Tomato Tomahto Yumblie

Word Cloud from COLONY UNDER SIEGE

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is our favorite and least favorite ways the language is changing.

(Looks at topic, pokes it with a stick, turns it over and then upside down…)

Yeah, not a subject I give any thought to. I use language, I write books using language and I’m happy to learn and utilize new terms.

When I see a term being used in social media that I’m not sure of, I – what else? – google it. 

In the case of my title today, I googled synonyms for tomato and - oh my - a lot of them are red cheek inducing but this one was fun...

Yumblie: "Yumblies are small red creatures found in Bubblegloop Swamp in Banjo-Kazooie. They pop up out of the ground in the minigame Eat More Yumblies or Grumblies than Mr. Vile, where Banjo (as a crocodile) must consume more Yumblies and/or Grumblies than Mr. Vile"

Apparently they are deemed to look tomato-like. Amazing what a google search will bring you. I also found 'jumblies' from an 1871 poem. But I'm getting sidetracked here which is what happens when an author does research online!

I’m happy to invent new terms for my science fiction romance novels and to create words for my alien languages from syllables that sound good to me. I also have given my various characters different kinds of universal translators. Here's a sample from MATEER: A Badari Warriors SciFi Romance Novel: A tiny chiming sounded from the edge of the table, drawing her attention as the three alien males sat. A discrete display blinked at her in thin air, hovering below the tabletop, offering six choices, one of which was Basic. Hastily, she clicked that one—the only recognizable thing on the display—with her index finger and was rewarded with voices in her ear, apparently translating what the others were saying. The selection menu disappeared. She glanced at the men, but they were ignoring her, so either no one cared if she now understood them or the scientists were unaware the conference room had offered her the amenity. Schooling her face to be blank and bored, she sat and waited.

My attention can be briefly caught by some fascinating linguistic trivia, like the amazing @HaggardHawks serves up daily on twitter.  Here’s a sample tweet from Friday: In 17th century English, an EGG-WIFE TROT was a fast walking pace. It literally referred to the quickest pace an egg-seller heading to market dared to walk at while carrying a basket of eggs.

And then I might retweet it or I might just move on.

One thing I found fascinating over my long career at the old day job in process improvement and change management was how each area has its own terms and verbal shorthand which can seem impenetrable to the newcomer or outside. I think every organization has this. I still remember my ‘blue pencil’ number from working at the old May Company. I was 318881 and if the procedure called for a clerk to get a blue pencil approval on a return or other transaction, they’d have to find me and get me to scribble that plus my initials on their sales document. I can still do the scribble in two seconds flat.

When we did an enterprise-wide installation of Oracle software for the first time at the old day job, one of the biggest challenges was getting various departments together to flowchart the movement of various transactions. I remember sitting in one meeting where because of my broad interdepartment experience, I knew one of the words they were all using, thinking everyone understood it to be the same thing, actually had totally different meanings. I stopped the meeting and went around the room and had each department explain what the word meant to them. A lot of dropped jaws and disbelief by the end. We had 64 different understandings of the same word. Of course we eventually overcame that and other linguistic challenges but it was a good lesson learned for me.

At one point, years later, I was working with a team from a high powered consulting firm, who of course had their own jargon, which began to creep into our daily conversations because we were hearing it all the time. I had to laugh out loud the first time I heard one of them describing something as being ‘crisp’ because that was MY word and I was always demanding our presentations to my management be ‘crisp’ and anything else we delivered as a work product had to be ‘crisp’. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing my language infiltrate their corporate culture. I’m sure after the engagement with us ended, ‘crisp’ went away too, for lack of daily reinforcement.

Words have power and I’m happy that in the current world the English language (and others as well but I’m an English speaker so…) is so adaptable and welcoming to new words or combinations of old ones.

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Changing Language

Language changes. I strongly suspect change comes faster when a culture is highly mobile like ours is.  There is a quote out there in the world about English rifling through the pockets of other languages, but in its original form, the quote is super problematic for it's sexism and attempt to somehow shame sex workers. I prefer the mental image of English as a thief willing to sneak up on another language, club it over the head, and take everything it could find. 

