What was the Inspiration for Under the Northern Lights?
Ahhhh thank you so much for this question @ruddcatha!!!! ❤️
Put under a cut because I ramble a little, and also included a sample of my own photography!
So I had the idea back in February, when there was tons of snow on the ground. All I remember was looking out my upstairs bathroom window at my backyard covered in snow, and just being hit with this whole ass story idea out of nowhere😂.
It always means SO much to me when people have left comments on UTNL about the imagery, because that's really been such a key element for me. That story has come to me in images, and has played out like a movie in my head. I imagine, vividly, every scene practically on a shot-by-shot basis, thinking of what the lighting would be like, what the music would sound like, how the shot would be framed, etc.
So pretty much what happened is that when I was looking at my snowy backyard, I just had this overwhelming image/feeling come to me of that beautiful, peaceful, almost otherworldly feeling you get when looking out at an expanse of glittering moonlit snow. And I basically just wanted to try and capture that feeling in a story...with InuKag.
And then there are just soo many aspects of that story that are inspired by my own life. Kagome is a photographer, because I am a photographer on the side/work for a photographer. I've also always had an interest in night photography ever since I was young, and have messed around with it over time. I’m nowhere near as good as Kagome is in this story hahaha, but here’s a sampling of some of my night photography over the years from my various travels (the top two are from the Berkshires in MA, the bottom left is a self-timer shot from my honeymoon in Mexico, and the bottom right are from Acadia National Park in ME)
And I mentioned this in the author’s notes, but Yugen Magazine is a concept I came up with back in college for my Editorial Design class, and it fit in perfectly with the basic idea of her being a photographer that travels around all the time, so I also got to indulge in that idea as well.
The other inspiration was actually just...angst 😆. I really wanted to explore that bittersweet 'I'm so in love with you but I know I have to let you go' type of angst because it’s my absolute favorite to read/write. So I wanted a story that would let me dig deep into that, while still eventually arriving at a happy ending.
All of that combined into the idea of Inuyasha and Kagome falling in love in a beautiful winter wonderland, having to say a heartwrenching goodbye, and then finding a way back to each other.
SERIOUSLY THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS QUESTION ❤️. I could talk about UTNL endlessly hahahaha so I appreciate the opportunity to indulge!