Site(s) of the Week - Fantasy Factor and SFSignal.com

It's been a hectic day, but here I am (as promised) with my sites of the week. The first one is Fantasy Factor. (Which I belive to be a sub-site of FictionFactor, since that appears in the web address.) While the site as a whole has some fun stuff, I'm going to concentrate on an article aimed at creating flora and fauna for your fantasy world. There are some great links at the bottom of the article for research as well.

Personally, I LOVE to create new creatures and humanoid species to populate my fantasy stories/novels. :-) (One of my current novellas-in-progress is thus far populated with several different species of animal and the main character is of a humanoid race called the Nachtrodeur.) However, the article brings up some valid points about remembering to include more than just the fear-inducing, flesh-devouring predators that are hunting your MC at every opportunity.

As an example from the above mentioned novella, the spotted herten plays an important role in the survival of the MC. Not only in this novella, but in the next one of the trilogy as well. It's a deer-like creature, hooved and light of foot. (It's name is actually the German word for deer.) ;-) There are two main species of mount/pack animals, the jorens (think of a muskox and a buffalo hybrid that smells worse than a skunk) and the laveche (about horse size, with four horns and blue eyes, they emit a shrill whistle when alarmed). The only non-sentient predator this world has so far is the akidar, a large cat that lives in the mountains, has teeth similar to a sabertooth tiger and poisoned claws. (Fun Fact - SBT's have been theorized to have been scavengers because their long teeth may  have prevented them from biting down hard enough to kill prey. Thanks Discovery Channel.)

But, I digress, the article is a fun read (just ignore that the author uses "you're" instead of "your" in at least one instance).

Fantasy Factor also includes a link to a list of mythological creatures at the bottom of the articles page - also highly recommended if you are looking for inspiration. I read the first listing for the Adaro (which I'd never heard of in my mythological studies) and was hooked. ;-P

Alrighty then, moving on to site number two -  SFSignal.com, or more specifically their article asking well-known Sci-Fi authors about the best writing advice they've ever received. Fun read, and informative too.
For example; Patricia Briggs received her most valuable writing advice from a movie starring Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito. Huh, who'd a thunk it? ;-)

Ok, I'm losing focus. My stummy is rumbling because it's 8:00 and I haven't eaten dinner yet. Hope you enjoy the articles and exploring the sites of the week. :-)