Ellery Duncan asked Jane Lindskold:

Hi! When I read your books I loved the way that nonhuman characters were distinct from humans in their speech patterns. What was your process was on writing characters like Blind Seer and the other speaking animals. How do you get inside the mindset of an animal in order to write them? What are the significant differences between writing an animal character that speaks, and a human character?

Jane Lindskold When I write speaking animals, I try to think about how their different senses would influence the way the way they perceive the world. For example, humans are very sight and hand oriented. This is reflected in all sorts of little phrases: "I see your point" (see = understand or comprehend) "Lend me a hand" (meaning "assist me"). With creatures that depend on other senses and don't have hands, I strive to avoid those sort of human perceptions and substitute how they would think.

Writing Sand Shadow in Artemis Awakening presents a different sort of challenge. Her link with Adara is telepathic rather than linguistic. It's a relatively new link, so they're still building a vocabulary. Sometimes, I "shorthand" with words, especially when the communication is something they would have worked out early on. ("I'm on my way!" "Wait!") In other cases, I try to mix in the images they would use, once again keeping mind that Sand Shadow perceives very differently than a human would.

Thanks for a great question!

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