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Creature Feature: Ice Dragons

 Ice Dragons

 They come from the farthest reaches of the frozen North and are wild creatures seldom seen by men. Their scales are so shiny, they look like mirrors, refracting and reflecting all the colors of the visible spectrum, making them unseen hunters in the ice fields they inhabit.

At home on ice, their claws are stronger and longer than most dragons and they are huge in comparison to their colorful lowland brethren. Living wild, most Ice Dragons do not have large families or strong family units. Ice Dragon mothers care for their dragonets for just a few years, until they’re big enough and strong enough to make their way on their own. Ice Dragon fathers seldom stick around. Food is too scarce and too spread out over the frozen North for more than one or two dragons to live together for any length of time.

They are the most independent of the dragon breeds and perhaps, the lonliest, yet they are sworn, like all other dragons, to the protection of their world. They guard the Citadel, hidden in the ice at the top of the world, and the hereditary Guardian. They will answer the Guardian’s call if ever the Citadel is threatened, but otherwise live separate, wild and free.

Wild Swans

Since mid-February, I’ve been priviledged to watch huge flocks of migratory swans, snow geese and Canada geese flying and congregating in harvested farm fields near my parents’ home in Pennsylvania. Being a suburban kid, I’ve never had a chance to see such huge numbers of these gorgeous creatures. Sure, we have lots of Canada geese that seem to have given up migrating and just live on Long Island year-round now, but there’s nothing like watching flock after flock after flock of these birds flying overhead, hooting and honking as they head northward, signalling the approach of the end of Winter.

(Photo from the PA Game Commission site)

Last weekend, I saw the largest flock of swans I have ever seen in my life! There had to be hundreds, if not thousands of graceful, long-necked white swans congregating in an empty corn field as I drove by. Back at my mom’s, I was helping move some things out in the garden and heard the now-familiar noise in the sky, looked up and saw several large V’s of swans flying north. Just breathtaking!

I did a little research and found out that these are tundra swans that breed along the northern coastline of Canada in the Summer and spend the Winter on the coasts of both the Atlantic and Pacific. They are gorgeous. I’m used to seeing swans in pairs – a few at a time in a pond or something. I’ve never seen so many in one place and I have to say, the sight is truly breathtaking and a privilege to see.

I tried to snap a few photos on my new cell phone, but I haven’t gotten them downloaded yet (still learning how to use the phone). If/when I do, I’ll try to post some.

March & Lions

You know that old saying about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb? It got me thinking about something I’ve heard of but have never seen in person that I thought I’d share with you. A sort of history lesson, if you will indulge me…

There is a memorial in Lucerne, Switzerland that I would love to see someday. Normally, I’m not much of a sightseer. I could care less about ooh-ing and ah-ing over the world’s biggest ball of rubberbands, you know what I mean? But there are some things I’d like to see. This sculpture is on that rather short list. Here is the monument in question:

The story behind this monument is what touches me most. Some of you may know my family history goes back to Europe. Some of my ancestors were involved in the French Revolution (on the losing-their-heads side) and on the other side of the family I am descended from, among others, a rather infamous Swiss Guard. (Infamous in our family, at least.)

For those of you who are interested, here’s what Wiki has to say about Swiss Guards:

Swiss Guards is the name given to the Swiss soldiers who have served as bodyguards, ceremonial guards, and palace guards at foreign European courts since the late 15th century. They are now represented in some sense by the Papal Swiss Guard. They have generally had a high reputation for discipline and loyalty to their employers. Apart from household and guard units, some formations have also served as fighting troops in the field; regular Swiss mercenary regiments served as line troops in various armies, notably those of France, Spain and Naples right up to the 19th century.

Various units of Swiss Guards have existed for hundreds of years. The earliest such detachment was the Swiss Hundred Guard’ (Cent-Garde) at the French court (1497 – 1830). This small force was complemented in 1567 by a Swiss Guard regiment. The Papal Swiss Guard in the Vatican was founded in 1506 and is the only Swiss Guard that still exists. In the 18th century several other Swiss Guards existed for periods in various European courts.

The monument at Lucerne is especially touching because it memorializes a group of Swiss Guards who fought in defense of Tuileries in Paris. They were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the palace. Mark Twain once called the sculpture of a mortally-wounded lion ”the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world,” and I have to agree. Even though I’ve never seen it in person. Someday I hope to do so.

I’m going to copy a bit of the Wiki entry here so you can get the jist of the story behind the sculpture and the bravery of the men who died fighting a mob. I’m one of the few, I guess, who think the French Revolution mobs were a sickening, disgusting affair. There’s nothing romantic about killing off everyone in sight. They went too far. They killed women and children who had nothing to do with the oppression they were fighting against. It was a sad, sad, evil period in French history.

