Tag Archives: fantasy

A few words on concepts that don’t exist in the real world

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When you build a fantasy world, chances are there’ll be concepts that don’t exist in the real world and that you’ll have to name. A concept that comes up frequently in fantasy worlds, is one that characters with magic have a means of transporting themselves from one place to another. Here are a few examples:

  • In the Harry Potter books, wizards and witches apparate (and disapparate).
  • In Shawna Reppert’s urban fantasy Ravensblood series, mages can teleport.
  • Dina von Lowenkraft chose shift for her book Dragon Fire.
  • In my manuscript Mage Girl, characters relocate.

How you name this power is up to you—you can use an acknowledged term (teleport), you can invent your own term (apparate), or you can change the meaning of an existing word (relocate).

The basic concept is the same, but each author defines their own set of rules governing the use of this power. For example, you have to know the place where you are going or use a person who is in that place as an “anchor” (Ravensblood), you have to practice and pass an exam (Harry Potter), if you’re exhausted it can go wrong or not work at all, only certain people (mostly mages/wizards) can do it…

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Time keeping in a fantasy or sci-fi world

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When establishing your fantasy or sci-fi world, one element to take into account is time keeping. I already mentioned it in my post on anachronisms, but the way people measure the passing of time will influence their daily lives and therefore impact in one way or another in your story.
You don’t necessarily have to flesh out all the details of your world’s time measurement to your reader, as Tolkien did in Lord of the Rings (Appendix D), but you as the writer have to know them.

Is time measurement as accurate as in our world? If not, what would people say instead of “give me a minute” and how would they make appointments? Would they refer to the sun (mid-day) or the moon, for example?
In Ancient Rome, the day was made up of twelve “hours” of equal length between sunrise and sunset. As the length of days varies, so did the length of these hours.
In Monica Hughes’ fantasy duology Sandwriter/The Promise, a ten-day is the equivalent of our seven-day week.

Does your world have an equivalent of weekdays, and how are they named? Are there days that are different from the others (like our Sundays or Sabbath), or is every day the same unless it’s a special holiday?

If your story is set on a different planet, astronomy comes into the equation:
How does that planet orbit its sun? Is there more than one sun? Are there moons, and how many? Does the planet have seasons?
Also, are your characters natives of that planet and naturally use the astronomical references for time keeping? Or are they colonists from Earth and try to stick to Earth time measurements? If they have been there for several generations, have they kept it up, or are they gradually shifting to adopt the natural references of their new home?

If your story is set in space, do your characters follow Earth time-keeping? (Astronauts on the ISS, who are in close contact with Earth, work on GMT.) Or have they established a generic time-keeping system? Are they even from Earth?

All this will play into your story, as it has a direct impact on how your characters think, speak, and generally manage their time (or not).

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Book post: A DRAGONBIRD IN THE FERN

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Cover Design by Sarah Taplin

You know I’m a bit of a language nerd, right? I’m trilingual, live in Paris, raise my kid in German, and write in English (all the while learning Italian and listening to podcasts in Plattdüütsch, my granny’s mother tongue.) So show me a book where languages are involved, and I’ll make a grab for it without bothering to find out more.

Laura Rueckert’s YA fantasy novel A DRAGONBIRD IN THE FERN is one of those books, even though her protagonist Jiara is my opposite – where I would have thrown myself into learning a new language in full immersion mode, Jiara has given up on learning languages due to dyslexia and years of scholarly struggles. Still, her motivation is the life-and-death kind, not only for herself but for her loved ones as well. For if she doesn’t find her sister’s murderer in that foreign country where she doesn’t understand anyone, her sister’s ghost may well kill all of her family, starting with Jiara herself. If the killer doesn’t get Jiara first, that is.
As if that weren’t enough, Jiara doesn’t just have to travel to the faraway land where she doesn’t understand anyone to look for her sister’s murderer, she has to marry the king of that country. Can you imagine being married to someone you can’t communicate with on top of hunting down a murderer?
Add to that awesome world building, and you have A DRAGONBIRD IN THE FERN.

Curious? Here’s all the info you need to get your hands on the book which released on August 3, 2021.

To buy A Dragonbird in the Fern:
Schuler Books
Bookshop.org
Barnes & Noble
Indiebound
Amazon
Books-A-Million
Flux
Target
Blackwell’s
Book Depository
Genialokal
Bücher, Medien und Mehr

About the author
Laura Rueckert is a card-carrying bookworm who manages projects by day. At night, fueled by European chocolate, she transforms into a writer of young adult science fiction and fantasy novels. Laura grew up in Michigan, USA, but a whirlwind romance after college brought her to Europe. Today, she lives in Germany with her husband, two kids, and one fluffy dog.


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Beware of anachronisms

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When I’m reading, one thing that’ll jolt me out like nothing else is anachronisms. Please do your research and make sure that nothing is out of place/time.

Time itself is a prime example of anachronisms in stories set in the past or in fantasy settings inspired by the past. In a medieval setting (which is also still very popular in fantasy), even though there are clocks in church towers or secular public buildings, people are unlikely to carry a time piece around with them and say “We’ll meet again in 30 minutes” or even “Wait a minute”. (Unless otherwise specified in your fantasy world building, of course.)

Another example of an anachronism is the mention of electricity passing between the protagonist and the love interest in a book set in Ancient Rome. It jolted me so much out of the story that I haven’t read any of the other books by the author, even though I’m a huge fan of Ancient Rome stories.

You don’t want that to happen with your readers, do you?

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