My Published Work


Wednesday, July 9, 2014

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


  1. The plot for The Gryphon & the Basilisk has left me with a conundrum of my own making. Can you help?

    A score of fighters & a couple enchanters ride into a large wilderness covered with "ensorcelled" snow aka normal snow created by the "bad guys". The riders had good reason to expect so they may have prepared. If so, how? Various grasses & other plants would be somewhere under the surface but the amount of snow must be enough to slow their progress. That's why the snow is there to begin with. There are whole copses of trees, but most of these are evergreens. Can horses eat typical evergreen-like trees? Can you suggest how much time the horses would need to graze each day if hampered by the snow? Thanks!

    Happy almost birthday!


    1. I will post a nice long answer to this when I get home from my Daughter's, but yeah I can help.

    2. I posted speeds and food needs. I've never seen horses eat pine, but that doesn't mean they can't. I'll have to look it up I think.