How did I decide on the setting for my first YA novel?
I started by learning about the vikings and their routes. The vikings end up playing a small part in the book, but a major part. They traveled from Norway to Iceland and eventually Greenland. When I learned about Greenland I learned about the Thule people. The Thule are extinct, according to archaeologist But the Inuit traveled across Alaska, Canada to Greenland. At the time they traveled there was all ice and so they easily accessed Greenland.
I am a bit infatuated with the meeting of Vikings and the Inuit. There is still debate as to if they met and what their meeting was like. There was a Viking coin found in Maine and there was a recent article in the National Geographic of some twine/ rope that was Viking found in Canadian Arctic. Patrica Sutherland wrote and article. click here for her article
I wanted the Vikings to meet. I wanted a love story. I wanted a mystery. And I wanted the story to be a mystery with a modern setting. Enter my main character: Derek.
My main Character lives in New Jersey. Why? Because that is where I lived when Derek came to life. He was inspired by a foster child I had from Liberia. Naturally, Derek is from Africa and has a necklace that was passed down through the generations beginning in Africa. He mother is from the Aken people and a little girl brought an amulet across the Sahara Salt Trade Route on a Zebra. She, like the rest of the Ancient Ghana people, later became the Aken people from Ghana. Derek's mom went to the U.S. around the time the Liberian's were fleeing their country. Grace, Derek's mom, is in America on her own and dies in a car crash. This is how Derek finds himself in the New Jersey foster care system.
I started by learning about the vikings and their routes. The vikings end up playing a small part in the book, but a major part. They traveled from Norway to Iceland and eventually Greenland. When I learned about Greenland I learned about the Thule people. The Thule are extinct, according to archaeologist But the Inuit traveled across Alaska, Canada to Greenland. At the time they traveled there was all ice and so they easily accessed Greenland.
I am a bit infatuated with the meeting of Vikings and the Inuit. There is still debate as to if they met and what their meeting was like. There was a Viking coin found in Maine and there was a recent article in the National Geographic of some twine/ rope that was Viking found in Canadian Arctic. Patrica Sutherland wrote and article. click here for her article
I wanted the Vikings to meet. I wanted a love story. I wanted a mystery. And I wanted the story to be a mystery with a modern setting. Enter my main character: Derek.
My main Character lives in New Jersey. Why? Because that is where I lived when Derek came to life. He was inspired by a foster child I had from Liberia. Naturally, Derek is from Africa and has a necklace that was passed down through the generations beginning in Africa. He mother is from the Aken people and a little girl brought an amulet across the Sahara Salt Trade Route on a Zebra. She, like the rest of the Ancient Ghana people, later became the Aken people from Ghana. Derek's mom went to the U.S. around the time the Liberian's were fleeing their country. Grace, Derek's mom, is in America on her own and dies in a car crash. This is how Derek finds himself in the New Jersey foster care system.
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