Mary King's Close A few years ago, I had the great fortune to visit Edinburgh, Scotland. One of the sites I visited was a place called Mary King's Close, which was essentially an underground village of sorts. I'll have to write a blog post about that someday because it certainly deserves attention. Mary King's Close was the most fascinating things I'd ever seen and it has stayed with me ever since. To my dismay, after my return home, I discovered that I had completely missed

Deacon Brodie's Tavern on Edinburgh's Royal Mile Edinburgh, Scotland was a major source of inspiration for Widow’s Peak , the final installment in the Widows & Shadows  historical mystery series. I had the chance to visit in 2023 and fell completely under its spell—so much so that bits of the real city found their way into Ravenna’s latest adventure. One spot that stood out was The Deacon Brodie Tavern on the Royal Mile, which I reimagined as Brodie’s Docket in the book. It’s

King Arthur's Seat In the last book of the Widows & Shadows series, Widow’s Peak , I drew inspiration from an actual place in Edinburgh, Scotland: King Arthur’s Seat. As the highest peak in Holyrood Park (822 feet), it was the perfect muse and location for my fictional Iverloch Hall.  Arthur’s Seat isn’t just any hill. It’s an ancient, extinct volcano that has stood sentinel over Edinburgh for centuries. This scenic site has also been a popular destination for hikers and tour