One of the fun sub-themes of my Red Slaves series is the escape to the banya to relax and enjoy women-only time between Olga and Anne. In book 2, this expands to include the possibility that Anne’s new home can accommodate her desire to find inner tranquility and balance. When I saw the picture at the right, I got shivers, thinking that the rock walls and stalactite and stalagmite formations I had written into my book actually exist somewhere in real life.
Since I chose to have my wedding ceremony in Luray Caverns, and enjoyed several of the mineral springs that were in the area of New Mexico we lived in, there is something irresistibly romantic to me about the intersection of the two elements.
So while Anne is bent on fighting her connection to Ivan and the other dragons in the story, the very atmosphere of the place and the magic it contains serve to subvert her intention to remain apart. And, I hope, draw the reader in more deeply to her story.