Flora & Fauna: Dragon wings?

Dear Reader,

If you have been following the paleontology blogs, I am sure you have heard about recent discoveries and exciting theories. It is sort of a hobby of mine that has been on the back burner. I enjoy collecting fossils. My area of the world is where you can find Devonian era fossils pretty easily. I was spoiled as a kid to go out walking through fields on the farm and finding all kinds of interesting rocks. The running joke in my parents' household was that my room was going to crash down into the one below if I found more rocks. To no one's surprise, I took my rock collection with me off to college and went fossil hunting while I was at college. I donated one of the best samples in my collection to the college's fossil exhibit.

Now, one may wonder what my love of fossils has to do with fantasy creatures like dragons. The old stories of dragons in Europe were based on the discovery of dinosaur fossils. These people tried to make sense of what was discovered and from here was the European dragon lore born. I have a love of mythology and folklore. It is part of the fuel for my fantasy series. The dragons of Evandar are heavily influenced by European dragon lore.

As I thought about it all, I realized pretty early on that my dragons were going to have some aerodynamics problems. While I could just say 'it is fiction and doesn't matter!' I really felt like I had to address them. It doesn't come up in the books at this time because it's all background material and there's no reason for it to be at the forefront of the storyline. This lead me to study birds, bats, and bugs to figure out how they managed to stay up in the air. While the fossil record indicated that many of the dinosaurs discovered in Europe had a heavy bone structure, I realized that my dragons needed a bone structure like birds. 

For a brief moment, I considered if they had feathers but I fell back to the old concept of webbed wings like what you see in bats. The dinosaur concept that I grew up with was that they had scales and they were more like lizards than birds. (More evidence is showing they were more like birds. It's really neat to read about.) I then had the question of how do they fly and how do they stay in the air? That piece of the puzzle didn't fall into place for a long while. Then I read about humming birds. The way they hover in the air is by flapping their wings in a figure 8 motion. This allows them to have greater ability to move in any direction. I knew this immediately was the answer to the question of how dragons fly.

I am planning on inserting a scene where the principle characters are dealing with a dragon in flight and the challenges of confronting one. All of this research and planning is going to make for a really awesome scene to write that I know I'm going to have fun working on.

World building: how much is too much? (spoiler alert: never too much)

 Dear Friends,

It has been quite a while since I have posted real content up here. I am looking at my journals and notes from the years I have spent working on my fantasy series. One thing keeps coming to mind, this is a lot of world building. I started working on this book series when I was in seventh grade. The first iteration of the first book in the series was a two page typed story. My grandmother was pleased that she was the first person I shared it with. She told me it had potential and I've been working joyfully on it ever since.

The core ideas in that first short story have been fleshed out and given more detail over the years, but so has many other things. Sometimes, I wonder if I have gone too far. I have literal volumes of material that never even made it into my books (published or unpublished). Then I stop and think to myself that all of this material can be carefully reorganized and produce more books.

I don't know if I am going to finish the 30 book series that I plotted out before I die. Other projects pop up and I get distracted. At the same time, my legacy of writing is going to be fun for my heirs to go through and see how it changed over the years. Unless they decide I am still boring. Having teenaged children makes you boring to them no matter what you do.

I hope that you find as much joy in world building as I have. And I hope that it keeps writing fun and interesting for you. It has for me.

♥

Flora & Fauna: No magic plants today.

 Dear Reader,

I have been so busy trying to keep my real plants alive that all world building regarding plants has fallen by the wayside. I would share with you a picture of my small indoor garden, or as Beloved calls it, the jungle. The problem is the plants are in sorry shape. I have three that need to be potted up. They're in bad shape because they're rootbound. I have others that have this weird white fungus growing on the soil. I don't know how they got infected with this, but I have some Neem oil to spray on it and kill the fungus. Long story short, I have quite a few plants that look more dead than alive and I'm trying to fix that. It's not going that great. But as long as I keep trying, I'll probably manage to nurse them back to health.