From the early 17th century, a regiment of Swiss mercenaries had served as part of the Royal Household of France. On 6 October 1789, King Louis XVI had been forced to move with his family from the Palace of Versailles to the Tuileries Palace in Paris. In June 1791 he tried to flee abroad. In the 1792 10th of August Insurrection, revolutionaries stormed the palace. Fighting broke out spontaneously after the Royal Family had been escorted from the Tuileries to take refuge with the Legislative Assembly. The Swiss ran low on ammunition and were overwhelmed by superior numbers. A note written by the King has survived, ordering the Swiss to retire and return to their barracks, but this was only acted on after their position had become untenable.

Of the Swiss Guards defending the Tuileries, more than six hundred were killed during the fighting or massacred after surrender. An estimated two hundred more died in prison of their wounds or were killed during the September Massacres that followed. Apart from about a hundred Swiss who escaped from the Tuileries, the only survivors of the regiment were a 300 strong detachment which had been sent to Normandy a few days before August 10. The Swiss officers were mostly amongst those massacred, although Major Karl Josef von Bachmann — in command at the Tuileries — was formally tried and guillotined in September, still wearing his red uniform coat. However two surviving Swiss officers went on to reach senior rank under Napoleon.

The initiative to create the monument was taken by Karl Pfyffer von Altishofen, an officer of the Guards who had been on leave in Lucerne at that time of the fight. He began collecting money in 1818. The monument was designed by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, and finally hewn in 1820–21 by Lukas Ahorn, in a former sandstone quarry near Lucerne.

The monument is dedicated Helvetiorum Fidei ac Virtuti (“To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss”). The dying lion is portrayed impaled by a spear, covering a shield bearing the fleur-de-lis of the French monarchy; beside him is another shield bearing the coat of arms of Switzerland. The inscription below the sculpture lists the names of the officers, and approximate numbers of the soldiers who died (DCCLX = 760), and survived (CCCL = 350).

The pose of the lion was copied in 1894 by Thomas M. Brady (1849–1907) for his Lion of Atlanta in the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia.

I hope you enjoyed the history lesson.

Creature Feature: Drow – Dark Elves

(cross-posted in part from my post on Beyond The Veil.)

As you know, I like to dabble in graphic art and turn some of my creations into wallpapers you can use on your computer. Just about every Wednesday (I miss some when I have other events going on), I give away a new one for free on this blog. Most of the time, they’re images depicting scenes or characters from my books, but not always. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, I featured a composition I did just for fun – a drow warrior maiden. It got me thinking, “what exactly is a drow and where did they come from?”

See, I don’t remember seeing drows in my childhood fairy tales. So I did a little research to figure out why they’re so popular now. Here’s what I found:

According to Wikipedia, the drow “is a mythical elf-like creature in Scottish folklore which lived in caves and forged magical metal work.” Further, “Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (1970) states: “Drow, n., [scot.].” The word is a variant of the Scots term “trow”, which itself derives from the Scandinavian word “troll”. The race itself seems based on another dark elf, specifically the Dökkálfar of Norse mythology.” If you look up “dark elves” you find that they were traditionally thought to live underground and look sort of like dwarves.

Interesting. So the term has been around a long time. But where do we get these sexy, black-skinned, white-haired creatures that are so popular now from? A little more digging reveals that a lot of that probably comes from Dungeons and Dragons. I’ve never been much of a gamer, but I do recally my brother playing D&D for a little while back in the day, when it first became popular. Again looking to Wikipedia, they describe drows the following way:

Within the context of the Dungeons & Dragons game, the drow were forced
underground in what is now known as the Underdark after the great war amongst the elves, a vast system of caverns and tunnels spanning much of the continent. The drow live in city-states in the Underdark, becoming one of the most powerful races therein.

The drow are well adapted to seeing in the dark, and they loathe the light of the surface. Some magic weapons, armor, and various other items of the drow disintegrate on contact with sunlight.

…

Drow characters are extremely intelligent, charismatic and dexterous, but share surface elves’ comparative frailty and slight frames. Females tend to be bigger and stronger than males. Drow are characterized by white or silver hair and obsidian black skin. Their eyes are red (or rarely gray, violet, or yellow) in darkness and green in normal light. Drow have several kinds of innate spell powers and spell resistance. This is balanced by their weakness in daylight. Also, drow weapons and armor (usually made of adamantite or another metal unique to the Underdark) slowly lose their magical properties if exposed to the sun.

In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons second edition, adamantite disintegrates upon exposure to sunlight unless specifically treated. Drow also employ the unusual hand crossbow, firing small, though very lethal, darts. Half-drow are the result of crossbreeding between another race and a drow, and share characteristics of both. (The term “half-drow” usually refers to one who is half drow and half human.) Half-drow are also generally evil; however, half-drow of differing alignments are more common than non-evil full drow.

