*Reposted from 2016
In my last post, I talked about how the two years I lived in New Zealand inspired some of the world-building in Airwoman.
In high school, I travelled with my parents to Alice Springs, in the centre of Australia. We drove from our home in Adelaide, through several long days of driving, with several overnight stays along the way. One of those places was at Cooper Pedy, about 850 kms north of Adelaide.
Cooper Pedy is a hot, dry place with a semi-desert climate. It is renowned for opal mining. We went during winter, when the days are pleasant and the nights are cold. But in summer, temperatures can get up to 45 degrees Celsius. Apparently, in the early days, opal mining was backbreaking business. As the miners dug for opal, they lived in the spaces they dug–called dugouts. We went on a tour of one of these dugouts (Faye’s Underground Home) and learnt that, when people needed more space in their dugout, say because they had another child, they simply dug another room into their house.
Taraqan people would most likely live in caves dug into the sides of the cliffs.
We stayed in The Underground Motel in Cooper Pedy while we were there and I remember it being a surreal experience. It was strange to stay in a place with no windows–at night, with the lights off, the darkness was complete. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. When I woke—without looking at the clock— I had no idea whether it was the middle of the day or still the middle of the night. It remember finding it quite disorienting.
During my world-building for Airwoman, when I thought about where winged people might live, I figured they would make their homes easily accessible by flight–probably either in the trees or in the cliffs. In the hot and barren landscape of Taraqa, with few trees to pick from, I decided the Taraqan people would most likely live in caves dug into the sides of the cliffs.
When doing the world-building for Ingresston, above the Vertin Gorge, I remembered my experience in Cooper Pedy at the underground hotel and modelled it for Jade Gariq’s home. As such, Jade’s family home—like all Taraqan houses in Ingresston—is dug into the cliffs. Generations ago, a Gariq ancestor first dug out a single room, then expanded it as the family grew. Later generations modified it to their needs until it became the sprawling network of tunnels and cavernous rooms where Jade now lives.
If you’re interested in finding out more about where I got my ideas for Airwoman, you can read about where the idea came from and the story behind Jade’s necklace.
Want to know more about the inspiration behind Airwoman? Send me your questions in the comments.