At last I’m getting to a question asked in the first blog or two: What about logistics of mounted expeditions? This matters a great deal to the author writing any kind of quest or preindustrialized battle, not to mention the … Continue reading
Tag Archives: the craft of writing
This past week was rather interesting from the writer-rider-teacher point of view. I had opportunity to watch a beginning rider discover an entire new world of kinesthesia, and there just happened to be a discussion of the “Beginner’s Mind” in … Continue reading
Last week we talked about why the Giant Fantasy Horse(tm) is not the best idea for your questing Fellowship or your knight errant. This week we’ll look at another aspect of equine form and function: Speed. You won’t always be … Continue reading
This is a post about aliens. It’s also a post about writing the Other–human, animal, or otherwise. Horses are sentient. There’s some debate as to how intelligent they actually are, but as with other animals, the more scientists study them, … Continue reading
Just this morning I was reading a book I loved in my Sensawunda(tm) years. I still love it, but now I’m older and have published a few books of my own, the things I notice are different. In the context … Continue reading
One of the most common comment I write on student manuscripts is, “How does the character feel about this event?” or “What is her reaction?” It’s easy to narrate events, much harder to show internal reactions. But as a writer, … Continue reading
All too often when writers tackle the arcana of the equine in their novels and stories, they miss the nuances of the terminology. Then the reader is treated to a female gelding, a male mare, or a rider moving a … Continue reading
I’m a mare person. My current main riding horse may be a stallion, and he is wonderful and awesome and all the rest of it, but when I’m in default mode, I’m all about the mares. The standard mythos is … Continue reading
Something that bugs the heck out of me is when fantasy writers make up their own heraldry and it sucks. I confess, I was a herald in the SCA years ago, and it made me obsessive about the quality of … Continue reading