New Settings Section. :)

 Dear Reader,

I mentioned a while back that I was going to be combining the Flora & Fauna feature with the Settings feature in my weekly topics. What does this mean for you? Well, I hope to be hitting the following points going forward (provided life doesn't screw with me like it has over the last 48 hours):

• Descriptions of flora and fauna that can be found in this world, along with their uses (This will include pictures as I can get organized enough to sketch them.)
  
  
• Details of the Poisoner's Notebook - a subsection of the flora and fauna stuff that focuses exclusively on poisoning and nefarious things. 
  
  
• Place descriptions that are relevant to the plot of various books as well as just interesting locations (I will attempt to make maps but right now my cartography skills are hideously bad.)
  
  
• Character sketches of major characters in the series and occasional random ones that are just fun to write (I am still debating if I am going to work up a character sheet for each in the style of old school D&D.)

While I am enjoying creating this material (because it helps me brainstorm things to put into the books), I am super excited about the concept of people taking things that I have created here and using them to create their own fanfiction, fantasy gaming campaigns, or artwork. I feel that my books are an open-world experience. As I add to the series, you are following the main plotline of the story. There will be side stories (like the serial stories on here) that will come out to cover supporting characters or just be adventures through the world. 

I am issuing a formal invitation to you to join me in creating this dynamic world. It is as much yours as it is mine once the books are in your hands.

Locales and the Flora & Fauna posts are to be merged!

 Dear Reader,

I know that you are probably wondering when I am ever going to post the progress I am making at drawing the roots of plants. And I am sure that you are also wondering when I am ever going to be posting details about new locations within the universe of the Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar. This is going to be happening on Wednesdays because these two topics are being merged under a new heading: Worldbuilding. 

The Worldbuilding topic is going to cover more than my bad plant sketches and long winded place descriptions. It will also get into techniques for character development planning and mapping out story elements like artifacts of importance. I haven't yet decided what will replace the Flora & Fauna topic of the day. I will update you when that brainstorm happens.

Look for an update to my serial stories later today. I have to find my idea notebook and clean up a few concepts before committing them to the internet. I'm going to attempt to update both Dacia's War and The Iron Lily. The trick to all of this is getting it done before my kids get home from school. Because, yay! Today is the first day of school and I can get back into a little more focused writing.

This week's Flora & Fauna post is delayed.

 Dear Reader,

I have misplaced my sketchbook. I have searched high and low for that blasted thing and can't find it. I'm beginning to suspect that one of my artistic boys has absconded with it and I may need to acquire a new one. I think I need to label everything that goes with my writing stuff so that there's no confusion. I will try to have a sketch up for you a little later this week along with a brief run down about the plant. While I know that my works will never reach the level of Audubon's ability, I like to think that I'm getting better at it as time goes on. The problem for me, however, are those damned roots. Fortunately, I own a couple of illustrated herbals that will let me study the art of plant root structures. (If you're looking to buy a real herbal that is useful, check out M. Grieves' A Modern Herbal. It's a two volume set that is full of information. It has been a big inspiration for what I post in this section.)

Flora & Fauna: Grains & Harvest Festivals.

 Dear Reader,

Not much is written in many fantasy (or other fictional books) about foot staples of the world. I try to correct that oversight by describing the cultural importance of things like grain and what different regions have for food. I was posting recipes that would come from different regions for a while until I kinda ran out of recipes because life got complicated. I'm hoping to resume this on a semi-regular basis in the fall after the kids go back to school.

Wheat in the central Evandari kingdom of Dakon-Bar is the primary grain staple but in the northern region that is the foothills of the Dragon's Teeth mountain range, barley and oats play a bigger role. Both of these grains ripen at approximately the same time (for the sake of my story's world building. In actuality, they ripen on slightly different schedules) and can be planted both in the spring and in the autumn. Seed put in the ground in autumn will winter over in the fallow fields and come up in spring to be ready to harvest approximately in mid-summer. Seed sown in spring pops up in autumn. 

The first harvest is of great importance to the people of Dakon-Bar. The First Harvest Festival is accompanied by feasting, bonfires, and feats of athleticism. The final sheaf of grain in the field is gathered by the people and presented with great solemnity to their liege lord as tribute. While the grain is commonly taken in as tribute, this ritual tithe is one that formally acknowledges the bonds of oath between liege lord and their subordinates down to the level of serf.

