Mythological Creature Category

Featured Creature: Vampires – Sparkly, Bloodsucking Butterflies

March 5th, 2012 | No Comments » | Posted in Mythological Creature

I found him. Quite by accident, but I found him. I bet you didn’t think he existed. That you thought they were first. The missing link. The beginning.

The very first sparkly vampire!

Beef from Phantom of the Paradise

I have no problem with sparkly vampires. It’s perfect for branding. Whenever you hear “sparkly vampires”, you think “Twilight.” (Whether you think “yay Twilight” or “oh god no Twilight” is another issue.)

Read the rest of this entry »

The “404 Creature Not Found” Error in Urban Fantasy

February 27th, 2012 | No Comments » | Posted in Mythological Creature, Setting

Photo by Jan Messersmith

A character just said: “[This Creature] doesn’t exist.”

Blink. Gasp.

[This Creature] could be demons or ghosts or leprechaun. I’ll refuse to believe. Okay, I’ll believe leprechaun don’t exist, but anything else is fair game.

The author doesn’t make a character say this to build the tension. Oh no, demons can’t possibly exist — except they do and we have to come to grips with it in time to save everyone. Or a demon can’t possibly do that — except it is doing that right now and it’s killing everyone and can we go and kill it now because it is happening and people are dying.

Nope, the author is drawing the line to build their world. Vampires exist, incubi exist, but demons? Nope. That’s just human superstition.

Read the rest of this entry »

How I Use Pinterest for Writing

January 4th, 2012 | No Comments » | Posted in Character Development, Mythological Creature

So I tried to think up a new character, starting with their species. I didn’t want to go with anything too standard… like kitsune. Kitsune has become my standard first-thought creature, even before vampire and catboy. You know me, I always want to try something new.

And I couldn’t think of a darn one. My mind utterly blanked.

Read the rest of this entry »

Thirteen Japanese Superstitions

December 10th, 2011 | No Comments » | Posted in Mythological Creature

Photo by Kittenpuff1

Every culture has it’s superstitions (even the ones that balk at such things). Some of them can be really fun, and others… not so much. With number thirteen for example, you could match it with a low birth rate that year.

And why thirteen? Just because it’s an unlucky number ;)

 

 

 

Read the rest of this entry »

Who is Tsukiyomi?

December 5th, 2011 | No Comments » | Posted in Mythological Creature

Photo by Dave

So what, or rather, who is Tsukiyomi? I’ve named my blog after him and more than a few people visit this blog to learn more about him. I haven’t written about who he is before, even though I’ve wanted to, because he’s just so gosh darn difficult to encapsulate. Since there’s so little (in English) about him, you need to fill in the gaps a little.

Read the rest of this entry »