most of the historical elements from this book were inspired by Peles Castle, which I visited on my recent trip to Romania. I went with one of my closest friends, also named Claire. And it’s no coincidence! This character was originally named for her nearly five years ago now. It’s about time she got her own book.
Fortunately, Claire conceded to visiting Peles Castle with me with me :-). She’s more of the mysterious ruined castle type, which is normally my preferred scene too. But I just knew it Peles Castle would be fantastic inspiration for a book and I wasn’t wrong. It is a fantastic, gorgeous palace built in the Caprathian Mountains in the late 19th century for King Carol I. Though it is called a castle, it is technically a palace with over 170 rooms.
I suggest googling it to get a look at the fantastic architecture and decor. As I walked around, I took hundreds of pictures of all the cool things in the house that could possibly come to life and cause problems for my future heroine and her hero. To be honest, I haven’t even used them all up in this book.
Some of the things that did make it into this book include the lions and cannons, both of which actually sit on the steps that lead up to the palace. As soon as I saw them, I knew they needed to go into a book. The solid bronze doors that Claire and Iain shut to keep out the poisonous mist are also in the real Peles Castle, and they weigh five hundred kilograms each. I overheard that tidbit from one of the tour guides, and it definitely made me give the doors a second look.
The entry hall is roughly as I described it, with incredible dark wood carving, tiny balconies, and wooden men peering down. It was one of the most beautiful rooms that I’ve ever seen. The huge mirror that leads to the tower was inspired by one several that I saw in the house, and the massive tower itself was also borrowed from the real Peles Castle.
Though the house itself is not full of ancient artifacts like I describe, there is an armor and weapons room that was incredible to behold. It even had a massive suit of horse armor. There are 1,600 weapons (according to Wikipedia; I didn’t actually count).
The meeting of ancient semi-scholarly ghosts was inspired by the beautiful dining room that I saw in the house, though I repurposed it and filled it with ornery ghosts with dubious intentions.
Speaking of intentions… This is the last full length Dragon’s Gift book for a while. If you’ve read some of the earliest series (featuring Cass, Nix, and Del), you might recall that those books also addressed issues surrounding archaeology, treasure hunting, and finding ancient artifacts. As an archaeologist in my former life, I feel very strongly about properly representing what it looks like to be a steward of history and our common cultural/material heritage.
One of the most important things about the Dragon’s Gift series is the fact that the heroines feel a sense of responsibility toward ancient artifacts and want to protect them. Artifacts of past cultures are pieces of our history that contain valuable information, and as such, they belong to all of us. Every artifact that is excavated should be properly conserved and stored in a museum so that all people can have access to our history. No one single person can own history, and I believe very strongly that individuals should not own artifacts.
Which brings us to the antiquarians in this story—and also to museums, which I wanted to talk about a bit more. I spent quite a few Author’s Notes saying that artifacts should be in museums. And I still believe this. However, it’s important to be aware of how some museums have been filled, and to be aware that things are not always what they seem. But let’s start with antiquarians.
For the most part, they are a thing of the past. When I talk about antiquarians here, I’m speaking primarily of those from Western Europe in the later half of the medieval period to the advent of modern archaeology in the 20th century. They were the ancestors of modern archaeologists—generally wealthy men who had an interest in the past and a desire to learn more about it. They traveled the world “excavating” ancient sites. However, the excavation didn’t look like archaeology as we know it today. It wasn’t as methodical, nor were they necessarily interested in the lives of normal people (some might go so far as to call it grave robbing, and in some cases I wouldn’t disagree).
Because England owned many colonies all over the world, they had access to incredible sites. With relative ease, they were able to access and excavate places that today, they would need permission to work in. Today, there would be meetings with local governments and universities and agreements drawn up about ownership and responsibility. Hundreds of years ago, for a number of reasons, this wasn’t necessary. And I don’t mean to say that England was the only western country that engaged in these practices. Others did as well. England is just an excellent example, particularly given the extent of their empire and colonialism.
As a result, these antiquarians (and even early archaeologists) frequently removed important and valuable cultural artifacts and took them home to their own country. This would be fine if the scholars had proper permission, which they didn’t always have. A very famous example is the Elgin Marbles, a set of marble sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece that the 7th Earl of Elgin took back to England between 1801 and 1812. Though he claimed to have permission from the Ottoman Empire (the then-rulers of Greece) no evidence of this has been found. Either way, this was a controversial move—both then and now. Since 1832 with the formation of the Greek state, Greece has been trying to recover the marbles. They are still at the British Museum today (winter of 2020) despite nearly two centuries of Greece trying to recover them.
Now, I’m not saying that artifacts shouldn’t be in museums outside of their home countries—of course not. In most (though not all) modern cases, artifacts appear in museums with permission from the governments and cultures associated with those artifacts. But I do think that when visiting a museum, it’s important to think critically about how their collections might have been obtained. It’s also important to think critically about how the work was been done. Just because some guy calls himself a scientist doesn’t make him one. And just because we can excavate an ancient site, does that mean we should?
Anyway, if you’ve made it this far in the Author’s Note, thank you for sticking with me. I love writing fantasy, but I also love sharing things like this.
And also thank you again for coming along on Claire and Iain’s adventure. Their books are finished for now, but Connor will have a novella soon, and I promise the Author’s Note will be shorter!
About Linsey
Before becoming a writer, Linsey Hall was a nautical archaeologist who studied shipwrecks from Hawaii and the Yukon to the UK and the Mediterranean. She credits fantasy and historical romances with her love of history and her career as an archaeologist. After a decade of tromping around the globe in search of old bits of stuff that people left lying about, she settled down and started penning her own romance novels. Her Dragon’s Gift series draws upon her love of history and the paranormal elements that she can't help but include.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All reference to events, persons, and locale are used fictitiously, except where documented in historical record. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright 2020 by Linsey Hall
Published by Bonnie Doon Press LLC
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form, except in instances of quotation used in critical articles or book review. Where such permission is sufficient, the author grants the right to strip any DRM which may be applied to this work.
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ISBN 978-1-942085-96-6
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