Starting a New Series from research for Talking Animals

 I'm writing my first post about animals. I'm planning to have some talking faery animals in my series. I know talking animals sounds childish, to some people, but they are a frequent part of faery tales and folklore about faery. Also, I really like animals. Since I'm a biology teacher I want my talking animals to feel like they are real animals given the ability to talk. That requires a deep understanding of the animals and a bit of research, which is where my blog comes into the picture since this is supposes to be research overflow.

Since I love mythology I will include some mythology about the animals. Hopefully this will help me distill human reactions to them to try to understand their essence, what they feel like to be around for those who are familiar with them and those who aren't. I'm hoping this will help imagine what it would be like to be one. I want to be biologically accurate, but that may bore some people, so I also want the personality of the animals to be relate-able and interesting for readers and to work into the plot of the story. So I can't be too limited by science, either. I'll have to try to strike a balance often found in science fiction between scientifically accurate and fictionally plot worthy.

I'm currently reading a great book that includes a “talking” cat that I'm enjoying thoroughly: Jim Butcher's Areonaut's Windlass. An older series that has two talking “cats” and a talking “dog” is Garth Nix's Abhorsen series. I highly recommend both. Here's a link to my Good Read's review of them.

I plan to use the format:

Animal -

Classification - Scientific name -

Genus -

Family -

Order -

Essence -

Unusual traits -

Voice -

Relationship with humans -

Domestication -

Uses -

Issues -

Relationship with nature -

Food -

Other animals -

Plants -

Habitat -

Predators –

Shelter -

Populations –

Life cycle -

Average length of life -

Average size -

Average gestation length -

Number of offspring -

Average age to maturity -

Mythology -

General -

Culturally Specific -

Modern view of -

Examples of specific myths:

If you have any requests or suggestions for other categories in the above format or of other good fantasy books with animals as main characters, please share.

Also I'd love to hear what you think about talking animals in Young Adult or Adult literature.