Lindsay McCafferty's Blog, page 2

A Dark Horizon Cover Reveal

Coming soon, Axes and Wings: A Dark Horizon!

Here is the amazing cover that was designed by MiblArt. A Dark Horizon is an epic fantasy filled with action, adventure, a bit of romance, dragon riders, and dragons.

A Dark Horizon Cover Reveal Teaser

The cover of my new book, Axes and Wings: A Dark Horizon, will be revealed in a couple of days! Cover designed by MiblArt.

A Fantasy Author’s Search History: When was parchment invented?

Parchment, which is made from animal skin, was developed in the 2nd century BC in the Greek city of Pergamum. It had mostly replaced papyrus and was widely used before paper became popular.

A Favorite Fantasy Series: Inheritance

Inheritance by Christopher Paolini is another one of my favorite fantasy series. It was the first one I read with friendly dragons. It had the same feel as Lord of the Rings, and I didn’t find anything else like it until House of the Dragon. Even though the books are large, I flew through them and greatly enjoyed the adventures and the characters. It definitely inspired my writing later on.

Journal Entries Part 10

This would have been my sophomore year in high school, and yes, most of the time it was a blow-off class with plenty of time to write, read, or work on homework. I remember that we watched a lot of movies in that class, so I half paid attention to the movie and half focused on other things. Writing almost everything by hand was more out of necessity than by choice. I also used to like to draw things from the books, although I’m not a good artist. If I could trace something, like horses, I d...

A Fantasy Author’s Search History: When was paper invented?

Modern paper made from wood wasn’t established until the 1790s in America. In AD 105 in China, paper made from materials such as hemp, rags, and fishnets was invented. Linen and cotton rags were also used as raw materials, and it switched over to wood pulp as demand grew.

A Book’s Journey: Part 13

Chapter 13 in E1 is chapter 15 in E2. The chapter was very similar to the final version, with lots of little bits that were changed or cut out. I wish I had known to use Grammarly when I first wrote the book because there are plenty of red lines under mistakes in the E1 version.

Reminder: My notes will be in italicized red font, and the text from E1 will be in black. E1 refers to edition one, and E2 refers to edition two.

13

Aria and Jayce eventually make their way back down to...

Landaro Quote

This quote from Landaro from Reawakened Flames is one of my favorites. I wanted to include the physical bursting into flames of the phoenixes and the metaphorical bursting into flames inside, no matter how much life tries to beat you down. This goes for every character in the books, even the phoenixes.

A Fantasy Author's Search History: Nature and Animals

Writing fantasy books is more than knowing about weapons, armor, and medieval life. A lot of fantasy stories take place deep in the natural world. Mine, especially, because I have animal characters.

I had to look up information about cougars and leopards for my panther characters, scarlet ibises and eagles for the phoenixes, and I learned more about wolves than I thought I knew. I also had to learn more about caves and mountains for Ehckrist and temperate forests on which to base Lythannen.

A Fantasy Author's Search History: Were there any fireproof materials worn in medieval times?

I looked this up specifically for my dragon books out of curiosity. The best answer I could find was that they actually did make clothes with asbestos, but I don’t feel comfortable having my characters use such a toxic substance if it’s not necessary. Leather can also be fire resistant to a point.