Author Spotight - Kris Tualla is on location - part one...

I began writing my Norse heroes in 2006. Five years later, in the summer of 2011, I had the privilege of traveling to Norway for about 10 days. What a spectacular trip that was! And I visited places I wrote about, of course.

First, I had the privilege of exploring the fortress called Akershus Castle. Akershus is still a functional military installation ~ which explains why no floor plans were available either online nor in person.

This also explains why my imaginings and reality don't always line up. But, considering that this fortress is over 700 years old, and has been added to and remodeled countless times in the interim, there is every reason to believe that some of the areas might have looked as they do in my descriptions. And some of the descriptions do match!

When I picked the little town of Hamar for Lady Regin Kildahl's home in "A Discreet Gentleman of Discovery" all I knew was that it was the right distance from Christiania (Oslo today) and it didn't have any non-English letters in its name.

I soon discovered there is a cathedral there, built in the 13th century and burned in the 16th century by warring Swedes. I was able to place my hero Brander Hansen at the ruins where a conversation with a priest proves pivotal to his one of his investigations.

Hamar Cathedral wasn't as polished as other great cathedrals, such as the ones in Italy where craftsmen excelled in creating fantastic buildings of marble…

Even so, Hamar remained an important religious and political center in Norway, organized around the cathedral until the Reformation.
Today the cathedral ruins are under a canopy of glass to prevent further deterioration. That also allows the ruins to be used for such momentous occasions as weddings. Can you imagine a more romantic setting?

To be continued…



Buy link for eBook:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-272/Discreet-Gentleman-Book-One/Detail.bok

Buy link for print book:
http://www.amazon.com/Discreet-Gentleman-Discovery-Volume/dp/1469955679/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332738462&sr=1-3

Find me on the web links:

http://www.KrisTualla.com
http://www.facebook.com/KrisTualla