Anne Woodland

Something that annoys me, as made apparent by my previous mermaid related rant, is fantasy anatomy that doesn't account for the actual movements necessary for the modifications or additional appendages to be useful. The addition of wings, to otherwise human characters commonly suffers from this pitfall.  For whatever reason, generations of writers have attached wings to the shoulder blades. If you were dealing with insect based wings, such as those of a dragonfly, bee, or butterfly, as commonly found in descriptions of fey folk such as pixies, it isn't so much an issue as the mechanics involved in their flight are distinctly different from those of bird or bat wings.   For characters with bird or bat-like wings however, the range of motion needed to actually fly isn't possible if the wings sprout from the shoulder blades. These wings are attached to the animals body from the glenohumeral joint, or where our arms attach to our torsos, and need the same range of motion as o...

      I spent almost a decade of my life wanting to be a marine biologist. (It started because the ocean is beautiful and terrifying and I wanted to conquer some of my fear. The reason it lasted so long is that I am prone to obsession and have stubbornness issues.) As a result of spending so long learning about fish and whales, etc. I have developed a major problem with mermaids. Well, merpeople. It's not limited to the females.          The issue isn't that they're creatures of legend. No, my issue is that they're supposedly part-fish, but traditionally the way they're anatomically portrayed they would be mammals. If you've ever taken the time to observe differences between marine mammals and fish, there is one very obvious difference that can be noted from a distance.  Dolphins, whales, manatees all have tail fins that are horizontal and provide thrust with an up and down movement.  Sharks and all other fish have vertical tails th...