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.