During the First Harvest Festival, it is common for squires to receive knighthood and for apprentices and journeymen to advance in rank in their guilds because they are recognized as completed their required season(s) of service for advancement. Many of the common folk count the First Harvest as their date of reckoning for the sake of their age, but this tradition is fading out and being replaced by counting Winters, as is done in many of the other six kingdoms of Evandar.

Where the final sheaf of grain is presented as tribute to the liege lord, the first one is dressed in ribbons and paraded around the field and town until it is presented as an offering to the goddess Roen. This offering is a celebratory thing, unlike the solemnity of the tribute to the liege lord. Songs accompany the first sheaf and people will bear torches with it in the course of its journey from the field to the temple. The torches represent the light of Sigurt, Roen's consort. It is a ritual protection of the fertility of the harvest from the withering touch of Morguthu, the god of decay and darkness. 

The first sheaf of grain will remain in the sanctuary of Roen's temple until it is time for planting. Then seeds will be given out from the sheaf to the people to perpetuate the prosperity and fertility of the harvest later in the year. If a community receives but one seed, it doesn't matter because the single seed carries the blessing of Roen to the entire field. Grain storage silos are dedicated to Roen and considered holy places, as are that which is associated with processing raw grain into foodstuffs. (That, however, is a topic for another day.)

Flora & Fauna: No, you can't escape poison ivy.

 Dear Reader,

Poison ivy is everywhere in the region where I live. It's a real pest. Because it is so common and so annoying, it found its way into my books. Just like the suicidal fuzzy ninjas (aka whitetail deer) that are a menace around here. Poison ivy doesn't really have any useful purposes but I am going to work it into a scene where someone is stuck dealing with a bad case of it and get a bit grumpy. Near where you find poison ivy growing, you can find jewel weed. That acts as a natural balm for poison ivy and helps relieve some of the symptoms. Because I am a benevolent goddess to my characters, they have that resource to help them. Why rely on magic to cure everything when you just have to crush up a few plants and rub the leaves on the itchy spots, right?

Flora & Fauna: How'd you get these horses?

 Dear Reader,

Horses are a familiar animal and a commonly used beast of transportation and burden in fantasy stories. What isn't answered is how these people got their horses. Now, in medieval history, the horse was an animal that was reserved for nobility and the wealthy. They cost a good deal to feed, care for, and generally keep up with. In the terms of the Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar, not everyone has horses and they're not as common as seen in other fantasy books.

Horses originated out in the grassland regions and the desert regions of the world. In the mountainous regions, like the northern part of Evandar and most of Ranyth, there are native ponies that resemble the Shetland ponies of our world. These animals are the beasts of burden and such of the lower classes because horses are the property of the wealthy. Sumptuary laws prohibit certain classes of people from even owning ponies because of their resemblance to horses.

With the migratory periods before and after the first Great War of the Gods, horses were brought into places like Evandar and Ranyth. They are still most frequently found on the grasslands and in the desert regions. Wild horses are present in those locations and cultures were built around capturing and domesticating them. (I hope to introduce them as I get more into the stories of Ranyth which borders a place where such a culture is present.)

Horses are associated with the god Kaileth and the wind in Evandar and Ranyth. They are considered in folklore to be one of the oldest non-magical animals in the world after deer. The horses of the Umbrel Chronicles are mostly like the horses of our world. Occasionally, there may be one that is a bit strange and touched by the divine. But this is the exception, not the rule. 

Flora & Fauna: Borrowing plants from Earth?

Dear Reader,

I apologize for this topic post being a day late. Yesterday was still kinda chaotic from the 4th of July. All of that said, let's look at why authors who write fantasy and science fiction borrow plants from Earth in their stories instead of inventing entire ecosystems wholesale. 

The simplest answer is familiarity. We are generally familiar with the types of plant life you can find on Earth in a given biome. In mild, temperate climates, we find trees like poplar and other deciduous varieties. In hotter, tropical climates, we find trees like the bunyan, palm, and related heat tolerant plants that require high humidity to thrive. Arid climes require different plants like succulents such as the famous Saguaro Cactus that can store water to survive between infrequent periods of precipitation.

