Hey everyone,
I’ve been getting a few questions lately, both in comments and in person, all asking a version of the same thing: “What inspired you to write The Riftwood Echo?”
It’s one of my favorite questions to get, and the answer is a little more complex than you might think.
The easy answer, the “what,” is right outside my window. I’m very lucky to live here in Morro Bay, and I find so much inspiration in the way the coastal fog rolls in and swallows the landscape. That feeling of a “thin veil” between worlds, where anything could be hiding in the mist, is 100% the spark that first ignited the idea of the rift itself.
But that’s only half of the story. That’s the what. It’s not the why.
The truth is, the Whisperwood, the very heart of Bronwyn’s world, grew from a real place and from a very real-life need.
You’ve heard me talk before about my childhood. It wasn’t always easy. By the time I was 12, my home was often a turbulent, chaotic place. When the drinking started, the house would fill with an anger that I knew wasn’t safe. I was faced with a choice that no kid should have to make: stay and risk getting hurt or run.
More and more, I chose to run.
I grew up in a little town here on the Central Coast of California called Los Osos. Back in the late 60s and 70s, it was mostly wild, undeveloped land. Our house was at the foot of the hills, which meant I had this huge, untamed wilderness as my backyard.
For most kids, those hills were a playground. For me, they became a lifeline.
Even at 12, my survival mode was turned on. I knew I needed a safe place to go. So, I started building forts.
These weren’t the “no-boys-allowed” forts you build with couch cushions. These were shelters. They were my hidden escape routes, woven right into the landscape. I had them tucked away all over those hills, nestled deep inside clusters of trees where the branches formed natural walls and the leaves made a roof. They were my secret, invisible sanctuaries.
I even stocked them. I’d squirrel away canteens of water, canned food, and sleeping bags. I was creating my own safety when I felt I had none.
When the anger in the house would start to boil, I’d slip out the back and just disappear into those hills. The second I was inside one of my forts, this sense of peace would wash over me. I was hidden, I was sheltered, and most importantly, I felt safe.
Those hills, those trees… they protected me, they were a refuge for me.
And that, right there, is the seed that grew into The Riftwood Echo.
When I sat down to create a new fantasy world, I started with that feeling. That feeling of safety, of a wild place that could be a true sanctuary. The Whisperwood isn’t just a magical forest in a book; it’s the ultimate version of the forts I built in the hills. It’s a place that is alive, that guards, and that protects.
And Bronwyn? Bronwyn is the girl who knows every path, every tree, and every secret of that sanctuary.
Bronwyn’s fierce, protective nature, her immediate suspicion of any outsider (like Lysander) who threatens her woods, it’s the feeling of that 12-year-old girl protecting her one, true safe place from the storm.
The “wrongness” she feels in Chapter 1? That’s the dread of hearing the anger in the house start to boil, the terror of her sanctuary finally being violated.
Her magic isn’t just a fantasy element. It’s a manifestation of that bond. It’s the forest, the one true guardian she has ever known, finally answering her.
She is the Warden. She’s the embodiment of the strength and resilience I had to learn all those years ago. But Bronwyn is not just finding a safe place; she’s defending it for others.
The Riftwood Echo is a wild, magical, and epic fantasy, but at its heart, it’s a story about finding your sanctuary. It’s about how the very places and people that shelter us can give us the strength to become the protector, instead of the one who needs protecting.
It’s a story about turning our scars into our strength.
Thank you so much for asking and for letting me share this piece of my heart with you.
Pam Beach ‘Beyond the Blog’
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Pamela Beach is a multi-genre author, poet, and lyricist who writes from her home on California’s foggy Central Coast. She is the creator of the “Morro Bay fog-mythos” and author of The Unstoppable You. You can read more of her work and explore her complete “fog-mythos” collection at her blog, Beyond the Blog with Pamela Beach
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