It's how we got hurricane. And geyser. From entirely different parts of the world. Imagine trying to learn English as a second language and having someone tell you, "No, no. That word's Japanese. Yeah, that word's Icelandic. And that one? That one's -- hell we have no idea where that one came from. Sorry." 

Then add in the variations and dialects associated with the language. The UK has one version of English. The US another. Australia yet another. The we add in Canada and the Caribbean region and I defy you, if you aren't practiced in hearing it, to decipher a southern Creole dialect speaking what's supposed to be English. You'll understand my sympathy for anyone trying to learn English. The language makes no damned sense. 

While I occasionally feel like some old curmudgeon yelling, "You kids get off my linguistic lawn!" I'm learning to not mind the ground of my language shifting beneath my feet. It's been rightly pointed out that rigid, codified grammar is a form of oppression. Insisting on "The One True Way" of language devalues the speakers of other dialects. For the longest time, the most common impression most people had of anyone who spoke with a Southern accent was that they were less intelligent. Now think about how grammar rules are used against Black culture and the dialects that have grown out of Black experience in this country. It absolutely casts Black language and culture as lesser. As something to be mocked and laughed at. Instead of listened to and appreciated for the original music it brings to the whole of the English language.

Oh, for the love of language.

“Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.” ~Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

As writers, words are our tools, our weapons, our voice. And as writers that means we always need to be collecting new tools, sharpening our weapons, and improving our voice. How do we do that?

We listen.

I don’t believe it matters what genre you’re writing in, you’ve got to be able to listen to people. Not simply what language they’re speaking, (English, Spanish, French, etc.) but soak up their personal language. How do they use their words, what do they enunciate, what offends and what makes them laugh. 

You don’t have to go far for language to change either. For a broad example you can look at the US, there’s southern drawl to the long o’s of Northern MN…don’t ya know. 

For a specific example, when I was in high school my hometown used the word barr. 

Barr: something stupid, ridiculous, dumb. 

Our school’s top rival, the neighboring town, didn’t use barr. If you used it in that town...they knew exactly where you were from. By the way, the distance between these towns is about ten miles. 

What does that have to do with writing? 

If you can listen then you'll hear words used in ways you've never imagined. Our languages change all the time. If you doubt that, check out the yearly additions to the dictionary! If you can listen and understand people, you can write realistic characters. And that’s one thing that all books should have in common. 

Former editor gets a bit ranty about language

True story: I'm sitting in my comfy chair, probably pretending to write a book, and my phone rings. It's a talky-type phone call, right, not a text, so I knew instantly that it was either my mother-in-law or my mom. And since it was a Yoda ring tone rather than R2-D2, I was fully prepared for my mom-in-law. Not unexpectedly, she was in a flutter about something, but this time it wasn't her computer, her car, or her cat.

It was language, a thing which is dear to my heart. Rant away, Meemaw, for I am here for it!

Anyhow, she was editing a paper for her son, who is a social sciences PhD student and worries maybe too much about his command of commas. She knows I was an editor and copy editor for coughfifteenyears, so she trusts my opinions on things like semicolons and style guides. She also expected me to be horrified at a thing she was horrified over. See, my brother-in-law had broken a basic usage rule repeatedly in this paper, and he is a smart dude so it made no sense. His mother was concerned.

The problem was pronoun-antecedent agreement. As the Towson University web site phrases it, "A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number. Rule: [Their bold, not mine] A singular pronoun must replace a singular noun; a plural pronoun must replace a plural noun." So, if Chris went to the store, he bought beer. If Christa went, she bought wine. If all the Chrises went together, they bought cheese. We all learned this stuff in grade school, if it sounds familiar.

But my brother-in-law consistently used "they" as the pronoun for all singular nouns. Which was wrong wrong wrong... right?

Except no.

