Fantasy Animals!

Tags

Fantasy, Question for you!, Readers, Reasoning

I have a question! Let us take a fantasy world with a noticeably different ecosystem and whatnot to our own. Now, some of the ecological niches may well be filled with animals quite similar to our own in some ways (ex: this rather cool PhDComics on the convergent evolution of wolf and hyena jaws). In such instances, would you prefer it if the author (that would be me!) used a similar well-known animal name as shorthand and only noted the differences (ex: Renais and the incident of the fork-tailed mice, which as you might expect look and act a lot like mice in our own world), or came up with an entirely different name to match the animals notably unlike ours (example from a different universe: burlen, a species of roughly horse-sized reptilians that are typically used as beasts of burden and curl up when threatened, protected by their armoured skin)? If I have burlen, would you find it weird to have things called cats in the same world (provided that, you know, there has been mammalian evolution, which there has)? If it’s reasonable that something much like a cat exists in the world, should I call it a cat, or something else? What do you think?

(And no, “stop making stuff up” is not an answer, I’m writing fantasy and sci-fi here! ~_^)

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Three Wishes

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Art, Publication, Readers, Three Wishes

Over at Split Worlds, Emma Newman has had an absolutely wonderful idea, in which we all make three wishes — and all help one another’s wishes to come true, if possible. I actually came across this a few days ago, but I’ve been thinking about what personal, plausible things I might actually wish for… and it seems they all really have to do with writing. And all make me wish I’d got this blog off the ground earlier so that I actually had some more writing available to wish about! I have plenty of stuff written… there’s just not a lot of it up here yet.

1. I wish for readers, and my work to be shared. I want people out there to see what I’ve written, and if they enjoy it, to tell their friends. I want to reach as many people as I can! (Easy wish, might actually be possible!)
2. I wish for art. Specifically, sci-fi and fantasy art: cover art and illustrations for things I’ve written and am writing. I love drawing, but I can only really do anime styles. It would be amazing to have some realistic artwork! (Medium/niche wish. Artists get access to unposted shiny things!)
3. Okay, it may be a pipe dream, but I wish to get published and see my books in a bookshop. In practice that currently means for a publisher to take on the fantasy novel I’ve finished and polished, Before the Sun Fades — or an agent to take me on and help with the above. I’m UK-based, and write fantasy and sci-fi, both adult and the odd “young adult”! (I don’t expect this one to come true! But wouldn’t it be nice if it did? The only reason BtSF isn’t already epubbed up here is because I’m still hoping I might get a chance to see it in bookshops, basically my ultimate dream for my work.)

So those are my three wishes. Now I’m going to go take a look at everyone else’s, and see if there’s anything I can do to help any of them come true. Then, having started that, it’s editing/posting time — if I want anyone to think it’s worth pointing others at my stories, I’d better hurry and get a few more things up to look at!

Finally, not a wish, just a note: I’m always happy to chat, so please feel free to talk to me either here at Distant Realms or over on Twitter, where I’m @Metalwings.

“These three wishes are part of a wish-making community organised by author Emma Newman to celebrate the release of the second Split Worlds novel “Any Other Name”. Can you make any of them come true? Come and see what other people are wishing for and find out how to join in at http://www.splitworlds.com/split-worlds-extra/three-wishes – who knows, perhaps someone could make one of your wishes come true.”