Background Notes

Dream of Me...

If you've read the background notes to COME TO ME, then you already know the genesis of the idea for this book.

Bran Castle, pictured below, is the castle I used as inspiration for Lucia's incarceration in the Transylvanian Alps.  The real Bran is a very pretty bit of castle, at the entrance to a pass in the mountains.  It was a favorite of Queen Marie of Romania, at the turn of the century.

Bran is often mistakenly associated with Dracula, for what reason I'm not sure, unless it's that there's a good road going there and it makes it convenient for tourists. 

The real location of one of Dracula's castles, Poienari, served as inspiration for the location of Lucia's castle.  Poienari is only ruins now, but it sits atop a crag in the Transylvanian Alps, and there are 1490 stairs carved into the mountain that one must climb to reach it.  The day I went there, though, there were clouds having their bellies scratched by the mountain, and a steady drizzle.  My luggage had been lost in Amsterdam, and I didn't have a change of clothes.  The prospect of climbing all those stairs in the rain simply to have a view into grey mist did not appeal, and I contented myself with the few peeks I had of it, as bits of cloud blew past.

Photo Copyright Bill Yeaton, 2003
Bran Castle, which I used as a model for Lucia's castle, although for
Lucia I moved the location higher up the mountains.

See more pictures of my trip to Romania HERE.