See, Meemaw, I explained, our language is living, agile, functional, and as our society changes, so change the rules. As we try to be more inclusive of gender identities, the old he/she/it rules need to flex to accommodate. "They" is perfectly acceptable -- turns out English speakers have been using the plural "they" to refer to singular nouns of unknown gender for a really long time, and most major style guides have approved the usage. Also, considering the paper was for an academic social-sciences audience, it would have been a mistake to replace "they" with "he or she" (or s/he, which was always an abomination). It would have been wrong.

Which, in my mind, is something so very, very right about language.

So, you just keep evolving, English, you adorable tongue you. The rest of us will catch up.

p.s. -- I am considerably less down with all the run-on sentences I'm seeing lately from people who I guess are trying to use fewer commas? There's nothing wrong with commas, people! If you have two independent clauses, please stick one of those little beauties and a connecting word in between, even if you don't pause at that part of the sentence. Trust me. Also, lay off the semicolons. I can almost guarantee you aren't using them right.

Language: It's a Little Fishy

Oh, how I love the way language constantly evolves. It's a fantastic excuse for why my spelling is such crap. (Why did we remove the "e" in judgment? What did it do to Mssrs Merriam or Webster?)  Or why my floundering with homonyms and homophones sends my editors snickering up their sleeves. (Grisly and Grizzly, I'm looking at you.)

No? Not buying it as an excuse? 

Believe it or not one of my favorite ways to bond with my father is over a delightful little card game known as Quiddler. It's a variant of Scrabble in which every card is a letter with a different point value that you must use to make a word. You start with three cards and add a card with each round you play. Simple enough. The catch, that is not an official rule, is we can only use words from our unabridged 1969 dictionary that we hauled around the world and that weighs more than the family dog.

That's right 1969, when terms like Byte and Gigahertz didn't exist. Email? No. Internet? No. Dear Reader, there are words in that dictionary that are not defined but used as definitions. I present to you:

  Nerfling. 

What a spectacular word, right? Brings to mind faeries and sprites and journeys through moon gates.

It's a fish.

(I had to look it up on the internet. Oh, the irony.)

So, while Zoomers are having a ball dragging Millenials for passe terms like Adulting and Doggos on TikTok, I'm rummaging through the past for fascinating names to bestow upon fantasy races of...fish?

It's a Living Thing

Language, that is.
Language is a living thing, and as such, it constantly mutates. What do I love and hate about that fact? That language is a constantly changing thing,.

Okay, one of y favorite examples is from the show The Simpsons. Now, with the exception of the annual TREEHOUSE OF HORROR. I couldn't much care about the Simpsons. I watched the show when it started and I watched the way the art changed and okay, that's fine.

But, I was amused to the point of a grin on my face when the Oxford Dictionary decided to add the word "D'oh" as modern slang. How delightful! A goofy little comment from Homer Simpson became an actual word in the English language because so many people were using it. I bet if I looked into it I could find a few words from Buffy The Vampire Slayer added as well.

I love the fact that the English language adapts and changes to suit its own needs. Sometimes it steals from other languages (Okay, often), sometimes a new word is made up on the fly In any event the language becomes something new. How cool is that? It's like watching a chameleon change colors.

I all as is almost always the case, working on multiple projects at once. Short stories, novels, collaborations, a novella. all of these are directly affected by the change in language. My novels is a first-person spin-off of a Novelette I wrote ten years ago, which is, in turn, a spin-off from a novel. The language is a complete bastardization of the English I speak and usually use because it's told by a hitman with a very different grasp of the English language. He doesn't speak like me. He isn't me. I'm just telling his story. I've caught myself a few times wanting to increase his vocabulary, but I won't let that happen. He has his ways, I have mine.

It all varies. One o0f my teachers, when I was a kid, thought the word "garbage" was the most beautiful sounding word in the English language She told that to a herd of fifth graders and was shocked at the laughter. I knew another teacher who though "Onomonapeia" was the bee's knees. Words are wonderfully quirky in this language. We turn a phrase with the best of them and usually get it exactly wrong enough to annoy at least one reader a book at a guess. But we use those words just the same, and we invent new ones if we have to.

If I can be said to have anything that I don't like about the way the language  keeps changing, I guess I'd have to say I'm not fond of the shortcuts. Where R U should never replace Where are you? in my book. It made sense when you  had to pay for each character n a text, but those days are mostly gone.