Drow males are commonly wizards or fighters. Females are almost always clerics and almost never wizards.

…

As a race, drow are usually evil.

Artists and writers of fantasy have expanded from there, it seems. I haven’t written about any drow characters yet, but the idea is intriguing, isn’t it?

This image is one of the many free desktop wallpapers I’ve offered this year on this blog. This one  started out as an art project and turned into a research project. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little walk through drow origins as much as I. If you’re interested in my art, check out my blog on Wednesdays! If you’re interested in this image in particular, check out this post. There you’ll find a number of different sizes you can right click and save to your desktop. Enjoy!

Legends & Lore: Fairy Rings

First, here’s what Wiki has to say on the subject, in part:

A fairy ring, also known as fairy circle, elf circle or pixie ring, is a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms…Fairy rings also occupy a prominent place in European folklore as the location of gateways into elfin kingdoms, or places where elves gather and dance.

It is said that there are about 40 to 60 mushroom species which can grow in the fairy ring pattern. The best known is the edible Scotch bonnet (Marasmius oreades), which is commonly known as the fairy ring champignon.

One of the largest rings ever found is in France. Formed by Clitocybe geotropa, it is thought to be about 800 m in diameter and over 700 years old.

On the South Downs in southern England, Calocybe gambosa has formed huge fairy rings which appear to be several hundred years old.

…they are known as ronds de sorciers (“sorcerers’ rings”) in France, and hexenringe (“witches’ rings”) in German. In German tradition, fairy rings were thought to mark the site of witches’ dancing on Walpurgis Night, and Dutch superstition claimed that the circles show where the Devil set his milk churn. In the Tyrol, folklore attributed fairy rings to the fiery tales of flying dragons; once a dragon had created such a circle, nothing but toadstools could grow there for seven years. European superstitions routinely warned against entering a fairy ring. French tradition reported that fairy rings were guarded by giant bug-eyed toads that cursed those who violated the circles. In other parts of Europe, entering a fairy ring resulted in the loss of an eye. Outside of Europe, fairy rings are associated with diminutive spirits in the Philippines.

Scandinavian and Celtic traditions claimed that fairy rings are the result of elves or fairies dancing. Such ideas dated to at least the mediæval period; The Middle English term elferingewort (“elf-ring”), meaning “a ring of daisies caused by elves’ dancing” dates to the 12th century.

One of my favorite paintings is by the pre-Raphaelite artist, John William Waterhouse, depicting fairies dancing in a fairy ring.

Rings of all kinds are great devices when writing epic fantasy. I’ve used stone circles in my paranormal books as well. The circle is a powerful geometric shape and lends its special magic to fiction readily.

Whatever the scientific reason for mushrooms growing in a circle, it still seems somehow like magic. Even when the trick is revealed, we still marvel at the magician. In this case, even when science decides why these things happen, I think many of us will still be enchanted at the wonder of nature.

Although I’ve never seen a fairy ring in person, I’ve always wondered if I’d have the nerve to step into it if I somehow came across one. Would you?

Legends & Lore: Toadstools

I’ve always wondered where the word “toadstool” comes from. It turns out that the words toadstool an mushroom have been used interchangably for many, many years. However, most people seem to think of poisonous fungi as toadstools and the edible ones as mushrooms. Of course, it’s my no means settled. I assume different areas of the country or parts of the world will see it differently.

The Wiki entry on the subject conjectures that the word toadstool came from the association of poisonous toads with the poisonous fungi. I prefer to think of what I call the “Thumbelina” explanation. Even toads need a place to sit, don’t they?

Perhaps because of my visits to the Netherlands, I tend to associate the red toadstools with white dots with gnomes and fairies. It makes perfect sense to me that a frog prince would sit on a toadstool while holding court with his subjects of the forest. How about you?

Creature Feature: Selkies

Selkies are a mythological race of seals who shed their skin to take human form. According to one website, they are gentle creatures, with the ability to transform from seals into beautiful, lithe humans. Some tales say they could transform only once a year, usually Midsummer’s Eve, while others state it could be “every ninth night” or “every seventh stream”.

One thing common in most of the legends is the power of their seal skins. If the skins were stolen or lost, the selkie could never return to the sea. The hansome selkie males were blamed for dallying with mortal maids and were said to be very handsome indeed. Selkie women were often the tragic figures of trickery where a mortal man would steal her seal skin and force her to marry him. Often those legends ended sadly when one of her children would return the stolen skin and either return with her to the sea or stay with the human father on land forevermore.

