Three creatures that I considered pitching didn’t make it as far as me offering them for the Magonomia Bestiary. They’re still suitable for your table, but not right for the tone of this book. This is the last episode for the Bestiary Kickstart: it ends on November 24 at 9:00 (US) EST. George, the Minotaur…
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Cut plot hooks relating to sexual violence
I took over the unicorn and basilisk after another author had to step aside from this project, and initially I wrote them both closely tied to folklore. The unicorn needed a serious rework after I’d finished it. I didn’t get past our sensitivity reader because I was working the “virginity” angle as a plot hook.…
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The Street Cry of the Afanc Egg Seller
I took a few liberties with the history of street cries here. Let’s step back for some context. The biggest market in London during the reign was Stocks Market. If you’re looking for its historic site, due to one of those twists of history, it is underneath Mansion House, the formal residence of the Lord…
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Beer, satyrs, and lions
Satyrs are a problem. We wanted them for Magonomia., because they turn up in the folklore. They are, however, really rapey. That’s also considered a bit humorous in some period work. So, we wanted satyrs, but without any of the baggage. I took it three ways to get there. Satyrs change form over time. The…
Read MoreSources for the Magonomia Bestiary
Well, for my parts, anyway. Afanc egg seller songAside from “Who will buy?” from the musical Oliver! which owes a bit to Cherry Ripe by Robert Herrick, this ditty goes back to the histories of London street cries. The earliest one recorded is in a poem called The London Lickpenny by John Lydgate. I also…
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The Two Sisters – A tale of murder and haunting
Although it is disguised a little with variants, the creature called Eala in the Magonomia Bestiary is the haunted harp found in one of the most popular folksongs of the British Isles. To keep things English, which was the remit of the book, I deliberately used a variant from Berwickshire, but we can look at…
Read MoreWhere did you get your ideas?
It’s the basic question everyone asks, so here are my answers for this project. Afanc egg seller songAside from “Who will buy?” from the musical Oliver! which owes a bit to Cherry Ripe by Robert Herrick, this ditty goes back to the histories of London street cries. The earliest one recorded is in a poem called The London Lickpenny by John…
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The Demons of the Hooting Cairn
Kenidjack, the demon who oversees the wrestling in Cornwall, has been briefly mentioned on the blog before, as a minor character in some Ars Magica material, but here’s his complete story from Hunt’s “Popular Romances of the West of England”. It starts with a quotation from an older work, where our fellow is mentioned, in…
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A second thought on Urban Wisps
This is a short piece, compared to some of the others for the Bestiary series. My goals for the wisps were straightforward, so I got there without a lot of surplus material. When I wrote the urban wisps for the Magonomia Bestiary I wanted to introduce the Royal Exchange and suggest that the creatures were…
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Malkins
Malkins appear in a variety of books in the period. I took the name from the cat familiar in a play called “The Witch” by Thomas Middleton. “Malkin” is a period diminutive of the name “Maud” or “Matilda”, popular for cats. Middleton notes the play was “ill-fated” and that was thought for some time to…
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Games From Folktales 