That's it for me this time around. In case you haven't run across my latest release (from a freaking year ago, because cancer and the treatments for the same slow down EVERYTHING) my last novel released was BOOMTOWN and the follow up collection of short stories was WHERE THE SUN GOES TO DIE. Both are weird westerns.

Love It or Hate It? Changing Language

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is our favorite and least favorite ways the language is changing.

I'm not much of a cane-shaker about language. I'm kind of a language nerd, endlessly fascinated by etymology, and in another life-path I would totally have been a linguist and polyglot.

(Though I only know English and French, along with a smattering of other languages. Still, in my mind, I imagine myself learning new languages, when I *cough* have time.)

I love how language evolves, how it's a fluid and living thing. (Except for those dead languages, forever frozen in a particular form to ossify that way. It always seems kind of sad to me.) I even love how technology is changing our use of language - like how "tho" has a different connotation from "though," even though the former is technically a shortening of the latter. I'm enough of a word nerd that I have a full set of the (paper) Oxford English Dictionary and reference books on the Roots of English and a Sanskrit bible (whence we derived many of said roots).

I do have my peeves. It annoys me that "factoid" has totally lost its original meaning of a sexy but deliberately untrue tidbit to, well, exactly the thing it was meant to comment on satirically. But I try to let it go because clearly people wanted a word to mean a "short fact" and glommed onto that.

Otherwise, I try to keep up with language shifts. They're a reflection of a dynamic society, and learning new words keeps my brain limber.

I'm sure learning a new language would, too...

Sexy geeks, recovering Egyptian antiquities, and heart break

Black lives matter. So do black authors. Black dancers. Black dreams. Black hopes. Black voices. Black families.

I have incredible privilege and limited ability to use it right now. But I can boost my fellow authors. I can donate to the ACLU and to BLM and bail funds. And I can vote. When the time comes, I hope you'll commit to doing at least that. Vote. Because the lives of your neighbors and friends hang in the balance.

These are the authors I've been binging lately:
First was Melissa Blue. She writes a sexy geek series. How could I not? 

Now, I'm working my way through Seressia Glass's Shadowchasers series.  A kick-ass heroine, Egyptian artifacts, a 4,000 year old Nubian warrior? Mmmmm. Yeah, the series is a good time.

And the piece that breaks my heart - this. From the Alvin Alley Dance Theater

8 SF&F Books by Black Authors + Further Recommendations

We went silent last week at the SFF Seven to give space for the voices that needed to be heard in the world...

#BlackLivesMatter

Our theme for the week is to suggest resources for finding Black authors to read...

A source I turn to often is the WOC In Romance webpage …they update periodically and have the books slotted into genres/tropes for easy searching.

May Sage writes all manner of stories but her fantasy romances have a huge following.  Her Court of Sin series, which begins with Frostbound Throne is a good entry point to her work.

Another favorite of mine is A. M. Griffin, with her The Hunt series. Book one is The Game Warden’s Mate.

I first discovered Deborah Bailey when she released book one in her Hathor Legacy trilogy, which was Burn…and I loved her Once Upon a Princess: Beauty and the Faun fairy tale…

I’ve mentioned P. J. Dean before, because I so enjoyed her scifi romance series The Felig Chronicles, and she writes in other genres as well…

Alyssa Cole just released the ebook version of The A.I. Who Loved Me, which is thoroughly enjoyable and her post-apocalyptic Off the Grid series is a classic. The first book is Radio Silence.

Hugo And Nebula Award winning author N. K. Jemison’s The City We Became is an amazing book, as is The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth Book 1).

I can’t say enough about the Hugo and Nebula Award winning Binti trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes is a timely, tough fantasy…

Rita Wood has written “Ode to Black Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers” for Tor.com and has specific book suggestions…

Don’t overlook FIYAH, the magazine of Black Speculative Fiction….check them out!

Hopefully this small list will provide a few new-to-you authors to check out and some resources for finding more, because a voracious reader always needs fabulous new books to read, right?