Either way, selkies in human form were said to be beautiful and almost irresistable to the opposite sex. Maybe that’s why there have been a few romance novels with selkie heroes of late. Writers looking for new kinds of shapeshifters to write about have rediscovered the selkie and all the magic they possess.

Creature Feature: Wyvern

What is a wyvern? Looks like a dragon, right? But it’s not.

A wyvern has two limbs and two wings. Note that many Western dragons have four limbs and two wings, while Eastern dragons often have no wings, and four limbs. Wyverns also seem a bit more reptilian than dragons to me. Sometimes they have fish tails or barbed tails, and their limbs are more bird-like than a dragon’s.

They figure prominently in heraldry, as do dragons and unicorns. Sometimes they are described as having the head of a dragon and the tail of a snake. Personally, I may have plans for some fictional wyverns I can’t divulge just yet. For sure I’ve got dragons of all kinds in my books, but no wyverns… yet.

Creature Feature: Shapeshifters in Romance Fiction

Picking up where I left off when I last talked about cat shifters, today I’m contemplating the current popularity of shapeshifters in romance fiction. While werewolves are probably the most common and popular in romance fiction right now, there’s a lot of interest in other kinds of shifters as well. I, myself, have written dragon shifters (in The Ice Dragon and Prince of Spies) and a cougar shifter (Sweeter Than Wine).Here’s what Wiki says about shapeshifters: “Shapeshifting is a common theme in folklore, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. In its broadest sense, it is a change in the physical form or shape of a person or animal…shapeshifting involves physical changes such as alterations of age, gender, race, or general appearance or changes between human form and that of an animal, plant, or inanimate object…Shapeshifting may be used as a plot device, as when Puss In Boots tricks the ogre into changing into a mouse so he may eat him; it may also include a symbolic significance, as when the Beast’s transformation at the end of Beauty and the Beast indicates Beauty’s ability to accept him despite his appearance.”

I don’t think I’ve ever gone quite that far, though Lana’s discovery of Roland’s ability to shift from dragon to human form in The Ice Dragon does come as a bit of a surprise to her. I think it’s intriguing to find out there’s more to the person or animal one meets at the beginning of a novel. And the way those new revelations play into the story make it interesting and fantastical. Of late, I’ve really been enjoying writing a series of cat shifters in an urban fantasy setting that I hope to find a home for soon.

For some reason, cat shifters fire the imagination and make one think immediately of the pleasures of the flesh. Cats are sinuous, slinky and sexy, where wolves seem tough, mighty and all alpha. Cats on the other hand, have cunning, stealth, soft fur and a very sexy way of moving. Seems natural we romance writers would take them to our hearts and turn them into heroes and heroines in our flights of fantasy.

So out of curiosity, what’s your favorite form of shapeshifter, other than wolves? Dragons? Cats? Snakes? Sea creatures? What’s your take? Enquiring minds want to know!

Creature Feature: Cat Shifters

Cat shapeshifters offer a unique and interesting opportunity for fantasy writers. First, there are so many kinds of big cats to play with and many of them share common traits.      

In the genus Panthera, for example, are the lion, tiger, leopard and jaguar. These are the only big cats able to roar and are sometimes distinguished as the “great cats” to differentiate them from other big cats like the cheetah, snow leopard, clouded leopard, and cougar. Another little distinction is that the babies of the great cats are called cubs, while the babies of the other big cats are called kittens. (More on all of this minutiae can be found in the Wiki entry.)

The creature I find most interesting is the cougar. Bigger than the jaguar, but not considered a “great cat,” it goes by many names and roams most of the Americas. Also called Puma or Mountain Lion, these cats are huge and very efficient predators. They learn and adapt to their environment and the kinds of prey they find there. I saw a show on Animal Planet the other day on bighorn sheep in the Canadian wilderness. It turns out that scientists were able to discover that one particular cougar in the area had learned how to efficiently hunt the bighorn lambs and for the last two years of the cougar’s life, it ate almost nothing but mutton and put a big dent in the local bighorn population. But another cougar wasn’t as smart. It fell to its death off the rocky slopes while chasing a bighorn lamb and both were found dead at the bottom, killed by the fall. So it takes a sure-footed cougar to even attempt to hunt those kings of the mountain in their rocky, dangerous domain.

In my own writing, I’ve created a few different big cat shapeshifters. Many of you have already read about Matt Redstone, a character from my novel, Sweeter Than Wine. He’s a werecougar and has the cunning, speed and agility of the cat, even in human form. He’s also really sexy, just like the cat. In my little world, he’s the youngest of a group of cougar-shifter brothers and I plan to feature each of them in upcoming works. I’m also working on an urban fantasy world, inhabited by leopard and tiger shifters, as well as Others. More on that, when news becomes available.

For now, I continue my research into the ways these big cats are related and the fantasy of how to make them purrrrrrrrr.