Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

castles

Stop, drop and research – sometimes you need the answer right now!

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Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

In March, I started a new series. It’s not really a series
as each novel can standalone, but they are all set in the same world of the Solstice
Dragon. What they have in common is setting, and there is a solstice dragon
that is key to each book.
As I’ve been writing them, I’ve had to stop now and then to
research. Sometimes the research has required an hour or more of reading and
notetaking, such as when I was researching castle building. Other times, I’m
searching for a word or term appropriate to the time or I need to know if a
certain item or clothing would have been used in the 1700s which is the time
period these books are loosely set in, largely just for reference as the world
of solstice dragons is a creation not an actual place on known Earth.
So what have been these little items that take a minute or
two of sleuthing about the internet? That is what this post is about. Just this
week, I have tracked down the following words.

  • What are the three walls that make up the back
    of a fireplace that keeps the heat from damaging the building called? Firebox.

    Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
  • Parts of a horse – namely the withers: the high
    point between the shoulder blades of a horse
  • A particular roof style that has roofing angled
    on all four sides versus say an A-frame: that’s a hip roof.

  • What is the difference between trousers, pants
    and breeches? Trousers go to the ankle whereas breeches stop at the knee and
    are often tied about the waist to keep them up. Pants? Apparently, those
    reference panties in the time period I’m working with. Definitely don’t need to
    mention the lady’s undergarments at inappropriate times.

  • Grains – these took a little more time as I was
    looking into identifying both a grain as well as having a picture to aid
    in describing it properly.
  • A picture of a stove. There’s a kitchen, so, of
    course, I needed to get a good impression of what a stove of the Solstice Dragon
    World would likely look like and how it should operate.

    Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

That’s all folks. Do you stop and search for scraps of
knowledge when you realize you’re missing some information? What did you
search for this week that you thought was pretty interesting?
#words
#writing
#fantasy

When you gotta build a castle, research is the answer

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Every time I start a new novel, I find myself researching a variety of items, especially with the fantasy novels I’ve been writing lately. I have selected the 1700s as my template years for technology, clothing, architecture, and transportation.

Picture credit: Okamatsu Fujikawa from on Unsplash

Since drafting my newest fantasy novel, I’ve found the need to increase my areas of research. Castles. I need to know more about castles, especially, older castles versus new versions, defensibility determined by terrain, and terminology and personnel.

Research is a double-edged sword. It needs to be done, but if you’re like me, it is easy to get sidetracked by interesting sites, such as the following site which actually BUILDS castles. BUILDS them! CastleMagic Castle Building. At first I thought it was a spoof that would turn out to be about building paper castles. The drawings were pencil sketches, and the video showing an example of the building process reminded me of Minecraft. But then I looked at their other pictures and videos. They BUILD castles. So you see I did get a bit sidetracked and for good reason. Too bad I don’t have the money to have them build me a castle. They do a really good job and can include secret passages. Hmm, secret passages.

This is a site I found for terminology called appropriately Castle Terminology.  Every term I could possibly need, their definitions and alternatives seem to be on this site. Though I don’t intend to be dropping castle terms all over my draft, I know I should refer to specific parts of castles correctly.

I toured two castles about ten years ago, both in Sweden which is helpful as the location of the castle in my novel is in mountainious terrain and very cold.

Laying out my castle is my biggest issue. I need to configue it to fit the story but stay within the standards of castles. Thus the following site is useful. It supplied a variety of layouts of castles and the reasoning behind them. Medieval Castle Layout. It’s proving useful as I plan out my version. I’ll probably have to plan out two more as well. Hmm, a castle building author is never done.

You know, I have to make room for a dragon in my castle. But enough about my research.

What research are you doing lately, and what about it sidetracks you?