It's true that the title of this blog does not look like anything to do with historical fiction, but the equilibrium between wildlife and humanity was not always so precarious as it is now. Finding the balance which existed at the time you're writing can be a very useful tool to setting a believable background for your writing. So here are a few mammal considerations... Wild mammals were everywhere - they still are, in fact! Whether you're writing about the middle of a city or the middle of nowhere, it should be a given that these animals will influence life. As well as the obvious and frequently maligned rats and mice, other mammals have cohabited our cities with us. Foxes have always had a partially urban existence, and the building of cities on waterways also often lead to otters and (depending on how far inland they were) seals being resident. Mankind knew how to find wild mammals - there is a continuous development in the scientific study of our wild mammals and this...
Tomorrow (Thursday 1st March) is World Book Day! At school, we are supposed to be dressing up as book characters but we had a snow day today so I'm wondering if school will open tomorrow. To honour, World Book Day, I thought I would write about 2 children's novels (1 today, the other tomorrow) that I have serialised for my Primary 4 class. I will also write a lesson plan for each, which I will post on Friday. The 1st novel I read to them was "First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts" by Lari Don. This is a great book for adults and children (I first read this when I was studying at university and loved it!). It is about a girl in Southern Scotland who meets a young centaur and his friends who have done something foolish that could threaten fabled beasts and humans alike. It's a book full of suspense and adventure. Here is the blurb from Goodreads: "Helen has absolutely no interest in becoming a vet like her mother. So she isn't best plea...