Are your story locations based on real places?

Are your story loc­a­tions based on real places?
Yes!

A lot of them are made up, but many are based on actu­al loc­a­tions. How could they not be, when I live in Brit­ish Columbia?

We used to camp a lot up at Alice Lake, just out­side Squam­ish, BC. One of our favour­ite hikes up there is the Four Lakes Trail, and many scenes in the Gate­keep­er series take place along that trail, or at least they were inspired by those spots. For instance, the switch­back path Phen­nil takes after his vis­it to the Tree of Life (Book Three: Gate­keep­er­’s Decep­tion II — Deceived) is based on that trail, and the lake where Fre­dric gives Kyer the “secret mes­sage” (Book Two: Gate­keep­er­’s Decep­tion I — Deceiv­er) is based on Fawn Lake.

The spot from which Kyer is taken by her enemy in Gate­keep­er­’s Key is loosely based on a sec­tion of Gold Creek along the Lower Falls trail at Golden Ears Park in Maple Ridge, BC. And the ride toward Ronav’s moun­tain headquar­ters is [again, loosely!] based on a drive we took in Cali­for­nia years ago, where the moun­tain seemed to end abruptly and the plain began.

There are lots of oth­ers, too, mostly in BC. And of course Griffin and the Spuri­ous Cor­rel­a­tions takes place in Van­couver, BC, and Burn­aby. No secret there.