Is it possible to invent an entire ecosystem for your story? Yes, and there are authors who have done it with mixed levels of success. It is, however, easier to limit the number of exotic species you invent and rename common ones for the region that your story takes place in if it is an Earth-like setting. It can be fun and exciting to give common plants new names but one must be careful not to go too far. It is important for the new names to be some how relevant to the plant's integral qualities or uses for your readers to maintain their suspension of disbelief.

There can only be so many kapow trees before your reader just glosses over it. If the plant life of your setting is important, you don't want your reader to gloss over that kapow tree just before an important scene where we learn why it's called that and how it relates to the characters. When dealing with plant life, describing them can be tricky but worth the effort when it illuminates their usefulness in the plot. At other times, just calling it by it's name is enough because the exotic name is a bit of color on the background scenery of the play that is happening on the page.

Flora & Fauna: The Herbal is stalled for want of better sketches.

 Dear Reader,

I have been attempting to draw plants and it's just ugly. I am not going to share the pics of the disaster with you, let it be enough to say that I did not inherit my botanist grandmother's eye or skill for drawing plants. I have been having difficulty drawing realistic root systems. I also have had this small problem of being too busy to spend time practicing/drawing. The kids have been on break for a little bit and keeping them active draws my focus away from my activities. And before that was the chaos of the end of school.

Summer school should be starting soon. I'm hoping that by then, I'll have at least one decent sketch to share. I picked up a set of water color pencils and the color saturation is amazing. I may attempt to do something of a painting based upon the use of those pencils. If I do so, I will post the results. I also now have a new set of oil pastel crayons so I can resume things like color studies and drawings based in that medium. Those won't go into the herbal but if I can draw something pretty cool with the oil pastel crayons, I totally am going to share it. Y'all have gone too long with out content.

I forgot about the Poisoner's Book project. Amusingly, what reminded me that I was going to do that was researching how safe my houseplants are. They're not. Except for the spider plant, they're all super toxic. And all but a few of the plants in my garden are edible. I feel like I got this backwards some how. But as I read and learn more about these plants, I am taking notes and will start posting on the Poisoner's Book project next month.

This month is the second Camp NaNoWriMo of the year, I will attempt to write this non-fiction book that completely stalled out during the last Camp NaNoWriMo in April due to my mental illness acting up. My goal is to get that completed so that I can finish the next book in the Umbrel Chronicles during NaNoWriMo in November. I will also be attempting to blog every day. Because why not be a little crazy and blog every day across multiple blogs as you're trying to write a book and watch after two pre-teens? Everybody needs a challenge, right? (Pray for me. LOL)

Flora & Fauna: Earth-star

 Dear Reader,

I apologize for the lack of a sketch to go with this week's Flora & Fauna post. I simply haven't had the time or the energy to sketch this plant (well, fungi) out. If you look up "Puff ball mushrooms" you'll find the fungi that I am talking about. Just as they can be found and harvested in our world, they can be found and harvested in the world of Evandar. Evandari names for this plant range widely given the fact that there are seven independent kingdoms that make up the larger kingdom of Evandar. There are also many local variations. Almost all of the names can be taken to mean 'Earth-star'. 

There are two varieties of Earth-star. The first variety is edible when it is young. It has white colored, firm flesh and can be in a ball shape up to a foot in diameter. It is considered a very common food stuff. As the white variety of Earth-star ages, it develops yellow spores and seems to deflate some. It cracks open upon the top of it in a star like shape. When squeezed or crushed, the spores are released. The spores of the white variety of Earth-star cause mild gastric distress and can be mildly toxic.  

The second variety is purple and is inedible. Purple Earth-star causes intense gastric distress and can cause death if consumed. The flesh of the immature plant is a pale lavender. As the purple variety of Earth-star ages, it takes on a pale brown color and develops a star shaped crack in the top where spores that are yellow are released. These spores have a mildly hallucinogenic property but the gastric distress caused by their consumption out weighs any entertaining benefit of the hallucinogen. 

Both fungi prefer temperate conditions with a good supply of moisture and rich loam to grow in. They prefer deep shade, as would be found within a dense forest, but can grow to slightly smaller sizes in full sun gardens as long as there is some shade for them. The propagation of Earth-star is done by gathering small, mature fungi and sprinkling the spores over the area where one wishes to grow them.