Please feel free to add your suggestions in the comments!

As it relates to the times we’re living in, I’d like to add one more book that I personally found immensely helpful. It was hard homework but insightful and eye opening, even after all the many hours of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion training I'd had at various times with my previous day job employer. This book, which I read earlier in the year when the RWA was imploding (wow, that seems like last century!) is challenging but turned on many light bulbs for me. White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin J. DiAngelo, Michael Eric Dyson (Foreward).

Sending my best wishes to you and your loved ones to stay safe and healthy because we’re not out of the pandemic yet, that’s for sure.

Spotlight to support Authors of Color

The world's on fire. We went silent last week at the SFF Seven to give space for the voices that needed to be heard, and now we all need to be on the same page. Because after the fire's out I hope the world is changed and stays changed. As James stated earlier in the week; Black Lives Matter and Black Authors Matter. 

Writing a book is hard. Publishing is hard. And if the deck is stacked against you before you even begin? It's even harder. So this week we're spotlighting some of our favorite reads by Authors of Color, particularly African American writers.

With the pandemic I've gone back and binged on some comfort reads, some series that I know well (have read multiple times already). One of them was:

Dragon Kin Series by G.A. Aiken (A.K.A. Shelly Laurenston)
This paranormal romance series is about dragon shapeshifters and those who fall in love with them. Book one has always been, and still is, my favorite. Annwyl's mouth makes me laugh out loud!


Earthsinger Chronicles by L. Penelope
This fantasy romance series has GORGEOUS covers! Which was what originally drew me to them in the first place. Then on Jeffe's First Cup of Coffee she started talking about L. Penelope's podcast, My Imaginary Friends, they both cross-reference each other in streaks. And after that, I had to crack open the first book. The series has magic and war...I was swept away! Cry of Metal & Bone comes out in August and might be my fave cover of the series so far!


MEM by Bethany C. Morrow
This art deco historical fiction has an exciting, sci-fi twist: scientists have discovered how to extract memories, and the result is a clone copy of the person! But one clone begins to have her own memories... It blew. My. Mind. It's definitely one of the novels I believe everyone should read. I'm eagerly waiting for news that Morrow has another sci-fi release coming. *crossing-fingers*

Have you read any of these? If not, seriously...check out the covers!! I'm such a sucker for a good book cover. 

Release Day: ENEMY STORM by Marcella Burnard

Today, please join us in congratulating SFF Seven member Marcella Burnard, who is releasing Enemy Storm, the third book in her Chronicles of the Empire Series that began with Enemy Within.

ENEMY STORM: CHRONICLES OF THE EMPIRE, BOOK THREE

It's never a good day when a radioactive hunk of starship nearly drops on your head. 

The Claugh Empire attacked Edie's planet fifteen years ago, murdered her parents, and left the teen for dead. So when a wrecked Claugh starship interrupts a salvage mission, she's torn between revenge and rescuing survivors—especially the stirring captain with an uncanny ability to rekindle her dead emotions. Something about him inflames the urge to come to terms with her past. But the mercenary in Edie doubts trusting a former enemy will bring her redemption or put old prejudices to bed. When a new common enemy, hell-bent on wiping out humanoids, threatens to bury them all, the captain tries to convince her a mutual coalition might breach their political impasse—all for the greater good.

Available everywhere:

Amazon | Kobo | GooglePlay | B&N | Apple

Note: This quote from the author really piqued my interest and made me want to read: Main character Edie "is also very loosely based on a dear family friend who challenged me to write a deaf character without having to ‘fix’ the character or have her inability to hear be made into something that would ultimately save everyone. I tried. I hope I did her proud."

And Some Recs Because They're Awesome and #BlackLivesMatter

Last week, SFF Seven took some time to listen and mourn and get angry. This week, we're amplifying Black voices in publishing, specifically in SFF-dom. 

Book I just bought and have started reading and wow: The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis. A Kirkus Review Best of the Year selection for 2019, The Good Luck Girls is a Westworld + Handmaid's Tale fantasy adventure about five girls who seek "freedom, justice, and revenge in a country that wants them to have none of those things."

