Today, we are not in BookTrail Towers. Ruth Kelly has done what no other writer has done before. Well, with my heart in my stomach, I am currently gliding over France. Being a destination writer, Location, location, location, is THE most important element of my books and integral to the plotline. Right from the get go, I knew The Escape would be set in rural France, for the simple reason — it centres around the goings on in a creepy old chateau.
But the question keeping me up at night was — where? Where oh where in France would the drama and the mystery and the murder play out? There were no houses for miles around. It was cold and misty and gloomy and my thoughts were rattling with theories — what were doing here? A 4X4 with a trailer pulled in the carpark and beneath the tarpaulin was a woven basket large enough to fit six people and a canvas the size of a wedding marquee. We were going on a hot air balloon ride.
I squealed with delight and then, then came blind panic as I gazed up to the sky and it suddenly dawned on me, we were going up there. Hundreds of metres above ground — in a basket. So, I grit my teeth and forced deep restorative breaths into my lungs while I watched the burners fire up and the balloon fill out with gusts of hot air.
The landing. I swallowed the lump that had wedged in my throat. The basket rocked from side to side and then we were off. Up, up and away into the sunrise. The burner blasting nosily in my ear. I shut my eyes and gripped on tightly. Slowly, I peeled open one eye and then the other, I took a deep breath and peered over the edge of the basket. The mist had cleared and the autumn sun was burning off the last of the clouds and it was still.
Completely still. So silent you could hear a pin drop as we drifted across rolling hills and vineyards with vines the colour of burnt sienna. The shadow of our balloon following closely behind. Whenever we started to drop, Pierre fired up the burner and we would soar to greater heights. We sailed over rivers and fields and villages with picturesque stone walled houses with painted shutters. Following the wind, we changed direction and speed according to the altitude and contours of the land.
