Jacqueline P Vincent

I’ve been itching since forever to get down to the south-west point of Galicia and visit the Castro at A Guarda. It’s the place where Amalie meets up with the boatmen from her village and collects her goods to sell.

Although there are many photographs of the stone houses, ruined and reconstructed, on the internet, I don’t feel it’s the same as being there and immersing myself in the atmosphere. Thinking things like, Amalie would have set her stall up here. Or this is where she taught Gero how to fish, or this is where she stored her stuff in Hai’s fishing shed. Being where I set my stories gives me a better idea of what my protagonist can achieve, how they do things and who they might meet.

John, my sainted better half, and I went to A Guarda for three nights and stayed in a cheap local hotel, right by the beach. Although we didn’t even get our feet wet, let alone sit and relax on the sand, as usual we ran out of time. We did enjoy this nice little break from building stone walls and concreting.

Unfortunately, I wore the wrong knickers for one of our days out. I wore my going out to dinner in a posh frock and only walking from the car to the table and back knickers. My usual ones for walking and clambering over boulders, the comfy ones that stay put no matter how many hills I climb or streams I leap over, remained rolled up in the bottom of my case. After every leap, bound, and jump, my knickers needed adjusting. John was brilliant, as he kept watch whilst I extricated the leg holes from uncomfortable places around my nether regions, and was I glad to get back to the hotel and change, you bet.

Our research trip was a success. I now have photos of how the ancient tribes built the stone houses, and the materials used. How and why they built the Castro as they did. A better idea of how they lived and the tribal hierarchies. Although Amalie is fiction and events and the people a figment of my imagination, everything else I’ve kept factually correct, according to the research I’ve accessed about ancient tribes in Galicia.

We are back home now with the right knickers on, a half finished stone wall staring at us and enough research completed to start the second book in the Amalie series.