Friday, April 1, 2011

A: Animals In Fiction

The first books I fell in love with were all animals.  I read Walter Farley's Black Stallion series over and over again along with many favorite dog tales.  I fell in love with fantasy during my early teens but I never forgot my love for those magnificent horses and heroic dogs. 

When I first started writing, I thought I wanted to write books like the ones I enjoyed so much in my elementary years.  That didn't work out.  Instead I started out with a fantasy romance series with very few animals involved.  My second romance series is a different matter.  More about that in a later post.

My epic fantasy series, The Futhark Chronicles, features humans and elves as well as all types of demon creatures.  But I couldn't stop myself from writing a wonderful horse into the novels.  Bayard is the name of a horse of legend known for adjusting his size to carry his rider and also being able to understand human speech.  The horse in my novel only understands the speech of his half-elf master and he can't adjust his size but he is trained in battle.  He has a great personality and I think my readers will love him as much as I love the Black Stallion.

Do you enjoy animals as characters in books you read or write?  Did you read animal centric stories when you were younger?

14 comments:

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

A great start to the challenge, I love animals small or large, I found your blog very impressive,
Good luck with the other 25 posts....I'll be back during the month,

Yvonne,

mooderino said...

One of my favourite books as a chold was A Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.


Moody Writing Blog

Linda Leszczuk said...

I loved stories about animals when I was younger, especially horses. The Black Stallion, Flame, Black Beauty, etc. Since I'm doing urban sci fi, I haven't found a way to work them into my writing. Need to work on that.

Sherri Lackey said...

I did read animal centric books as a kid. I especially like the ones with cats as the main characters. As an adult I don't really write stories with many animals in them. In the third book in my trilogy that I'm working on now I just added a dog named Nambu. I picture him as a big black lab. He has no special abilities other than annoying one of my characters, who of course will grow to love him over time. Happy writing in the A-Z Challenge!

Bossy Betty said...

What a wonderful idea to start the challenge!

Luana Krause said...

Susan: I've always loved books and films about horses. One of my fave horse films is "The Black Stallion" and horse book "The Horse and His Boy." Looking forward to following you on the challenge.

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Thanks for the kind comments,

Yvonne,

Shelli said...

I'm thinking Island of the Blue Dolphins, Where the Red Fern Grows, and White Fang. Also, one of my favorite books that I still remember everything but the name was about a boy who lives with a badger.

Anonymous said...

I have always loved books with animals. Two of my faves include BLACK BEAUTY and CALL OF THE WILD.

Nice to meet you, Susan!

Cate Masters said...

I love animals in books, and have incorporated some of my own dogs, cats and my old horse into my stories. They're no longer here but it's one way of remembering them.

Ava Quinn said...

I loved animal books as a youngster, as well. I can remember reading THE WHITE STALLION OF LIPIZZA several times.

But I also loved to read about mythical Greek creatures/animals. Cerberus, Pegasus, Chimera, et al.

Thanks for taking me back to my childhood, Sue! Great start to your A-Z!!

C R Ward said...

I loved the Black Stallion books when I was a kid. I was lucky that our library had the whole series.

Anonymous said...

I LOVE animal characters! Those were my favorite books as a kid, and I'll still read them today. I've only just discovered the Redwall series by Brian Jacques and the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. I love them, but for me the classics will always be Charlotte's Web and an underappreciated book called The House of Thirty Cats by Mary Calhoun.
I'm so glad to have discovered your blog with the A to Z challenge.

Lisa said...

Yes! Charlotte's web was my first real favorite "reading" book when I was young. Can't tell you how many times I read it! Loving A.J.'s idea of a Throwback Thursday post for the A to Z this year! Lisa, co-host AtoZ 2015, @ http://www.lisabuiecollard.com