Thank you for reading Captured by Magic! If you’ve made it this far, you’ve probably read some of my previous books and know that I like to include historical places and mythological elements in my stories. Sometimes the history of these things is so interesting that I want to share more, and I like to do it in the Author’s Note instead of the story itself.

Captured by Magic is full of myth and history. It starts in Death Valley, where I borrowed from some Native American myth. Because of the forcible dispersement of Native American people during American colonialism (not our finest hour), it can be difficult to find the myth and folklore for a specific region or group. Taking people from their homes and suppressing their culture has the unfortunate consequence of also causing the loss of cultural stories and histories. As such, some of the myth that I have used does not come directly from Death Valley, but from nearby instead.

One example of that is the Nimerigar, a mythological group of tiny people who shot poisoned arrows from their bows. Their name means “people eaters” in the Shoshone and Paiute languages, and they were said to live in Wyoming. Another myth is that of the Princess of the Timbisha Shoshone people who lived in the half-built castle. It is a piece of folklore from the Timbisha Shoshone tribe in Death Valley and it describes the land before it became dry and desert like. I stayed as faithful to their story as I could.

Petroglyphs like the ones carved in the sand at Death Valley in my story are found all over the world. In Death Valley, they are most often found inscribed on vertical rocks, but for the purpose of this book, I liked the idea of them being carved into the ground.

The myth and history in Captured by Magic continues in Italy. The city of Orvieto is a real place in central Italy that is roughly as I described it, minus the river leading to the Well of San Patrizio. The well really is there, however, and I highly recommend that you google it for photos. It is truly amazing and I knew that I had to use it for the book. The well was built in the 16^th century to provide water for the city in the event of a siege, and the architecture is really impressive.

The city itself sits atop hundreds of caves, most of which were dug out of the earth to provide building materials for the city below. Some of them are older than the Romans. Many homes and business have their own private caves that they now use primarily for storage. There are several very cool wineries that have their storage underground. The one that I used for reference in the book is actually in the town of Montepulciano, which shares a similar construction to Orvieto.

One of the most interesting places in the Orvieto underground is the area where the pigeons live. For centuries, pigeons were an important food source for Orvieto. The caves at the edge of the city have natural openings to the cliffs outside. Within the caves, there are hundreds of little nooks carved into the walls for the pigeons, who live free until the day that someone decides to eat them (that’s the sadder part of the story). But it’s a very interesting place, and I recommend googling that as well.

St. Bacchus was one of the Roman gods who was made into a minor saint to help ease the transition to Christianity. The Opimian vintage that he mentions is an actual famous vintage from 121 BC. It’s amazing what you can learn on the internet.

And last, the Parco dei Mostri, which I call the forest of monsters in the book, is based on the Parco dei Mostri at Bomarzo in central Italy. It is very similar to how I described it—a wild forest filled with huge, fantastic stone sculptures. It was commissioned in 1552 by Prince Pier Francesco Orsini in honor of his late wife. This is another one that I recommend you google. The pictures are really fantastic.

I think that’s it for the history and mythology in Captured by Magic—at least the big things. I hope you enjoyed the book and will come back for more of Ana, Lachlan, Rowan, and Bree!