Guest Post - Stephanie Burgis - A Tangle Of Magicks Book Setting

One of the best gifts I’ve ever given myself was this: I set A Tangle of Magicks in Bath.

I first fell in love with Bath in 2005, years before I ever started to write Tangle. I went for a day trip, and I spent the entire day in a state of bliss. The Regency-era buildings…the Roman baths…the Jane Austen Centre…the fashion museum…for a history geek like me, it was total heaven. Then add in all the great shops (because even history geeks can enjoy some modern shopping!), and what was there not to love? I came home and spent the next several years thinking wistfully about how wonderful it had been.

Guess how many times I went back, though? Zero. That’s right. For years and years, I felt nostalgic for my daytrip, but somehow or other, I just never ended up going back. I was living in Leeds, after all, several hours away, so there was all the hassle of travel to be arranged…and what about our dog? What would she do if I was out all day? And then I had a baby, and everything else got overwhelmed by the single, overriding priority of oh, please, let me just get some sleep again someday…

…And it might have stayed that way forever, except for that one fabulous moment when I begun to wonder: where should my heroine go for her second adventure? It had to be a recognized centre for Regency-era society so that there would be plenty of snobs for Kat to shock with her escapades; it had to be really, really fun to write about (because otherwise, what would be the point?); and it had to be ripe and bubbling with magic. It only took a moment before I realized: I knew exactly where to send her.

And oh, what a wonderful excuse! For the first time in years, I didn’t just think, “Wouldn’t it be nice to go back to Bath one day?” Instead, I had a really compelling reason why I had to go back to Bath, immediately. No, really! It wasn’t because I wanted to soak up the magic of the Roman baths for purely selfish reasons…or because I wanted to sigh over the Regency dresses in the Jane Austen Centre…or because…

…*Ahem*. That is, for purely objective reasons of Historical Research I had to go back, whether I liked it or not. It was the only proper thing to do! Just ask any author!

But I have never in my life had as much fun doing research as I did researching Tangle, traveling back to Bath again and again to…er…make sure I’d got it right. Really. That was all. *Clears throat, whistles.*

Now I wonder where I should send Kat next? Not that I’m looking for a fun holiday with my family, or anything frivolous like that… ;)

Thank you so much Stephanie for the wonderful insight into your writing.  I'm thinking a great destination for Kat would be Barbados, but not quite sure  how that could be pulled off! ;)

My review Of A Tangle Of Magicks, plus a Giveaway of the book can be found HERE