Fantasy books certainly don't need any mythical creatures thrown into the mix, but doesn't it make it that bit more fun? My first published book with mythical creatures was Unicorns Rule. And, you guessed it, was about unicorns! It followed characters that I had invented back when I was in primary school, but I changed the story since then to make it (what I considered) better. When writing my unicorn character, I was carefully to keep to older myths and legends. None of that pooping rainbow rubbish! As always, I imagined what I would have wanted to read when I was younger. I design the books for a younger me, knowing that if I would have liked it, then there will be other children who enjoyed it too. The levellan, a very localised mythical creature, formed the basis for a story I wrote and serialised for my class in Lockdown. Check local stories to see if there is a creature you could use in your book. Other mythical creatures include the Nemean Lion (my own take on the lion ...
I know I've posted a couple of times already about this object, but today I'm adding an extra slant to it, exploring the myths and stories of mirrors and the supernatural. If you would like to read about how I came by the mirror in the first place, have a look at this blog . I've wondered multiple times if this object was a great big hoax - certainly, there seems to be nothing about John and Ann anywhere - but it almost doesn't matter. The wood, the nails and the glass itself are all of a decent age, and there is no impossibility in the eyes of a writer. Recently, I was struck by how much light the stained and marked surface produces. One night, on a near-full moon, it was enough to throw a long stretch of light about twenty times its own size across the room. It must have seemed equally frightening and enthralling for people in the past, that this flat, cold surface could redirect not only light but heat. But mirrors were not readily available for many people until ve...