Book that broke my heart and was, among other things, one of NPR's best books of 2019: The Deep by Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathon Snipes. "The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future."

Book that I read years ago and still adore: Radio Silence by Alyssa Cole is a gritty, smart postapocalyptic story with a romance at its heart (which is my weakness, admittedly).

New #Sci-Fi #Romance Release: INTERSTELLAR PLAGUE by Veronica Scott

We're celebrating our Saturday blogger Veronica Scott's latest Sci-Fi Romance release in her The Sectors series. Unlike our COVID-19 pandemic, this trip to the far, far future promises a Happily Ever After!

COLONY UNDER SIEGE: INTERSTELLAR PLAGUE

Newly graduated from a prestigious interstellar medical school, Dr. Saffia Mandell has been assigned to the Haven Two colony on the galaxy’s outer rim as the only doctor for some 2000 human residents. She’s counting the days until her five years there is up, trying to adjust to rural living after life in the crowded Inner Sectors and fighting her attraction to Chief Ranger Micah Navonn. She’s dreading the upcoming tourist season when the rich and pampered will descend on the planet for the scenic wonders and novel sports opportunities and no doubt inundate her little clinic but the colony depends on the seasonal income to survive.

>As the senior official for his people, the Calinurra, the indigenous inhabitants of Haven Two, Micah enforces the treaty, regulates the tourist permits, patrols the forests, and resists his fascination with Dr. Mandell. He never expected to be involved with a human woman and doesn’t want to believe in the concept of a fated mate. He wants to keep his life simple and isn’t ready for any long term commitment. Besides Saffia keeps proclaiming she’ll be leaving when her appointment is up in four and a half years so why should he risk his heart?

Then a ship arrives unexpectedly carrying a very ill little girl and soon the deadly virus is spreading through Haven Two. The colony authorities are desperate to cover up the problem to preserve the all-important tourist season and Saffia and Micah have to work together to battle the outbreak, the local administration, and their undeniable feelings for each other.

Can the colony survive? And will Micah and Saffia be able to move past their fears about entanglements to act on the mutual attraction?

BUY IT NOW:   Amazon   |   Apple Books   |   Kobo  |    Nook  |   Google Play

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Last week, dear Reader, we were radio silent on the blog because there were voices with powerful messages who needed to be heard loudly and clearly without us adding to the background din. Demanding diversity, pursuing equality for all, and dismantling white supremacy are goals toward which we strive. Pride Month and the BLM Movement are reminders for us to use our privilege to promote diverse authors and artists. To that end, here are three intriguing fantasy books I can't wait to read:

FRESHWATER by Akwaeke Emezi: An Igbo girl is a living prison for vengeful gods who grow more powerful with every trauma their vessel endures on the journey from troubled child to empowered young woman. 

QUEEN OF THE CONQUERED by Kacen Callender: A fantasy murder mystery set in a colonized Caribbean with a Black noble using all the magic she possesses to stay alive and maybe even inherit a throne from a childless king.

DAUGHTERS OF NRI by Reni K Amayo: Twin child goddess separated when the old gods left the earth are raised as humans until each takes her own path to the villain king and the truths of family, power, and identity.

Black Lives Matter...and so do Black Writers.

Black Lives Matter. In a world with diverse races, no one should be chosen as the target for discrimination and rage. Ever. Are we clear on that? yes? Good.

In an effort to clarify this, we at SFF7 have chosen to highlight some of the writers of color that people might be unaware of. Here are four.

Samuel R Delaney. Seriously, if you read science fiction or fantasy and don't know who Mr. Delaney is, you need to stretch your literary wings a bit. Very possibly the first African American science fiction author published in the US. A best selling author has won enough awards to intimidate, and his writing is damned fine, add to that that the man is also a professor at Temple University.

Linda Addison Best known for her short stories and poetry, Ms Addison is another author who has won numerous awards and another writer who is deserving of your attention. When last I spoke to Linda she was working on a new series 0f science fiction novels that I, personally, can't wait to read. Born in Philadelphia, Linda lives in Arizona these days and continues to write full time. She's also a sweetheart.

