K. A. Linde: How Travel Influences Romantasy Writing

London was bright and sunny in December when I walked the Thames with my husband toward the Tower of London. We had a few hours before we were going to go see the famous ravens, and we spent the hours taking in the city. The last time we were there, it felt frenetic, fast-paced, and a little overwhelming. The city was so big that I couldn’t take it all in.

But this time, we slowed down. We wandered. We said yes to all the experiences. We found a pop up inside Somerset House. We ate Danish pastries inside a tiny hidden gem. We explored every bookstore we found. And we made memories along the way.

Those memories inspire future projects. Whether I’m writing the Oak & Holly Cycle, which is set in a Post-Monster War New York City—a little urban fantasy, a little dystopian—or a second-world fantasy where I’m inventing everything from scratch, they both lend themselves to new material.

The London scene in my forthcoming novel, The Raven at the Ash Door, directly references those ravens I was so excited to get to at the Tower. But when I sat down to write the character’s experience in the city, I now had a whole map of ideas from my travels. Somerset House plays a central role on top of the Royal Opera House where me and my husband saw The Nutcracker.

But in a separate trip to Tahoe for my husband’s birthday, we sat on the banks of the lake and listened to the tinkle of the water against the small rocks on the shore. It was just as magical, and I envisioned the rocks being replaced by dragon scales that had fallen for years around a mountain where the dragons lived in my Royal Houses series.

Travel endlessly inspires me to push the boundaries of the world I’ve created. It gives me new shapes to breathe life into. Especially the stories people tell in those spaces.

When I first came up with the idea for The Wren in the Holly Library, I was in Dublin in Christ Church Cathedral where we were told that the heart of Laurence O’Toole was encased in metal, and someone stole it without it showing up on cameras or anything else being taken. Police investigated and nothing was found. Then three years later, it was carelessly thrown back onto the grounds of the church as if nothing had happened.

My first thought was I want to write a thief who can do that. And that story inspired my heroine—Kierse McKenna. Could she have stolen the heart of Laurence O’Toole? Oh, definitely.

So while the Oak & Holly Cycle is primarily set in New York City, the characters travel to Chicago, Dublin, Paris, Edinburgh, London, and Las Vegas. My experience walking through a snow strewn, nearly-empty Palace of Versailles with my sister, walking the haunted vaults of Edinburgh, and imaging life as an Ocean’s movie in Las Vegas really paid off in the long run.

So pull your head up and look around, listen to the locals, and experience the world. And if you can’t, open a book. There’s thousands of worlds available to you. I’ll be here to tell you all the ones I can.

The Raven at the Ash Door is published by Tor Bramble on 18 June 2026