Susan and John Ruff, Fantasy Authors

(This is part 7 of the series describing places that have influenced my writing.)

Few places in the world shout, “fantasy novel setting” more than the Island of Rhodes. The crenelated barbicans and towers rise over the buildings around them in a classic, story-book-castle style. The shoreline boasts magnificent sea walls built of brick and/or stone, and many of the streets are cobbled. Sadly, you cannot see the Colossus of Rhodes there today (except in the the gift shops), but you can still go to the harbor where, according to legend, the statue stood.

My beloved co-author and I visited the island twice. The first time, we toured the museums and historic sights. On the second trip, I spent much of the day wandering the streets and fortifications, taking dozens of pictures with my brand new digital camera and enjoying the scenery. (Digital cameras, with their capacity to store hundreds of pictures, were an amazing invention for me — on our first trip to Greece in the 1990’s, I came back with 16 rolls of film. On our second trip, I may have taken that many digital pictures in Rhodes alone.)

As an aside, I had an ulterior motive in taking all those pictures during our second visit. At the time, I was planning to run a table-top role-playing game for some friends. The game was roughly based on those 1930’s action-adventure movies about an archaeologist who was named after a U.S. state. (Yeah, I know that the movies said he was named after the family dog.) The characters in the game would travel to Rhodes as part of the story.

But this blog is supposed to be about writing inspirations, not rpgs, so let me get back to the main topic.

While the Island of Rhodes does not specifically appear in any of John and my books, I am pretty sure that the fortifications and castle towers were in the back of my mind when I wrote the various castle scenes in our novels. For example, Rhodes was undoubtedly one of the places from which we drew inspiration for the royal palace and the city walls of Cravanse in our latest novel Prophecy’s Malignant Son.

If you are a fantasy novelist, I highly recommend a trip to Rhodes (once the pandemic is over). You will find sights to inspire your writing almost every time you turn a corner or stroll down an alley. Frankly, no matter what genre you write, it is still a great destination. I hope all my readers who like to travel get a chance to visit the island some day.

Talk to you next Friday!

-Susan 9/24/2021