Errick Nunnaly Errick writes whatever strikes his fancy. That means I've read superhero fiction and horror alike from him. I think he told me he's working on a fantasy series, but my mind is often full of strange things I swear someone said to me that later prove t be dubious. In any event, I am currently reading his novel ALL THE DEAD MEN ad loving the hell out of it. Errick is also a sweetheart.

Tananarive Due I've met Tannanrive exactly once, and we basically nodded to each other. That was when we were both a good deal younger and before I read her amazing MY SOUL TO KEEP. I followed that one later on with the other three books in the African Immortals series. She's done a lot more, and I've read a few of them. I intend to read them all if I ever catch up on my 400 plus pile of To Be Read books. The lady in question is also the executive producer on HORROR NOIRE on the Shudder Channel, and teaches the Arfofuturism and Back Horror at UCLA. The lady likes to stay busy!

Naming Fantasy Characters, Places, and Things

The upside of me not being in San Diego on June 1 is that my event at Mysterious Galaxy will be available to all of you via Zoom! Would love if you all joined in!

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is Names: What's your favorite source/method for naming your characters, places, etc?

I have several go-to naming sources that I have bookmarked for fast and easy access. My first stop is always BehindtheName.com, the etymology and history of first names. The advanced search allows you find names by gender (or lack thereof), meaning, usage (including mythological, biblical, archaic, etc.), and keyword. I love to start with a name meaning and triangulate from there. It's also meticulously cross-linked, so you can find associated names and roots.

There is also a Surname version of the site, http://surnames.behindthename.com/, which works the same way and is a great resource for building family trees and genealogies. Both of these work great to name places as well.

Once I settle on a general language group that I'm drawing from for a particular world, or place within a world, I find and bookmark an online dictionary for that language. I love to find the ones that index the old versions of the language too. ::The Vikings of Bjornstad :: Old Norse Dictionary is a great example. I can search for English concepts, find an old Norse version of the word, and then add a bit of drift to the spelling to make it my own.

Finally, I often resort to good old basic etymology to build new words. I look up the etymology of a word that embodies the concept of the person, place, or thing I want - then I break it down into component roots. Sometimes I search for related roots in other languages. Then I piece the concepts together again, maybe add some spelling drift and there it is! New word.

Now you guys know all of my secrets and can no doubt reverse engineer names from my books!

Which Character Do Readers Ask Me To Write for?

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is the Character your readers ask you to write for or are waiting for to get their own story.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have readers become really fond of several of my supporting characters over the years beginning with Wreck of the Nebula Dream, my first published scifi romance in 2012. Almost immediately I started getting questions about what happened next for Twilka, a spoiled rich girl, and Khevan, the D’nvannae Brother she fell in love with. (He serves an alien goddess and can be an assassin or a bodyguard at Her whim.)

The thing for me is that I very much only write what the Muse is in the mood for, or feels strongly about. So even for a much beloved supporting character, I have to wait until the right story occurs to me or strikes my fancy. It was especially hard for Twilka and Kevan because there were a lot of moving parts to the D’nvannae Brotherhood but eventually I decided to come at it from the angle of what would someone like Twilka do after surviving the worst interstellar disaster in centuries? For a reference point I asked myself what did people do after surviving the Titanic’s sinking? Researching that was fun (I’m a huge Titanic buff) and gave me the ideas I needed to spin the story, Star Survivors. I also found a way to meaningfully incorporate Nick and Mara from the first novel as supporting cast here.

Shall we say the goddess didn’t give up easily when it came to Khevan’s service in her order? I pulled out another character who I actually have a novel in mind for, the Renegade, a Brother who did manage to escape the Red Lady’s grasp, and made him a supporting member of this book’s cast. He fascinates me and I’ve had bits and pieces of his story on scraps of paper for a long time but it needs more thought before I can write it. So I was happy to have a good reason to bring him into ‘reality’ in this novel, using the backstory I already know about him.