Flora & Fauna: Feather Fern

 

Dear Reader,

As you can tell, I'm back at sketching things. I'm not pleased with how this one came out. I really need better pencils because the leaf colors came out uneven due to the No. 2 pencil I used to outline everything smearing and smudging as I was filling in with color. I may have to go shopping for a decent set of colored pencils and give my collection of random inexpensive ones to the kids.

Feather Fern is a diminutive plant. It grows in deep shade, like on a forest floor. Feather Fern prefers rich soil with good drainage. The root structure is pretty close to what you would find for most real ferns. (I also suck at drawing roots, so I cheated and didn't do it.) Feather Fern makes good tinder when it is dried out.

It is reasonably good ground cover in shady spaces. It doesn't have any medicinal properties or folk uses aside from being a good fire starter. But it was kinda easy to draw.

Flora & Fauna: Rose berry.

 

Dear Reader,

Roses are one of my favorite flowers. I had to incorporate them somehow into the series. The rose berry bush looks like a regular rose bush except it is a little different.

Once pollenated, the rose berry bush doesn't lose its petals when it forms its berry. The berry is a sweet-tart flavor (like real rosehips) and is safe to eat. If you eat too many, it causes mild digestive issues (just like real rosehips).  Rose berry can be used medicinally.

The petals can be infused into alcohol to make a mild aphrodisiac. The leaves can be used in tea to ease menstrual cramps. The berries can be used to ease menstrual cramps or induce labor, which gives this plant it's alternate name 'Birthwort'.

Flora & Fauna: Time to Get to Work

 I have found my sketch book. I have my supplies together. And the Llama of Judgment is glaring at me. So, I'm going to be doing some sketching today and attempting to come up with some pretty drawings for you. I'm still working out how to get nice depth of color out of these pencils. If they are problematic, I may be using the water color pencils. Those have really rich colors because they're designed to put down pigment for painting.

I'll confess, I'd attempt painting some of these images but this paper is for dry mediums. Some of my next floral images are going to be of 'ordinary' plants, stuff that you would find on Earth in the sort of biome that the Seven Kingdoms of Evandar is located in. I am not going to say that my work is going to be remotely close to anything John Audubon did, but it will at least be recognizable. Because these 'ordinary' plants are part of what you will find in this world.

I must make an additional confession, I am awful at drawing animals. Except for birds. I can draw a pretty decent little Robin or Sparrow. But the fantastical things like dragons may as well be stick figures. Eventually, I will make the attempt. I just need to get better at things like drawing feet, claws, and hands. Also, head proportions are difficult. I promise, I will try to do that, but it is going to be later in the year after I have gotten back into the swing of drawing again. I may post occasional pictures of the meditation coloring pages I have begun doing to help manage my stress. But I will note that it's just my coloring in something someone else created.

Speaking of coloring in books, if you're looking for a really cool adult coloring book, check out the one based off of J.R.R. Tolkein's works. A friend of mine gifted it do me for Yule a few years back. It is beautifully illustrated and includes stuff like dot-to-dot pages. (Yes, there is a Smaug dot-to-dot page.) I'd give you the exact title and ISBN but the book is buried. At least I have enough of a path through my project room that I was able to get to some of my colored pencils. I'm amazed it hasn't collapsed into a black hole with the amount of stuff in there.

Flora & Fauna: Coming Soon!

 Dear Reader,

I am working on compiling a page with links to all of the exotic plants and wee beasties that I have in my stories. It's going to be a bit of slow going because there's a good amount of material here. But, once I get that all catalogued for you, you can review the whole list at your leisure. I am also working on more sketches. 

While you're waiting for new material for this segment, take a peek at an embroidery project that I've been working on during the pandemic. It's a sampler, which means every element has a different stitch used. I can't recall for the life of me what the thread count is on the fabric (and there's no way I am getting out a ruler to count them). It was just some cloth that I had left over from a previous embroidery project. I messed up the quote, but still captured the spirit of it all.

Keep a log of important setting details (including interesting items and creatures).

