A Magical Research Trip To Iceland
Iceland has long been on my bucket list of places to visit, so it made complete sense to set one of my novels there, until I realised it would be hard to do it justice without visiting first…So, in November 2021 when COVID seemed to be under control, we took the risk and booked flights to Iceland for the following February. As well as a family holiday it was going to be a research trip for me before I started writing what would become One Winter’s Night. But by the new year the Omicron variant had raised its ugly head and getting to Iceland became rather stressful as first my son, then me and my husband tested positive.Twenty-four hours before our flight our PCR tests came back negative and in a flurry of last minute packing we made it to the land of fire and ice. Without a doubt, One Winter’s Night has been influenced by the places we visited. The weather was bad while we were there (even by Icelandic standards) which meant our Golden Circle tour was cancelled, but before a storm closed in we made it to Raufarhólshellir, a 5,200 year-old lava tunnel, which was magical and otherworldly with icy stalactites and snow piled up where the tunnel roof had collapsed. Standing out in the freezing cold for three hours waiting for the northern lights to show (they didn’t!)actually gave me a nugget of a story idea, the long wait in the cold the perfect opportunity for two of the characters to have a heart-to-heart. I scribbled ideas and thoughts in a notebook, made notes on my phone and took hundreds of photos and videos to capture the views, smells, sights and sounds as we explored. Travelling toIceland enabled me to capture the little details that would have been hard to achieve not having visited anywhere quite so freezing and wild: a sneaker wave racing up black sand beach; the ferocity of the waves that looked as if they were breaking in slow motion; hard spits of ice attacking our exposed faces; ice-cold mist drifting off Skógafoss waterfall; and the eggy smell in our hotel bathroom because of the sulphur in the naturally heated water.Highlights included tucking into deliciously fresh and tasty fish and chips and lobster soup at Reykjavik Street Foodcafé on Rainbow Street; gazing at the beautiful but wild snow covered landscape on a south coast coach tour where we passed the active volcanos Hekla and Katla; and catching sight of a rainbow in Seljalandsfoss waterfall as the sun went down. And to see what made it into the book you’ll just have to read One Winter’s Night!
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