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Historical Hump Day - intro

HI my name is Elizabeth and I have an issue with Fantasy (this is where you say ‘Hi Elizabeth’)


I should start at the beginning. I love fantasy, epic, mythic and modern. I grew up with it, I cut my teeth on it and it was what I wanted to read, watch and write, but somewhere along the line things changed. I don’t know I changed or if authors changed but somewhere along the line the way animals were represented in fiction started to bother me. 


I have a degree in animal science and I work at two living history museums, at one facility I help care for a flock of historically accurate sheep. I’ve worked for vets and wildlife rehabilitation facilities, I’ve lived on a dairy farm and owned a horse from the time she was nine months to the day she died at the age of twenty seven, I’ve raised chickens and worked with Bald Eagles. I think I qualify as well rounded when it comes to animals. 


I don’t expect all authors to be well rounded like that but obvious lack of knowledge will make me not finish a book. 


What I am planing to do:


Every week I hope to post about animals and hopefully it will help remedy some of the issues I see way to often. I am going to start with horses because that is an animal that most fantasy and historical authors use and it is a place were I see a lot of errors. 


So welcome to Wotan Wednesday - or Historical Hump-day, if you have anything you want me to cover let me know!





Post 2 When horses were cars

Re-launch

I will be re-launching my blog on Wednesday 7/9/14. I have a series of Fantasy/Historic posts about livestock.


I know that sounds dull, but when was the last time you picked up a book in either genre that didn't have a horse in it? Heck most of my writing friends write horses without much background.


I will be talking about types of horses, I may use specific breeds as examples, since most fantasy is set in medieval (or medieval like) times most European countries were not following bloodlines the way we do now.

war horse post 1 the English Great Horse

The term ‘war horse’ is beyond broad. I think we all know that, but we all use it anyway. People have been using horses in war as long as we have been using horses.

This topic is so flipping huge that I had to think for week or so before I could even come up with a way to get into this topic. I’ve decided to start with The English Great Horse.

Until recently we didn’t have breeds the way we do now. Yes, we kept track of bloodlines and and yes we had types. That said, a lot of the types have now been codified into breeds.

The English Great Horse would have been a destrier, the largest of the charger types. At the time the Horse stood between 15 and 17 hands (between 60 and 68 inches) at the shoulder. This isn’t the horse you would ride to battle it would carry a rider in full armor and would have been the medieval equivalent to a tank. And an eighteen wheeler, but that came later.

This horse has become the Shire horse breed and they look like this:

You can see by the picture that the breed is still used for some military uses, admittedly now in a ceremonial roles. They are also bigger than they were as a destrier. Now they start at 16 hands (64 inches).

In its old and new versions the Horse is a strong trotting animal and can go long distances. This is probably what most people think of when they think Charger and even in its larger modern draft form it is built like a riding horse writ large.

Spring Fling Blog hop

I live on the East Coast and after 68 inches of snow I am ready for some spring fling. Mind you we are supposed to get more weather this week.

  Everyone is stir crazy and there are piles of snow everywhere. It is hard to get through the day and come home with energy to write but in the middle of this a friend and I decided to write together. We have different styles of working and since she is much more the planer than I am, I thought it would feel more like work. Sure, fun work. Work that I would learn a lot from but still work.

  I have to say it has been much more like play with a good friend. Sure, adult play. Play that I am learning from but still play. I don’t know if it is the weather or not but my new character is an herbalist. I’ve spent the past few weeks thinking about plants and greenhouses. Anything is better than thinking about the constant snow and ice. Her boyfriend is a hockey player, so I still have ice in my life but still there are more plants.

  Comment with your e-mail address and you will be entered for my give away of a $10 gift certificate for Amazon or B+N a hockey charm bracelet and a copy of one of my stories. I’ll be giving away three prize packs. You will also be entered for the Books to go now prizes!
 

Book of Days

Happy New Year!

 

So far I have watched a few minutes of the Winter Classic and a few minutes of the mummers parade (I can’t really describe the mummers, feathers and string bands. It may be like Carnival with cold weather) but mostly I’ve been hanging out. I did get my book of days writing in. The prompt was Things that come through silence. I’m working on developing my hero.

I have been completely off the Internet for the past week or so (even e-mail) so I have to do that soon. One of my resolutions is to make sure I post more often. 

 

 

Things that enter by way of silence

He breached the surface of the water, long tooth first and then he was in the air. Once his head was above the water the world fell silent. Sound carried better underwater, and his whale body wasn’t really designed for hearing above water.

He cleared his blow hole and took a deep breath. His lungs filled and for a few moments he drank in the silence. Then he let himself slip back under the water and then swam full speed up through the hole in the ice, launching himself up and out through the hole in the ice.

His long torpedo shaped body crashed down on the ice and he lay quietly for a few moments just letting himself feel his body. The narwhal isn’t a big whale, it is white and a mottled black gray. The biggest distinguishing thing about the male is the single long tooth jutting forward out of his mouth.

He looked like a water unicorn.

Then he let himself remember his other body. As he remembers his magic flowed through him and his other body appeared.

A young man with dark hair and the white skin of someone who almost never saw the sun. The man stood and looked back at his watery home.

He turned his back on his home and walked away. If he had any hope of saving his home he would have to do it in the world of Man.  

New Year’s resolution

First off I am going to try to do a “Book of Days” thing.  So hopefully you will be seeing more posts from me.  It may be bits of writing or normal post stuff.  Mind you I am bad at sticking to things so we will see how far I get on that. 

Also I saw the second Hobbit movie.  I really enjoyed it.  Yes the movie deviated from the book and I wonder if he is giving some characters an ‘out’ from the ending  they had in the book.  I get why he would want to give them an out and I will be alright with it.