<-Back to Index <-Previous Chapter THE PEDESTRIAN’S GUIDE TO WRITING HORSES 5: Care and Maintenance Horses require a great deal of work, especially if you want to use them in your Quest to Defeat the Dark Lord. The easiest way to care for a horse is to leave it out on a grass pasture with …
<–Back to Index <-Previous Chapter THE PEDESTRIAN’S GUIDE TO WRITING HORSES 4: Practicality Let me make one thing clear: Horses are NOT bicycles. As you may have learned from the previous chapters, horses are large, unpredictable, and opinionated. They are also surprisingly injury-prone (see Chapter 6: Illness and Injury). All this makes them (by modern …
<-Back to Index <-Previous Chapter THE PEDESTRIAN’S GUIDE TO WRITING HORSES 3: Personality The idea of the loyal mount is not a myth. Horses are, in their way, as loyal as dogs—but at the same time so unlike dogs that when they are depicted as such I get very upset. If cats are independent …
<–Back to Index <–Previous Chapter THE PEDESTRIAN’S GUIDE TO WRITING HORSES 2: Physicality The thing that most people notice when they meet a real life horse for the first time, and the thing that a lot of writers who have never met a horse get wrong, is their size. Horses are big animals. They are …
<–Back to Index THE PEDESTRIAN’S GUIDE TO WRITING HORSES 1: Terminology The world of horses carries a language of its own which can seem confusing to an outsider. Let me start by saying that I think terminology is the least important thing to get right (as long as your mechanics are solid and I know …
HORSES are of a breed unique to Fantasyland. They are capable of galloping full-tilt all day without rest. Sometimes they do not require food or water. They never cast shoes, go lame, or put their hooves down holes, except when Management deems it necessary, as when the forces of the DARK LORD are only half …
This month (March) has been declared #DWJMarch, in honor of the late, great Diana Wynne Jones, by K over at WeBeReading.com. This year she is hosting a read-along of Jones’s delightful novel Howl’s Moving Castle, and in honor of that I thought I’d share my thoughts on the book—and do a little fanart. Reflections on …
Or: Can you hear the bottles sing? Author’s Note: This week I am sharing the notes I took on a recent trip to Death Valley National Park with my friend Rose. You can read my report from Day One here, and Day Two here. Thursday, February 7 2013 Driving, it seems, is the way to get around Death …
Or: A land of rock and wind. Author’s Note: This week I am sharing the notes I took on a recent trip to Death Valley National Park with my friend Rose. You can read my report from Day One here, and Day Three here. Wednesday, February 6th 2013 I did not make it to Titus Canyon. I …
Or: Driving through nowhere to get to somewhere. Author’s Note: I recently took a trip to Death Valley National Park, which lies on the eastern border of California. I went there ostensibly to do research for a story, but also because I’ve always loved the outdoors and I really wanted to visit. I went with …