  Dear Reader,

If you're in a position like I am and you're working on multiple books, it is good to keep a log of the things you invent and introduce into your books. My log is a disaster and spread across multiple notebooks. I'm trying to fix that, it's not working so great. But, there are others out there with wonderfully detailed notes. In your log, it is good to note the description and pertinent qualities of your special things. It is also good practice to note where it shows up in your story and under what conditions it arises. This helps prevent you from having your flaming brass dragon turn into a flaming glass dragon (unless that is a planned plot twist).

Keeping a log of major setting details helps when you are choosing what elements from previous books to incorporate and carry forward into the next books. We've all read books that were a bit cavalier about this and are confused by how these things happened to change between books. If you keep a log, you can reference it at any time you are working to add details, note influence on plot arcs, and generally keep your information about the setting details up to date as you are working.

Just don't do it across a four inch stack of notebooks, please. I'm still sorting out that mess. Ah, life before computers. When everything went into notebooks. Now I'm working to consolidate it into one source. It's not going so great because it's a jumbled mess. I might wind up using Camp NaNoWriMo this year to work on fixing that mess.

Flora & Fauna: Roots are hard to draw.

Dear Reader,

I've been having some difficulty with my sketches. Roots are shockingly hard to draw. I thought feet were complicated and I knew that hands were challenging. I never dreamed that something like roots would be so hard to draw. I am currently attempting to draw something that looks approximately like Mandrake root and it looks gods awful. I now understand why they just took a shortcut and drew them to look like little people in the ground with leaves sticking out of their heads. I am quite tempted to do the same thing. Ugh. Why can't roots be like potatoes? Potatoes are easy to draw. (No, I am not going to post images because I am ashamed of how ugly they are. I should draw potatoes instead.)

Flora & Fauna: The Poisoner's Book I

Gather the herb by the light of the waning moon. Be sure that it has five teeth upon the leaves, sharp and pointed. The blossoms must be fragrant. Beware the stench for it has driven men into madness. It is recommended to wear a mask or a cloth o'er one's face when harvesting the herb. The more spots on the blossoms, the more potent it is for it is an elder plant. Take only the leaves from the lower portion of the plant. Those closest to the earth are closest to death.

In your mortar and pestle, crush the herb with oil and salt. This will draw out the deadly humors and strengthen them. Add the ashes of nettle roots and mix together until a thick paste. Spread this paste out upon a cloth and dry it in the sun. When dry, crush the remains into a fine powder. Take care not to breathe in the dust. Store in a bottle in a dark place where the light of the sun can not reach it.

Blow a pinch of this dust into the face of your enemy while cursing them to suffer the wrath of the dread god of all evil. Upon breathing it in, they shall choke and swallow their own tongue before collapsing to the earth stone dead.

Flora & Fauna: The Poisoner's book 1

Dear Reader,

Just as there are herbals that talk about the plants that are good for healing and eating, there are ones that talk about poisons. There is one book that is famous in Evandar known only as the Poisoner's Book. It is a catalog of all known toxic and poisonous plants in that region. I haven't written out the legendarium section for this book because it includes 'real world' plants. I don't want someone to sit down and pick up a notebook I have and find a list of deadly plants and how to kill or injure people with them. There are something I can just leave in the real herbals and make it look less suspicious.

As I move forward, there will be excerpts from the Poisoner's Book posted that feature plants that are not 'real'. They will have the same subject line as this post. The plants in the poisoner's book have names that may seem strange or are very descriptive of what they do. (Strangler's plant, for example, is one with an obvious name. It isn't in the Poisoner's book because it is a vine used to make the rope for nooses, but the deadly plants that have obvious names are going to be that sort of obvious.)

These little 'excerpts' are being posed here as references for me and entertainment for you. I'm also going to post 'recipes' using these plants. The recipes are going to be based on actual historical recipes for things like ointments and such. I have a lot of notes about these kinds of things and I need to start putting them down somewhere that they can be useful. Unfortunately, this is not the sort of thing that I put into my Book Bible. But I have to put it somewhere, right? So, why not the blog, eh?

The excerpts will be part of a future book. I will let you all know when that book is in the works and ready for publication.