Creepy Caves: My Inspiration for the Caves in the Blood of Kings Trilogy

In book one, By Darkness Hid, Vrell, Jax, and Khai travel down an underground hot springs river to avoid the Eben giants in Nahar Forest above. A reekat upsets their boat, and they swim to a nearby cave and meet Peripaso. I learned a good deal about creepy caves from my friend Marion, who visited some caves while on a work and witness trip to Venezuela. Marion is the one who described the smell, the bat droppings that covered the floor, and all the creepy crawly beetles. As a writer, I was thrilled to discover this information and loaded my caves with bat excrement and hundreds of beetles. This gave Vrell a reason to be squeamish, which I hope delighted my readers.

One of my favorite things about Peripaso’s cave was the dripstone tree. This was inspired by a picture of stalagmites and stalactites I found online back in 2008. I can no longer find the exact picture, but it looked something like the middle picture I’ve posted.

Vrell will return to the creepy caves in book three, though she will be far too busy to be squeamish. And she will be going up this time, and the dripstones will be joined by icicles.  Cool, huh? Brrr.