Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Swords, Warhorses and Magic - Oh My

These are my favorite subjects and I love talking about them. If anyone has a question, I'd be thrilled to try to answer it. In most of my books, Swords are prevalent so I've done a lot of research, plus I know someone who teaches it for a living and he's done a wonderful job of answering some of my inane questions. I also grew up around horses and I think I've explored a good deal to do with them. Then there's magic: That is also prevalent in my books; I've taken great pleasure in experimenting with different rules.

The discussion is open - Let's hear it for fiction.

Tags: Magic, fiction, swords, warhorses

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sean Falconer on February 9, 2010 at 3:43pm

Sounds like we have alot in common my first book will be realeased very soon and the name of it is Mages and Soldiers.

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on February 9, 2010 at 11:32pm

Cool! So tell me a little about it - if you're inclined.

Permalink Reply by scribbler on February 25, 2010 at 3:00am

Interesting topic! What are your weapons of choice then Anna and Sean and what made you choose those? Are they real or fictitious?

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on February 25, 2010 at 3:16am

For me it's a gee I wish sort of thing but my characters mostly use a straight double-edged sword and occasionally the claymore style.

Permalink Reply by Sean Falconer on February 25, 2010 at 3:09pm

my choice of weapons for my characters varies greatly but the two handed broad sword and staff are my two most common. some of my characters use dual swords as well. with the exception of the staff which are magical in nature I would think most sword types would have been found in the middle ages.

Permalink Reply by Buster LaFrance on August 18, 2011 at 5:23am

I know I'm about 6 months late to this discussion, here goes. Who knows, maybe this will get the conversation going again. A lot of what I know about magic and weaponry comes from years of playing Dungeons & Dragons. In fact, Darithye, the world in which my first book, DARK VENGEANCE, is set was originally created for D&D. After long years, I decided my world should be shared with the real world. For reasons unknown to me, I love the scimitar. Maybe it's just the name.....scimitar. That said, I try to spread it around, so my stories tend to feature several different types of weapons. Another fave of mine is the bardiche, which is basically a giant axe. One thing I love about magic is the fact that you can pretty much write your own rules.

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on August 18, 2011 at 7:05am

Hello Buster. I love Dungeons & Dragons, though I haven't played in years, not since the kids moved to town. Kinda hard to play with just two, especially when computer games are the main competition. Tried playing over the phone but it didn't really work out that well. I still use many of the little background rules in making some of the decisions in my story, such as how long it takes to travel somewhere. That's really a handy little table.

Magic - I totally love playing with different rules and making myself obey them.

Permalink Reply by David Kilama on July 19, 2012 at 3:08pm

I also love magic, supernatural, sophisticated horrors which involved extreme scenes. By the way, i would like to find out from you how far we are supposed to travel while creating worst horrors with extremely graphic scenes, too shocking.

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on July 19, 2012 at 4:37pm

I may not be the one to ask this, but horror is very fast paced. Minutes are what are being counted, so distances would be very short.

Permalink Reply by Mariah de la Croix on July 21, 2012 at 9:54pm

Hi Anna,

I didn't know you liked the stickey-poke stuff, a.k.a. sword-n-shield! Awesome!!!!

I don't know if you know about a medieval recreationist group called the Society for Creative Anachronism. They have chapters all over the world, including in your area. To them, you are in the Kingdom of the West, in the Principality of Oertha. Here's a link to their page and, if you contact them, they may give you some great ideas for weaponry that you may not know about - http://oertha.westkingdom.org/History/history.html . I would suggest to anyone interested in weaponry of the medieval era that they contact their local SCA chapter to get tons of information that is historically accurate, along with having some fun, too. SCA members, the Knights especially, are very serious about what they do, oftentimes able to lead you to primary documentation for great details on things, which may add even more color and depth to your tales - which I think are awesome, by the way.

I'm sure you've got tons of sources, but I thought I'd just share this one with you. They are an educational group that is internationally sanctioned, so they LOVE to share their knowledge with mundanes (non-SCA folk). Just be warned that they don't deal in fiction or D&D things - they're historical and serious about what they do, but also very accessible and helpful.

Have fun!

Mariah

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on July 22, 2012 at 4:08am

Thanks so much, Mariah. I'll have to check out that link. I, of course, write fiction, and I use a lot of D&D information, but I like my weapons to be as accurate as possible.

Permalink Reply by Mariah de la Croix on July 22, 2012 at 7:42am

I'll bet that you'd like those fight scenes to be kind of fun, too, Anna. If the Knights of the West Kingdom are as fun and "into it" as the Knights here in Atenveldt, I'm sure they'll fill you in on what it feels like to wield a sword - or polearm, battleaxe, short-sword, or any number of fun things. They are a font of knowledge. Have fun! :)