Finding inspiration in travel

Confession time: I’ve been planning a trip to NYC for a while now. You see, my beloved niece is interning with NBC this semester (holler!) and I was hoping to use it as an excuse to revisit that amazing city. She and I went there once together, years ago, and I enjoyed it more than she did! But it looks like I probably won’t be able to go after all; at least, not anytime soon. A case of life (and no money) getting in the way. So while I’m disappointed, I’m already thinking ahead to ways to make this up to myself once certain obligations are met and situations sorted. Perhaps somewhere much closer to home, somewhere that I love to visit and have visited many times before. In fact, I love it so much I set a book in the beautiful city of Charleston, S.C.

Charleston is only a few hours’ drive for me, and I can go on the weekend almost anytime and get my fix of the Holy City without spending too much money. I love walking along the cobblestone streets and into the park at the Battery, window shopping along King Street, dining on delicious fresh-from-the-ocean seafood, and generally, just soaking up some beautiful Southern scenery and hospitality.

And no trip to Charleston is complete for me without doing a tour — a ghost tour, that is.

Charleston is renowned for its ghosts. Did you know that? Of course you did! It’s one of the oldest cities in America, rich in history and legends of pirates, civil war soldiers, and scoundrels. I’m never surprised when I turn on the TV and see that the team from Ghosthunters or those guys from Ghost Adventures have been snooping around Charleston again. I’ve done a handful of ghost tours in Charleston, too, and I learn a new legend every time. To be honest, I've captured a few orbs on my camera but never had a hair-raising oh-my-gosh-it's-a-ghost experience. What I did walk away with was the perfect inspiration for the second book in my psychic detectives series, Something Wicked, for that very reason. My heroine is a psychic medium on assignment to find a missing person when she gets sucked into a different task, thanks to a cast of ghosts who lead her straight into a murder mystery.

I haven't written a word since I finished the third book in that series and turned it into my editor, and I could use a serious dose of inspiration to get me started again. There's nothing like traveling to an exciting place to get those writing juices flowing...

Since spring is right around the corner, it is an excellent time of the year to visit Charleston. I think I might go again soon. Who’s with me?

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You can learn more about Something Wicked and Angela Campbell's books at www.AngelaCampbellOnline.com.