Another supporting character readers loved was Johnny in Mission to Mahjundar. He was loyal, brave, smart, strong and clearly deserved his own book in which to shine. Eventually I got a terrific plot idea about a Special Forces hostage rescue mission gone wrong and sent Johnny off in Hostage to the Stars to find his own love interest and future direction.

Mitch, a Special Forces sergeant and the hero’s best friend in Escape From Zulaire is another supporting character rather similar to Johnny. Readers love him. I love him. I even have a plot in mind developed for him but…the creative spark or fire that makes me have to write the book just hasn’t happened yet. I’m confident this will occur at some point because he’s too good a character not to write for, off key singing and all.

Readers often ask for the story of Captain Fleming in the Star Cruise series of books but I’m not ready to tackle that one yet. It’s on my mind and elements are there but the whole thing hasn’t jelled yet and I can’t write the book he plainly deserves until the Muse is fully engaged and ready.

I have a somewhat different set up in my Badari Warriors series about genetically engineered soldiers of the far future. I knew going in that I’d be writing many books and that each succeeding novel would feature a different member of the pack. What happened there was I wrote about Aydarr the Alpha and Mateer the first enforcer and then Jadrian, a senior soldier, popped into my head one morning with a full-fledged story and I had to write it. When a book shows up in your mind complete and ready to roll, you should never look that gift horse in the mouth – you should write! Which I did. But that meant I’d kind of short circuited Timtur the healer and his turn to shine. By the time of the events in Jadrian he was already mated and settled down. Fortunately I did figure out a way later to go back and write Timtur’s story and then a second novella about him and Megan, his human mate.

Currently I get requests for Sandara, the human chef, who is actually the heroine of the book I just started writing yesterday, along with Ivokk the enforcer from the South Seas pack. Sandara didn’t get treated too well in Jadrian’s book so I’m having fun figuring out her back story even before the aliens kidnapped her along with the rest of her colony, and brught her to the planet where the Badari were imprisoned. I've got what seems to me to be a logical way for her to move on from the events in Jadrian and for her and Ivokk to come together. In the midst of adventures of course!

There’s a lot of world building in my Sectors galactic civilization universe and that’s been so helpful to me so many times in spring boarding from a story into another novel. It’s all kind of organic as you can probably tell – I don’t outline and I don’t think a book through before I start writing it. I’ll know the beginning, the end, a few key scenes in between, the hero and the heroine and then I WRITE. The rest comes to me as I’m in the flow, sitting here pounding on my keyboard, and plot twists and turns can surprise even me at times.

 Readers also want to know the story for Jamokan, Alpha of a Badari pack with alien canine predator DNA infused into the humanoid structure. I have thoughts about this one, but so far the plot elements would probably only be novella-length so we’ll see. I’m not opposed to writing novellas if that’s the proper length the story calls for but I like to give a character a novel for his or her first appearance as leading protagonist if I can, then maybe a novella later to share more adventures.

A character I love and who readers seem to enjoy is Yonn, the Alpha-born in Generation 11. The current generation of fully mature Badari heroes led by Aydarr is #8 so you can see my challenge – with generations 9 and 10 between him and the men and women headlining the series, Yonn’s not old enough to have one of my typical books written about him! He may be mature for his age and possess a high level of dominance and power already but um…a little on the boyish side still. I’m thinking for him I might write a standalone novel, after the series ends (which won’t be for a long time, plenty of stories left to tell), set it in the future ten years or so and delve into Yonn’s further adventures. I think it could be fun and perhaps kick off another, related series.

So we’ll see!

Craving a Character

I crave books like some people crave chocolate. Don't get me wrong, my ultimate treat is a glass of champagne with a side of truffles. But if asked what one thing I crave the most...it's definitely books. If I go too long without reading, I crave it. If I hit too many reads in one genre, I crave another genre. If I get sucked into a multi-volume series, I crave more and more of the side characters.

It's those colorful secondary characters that build up our heroes, that carry their broken comrades up Mount Doom, that are there with shoulders to cry on. And we get attached to them! So when an author turns the spotlight onto one of those beloved supporting characters...it's like getting a box of chocolates.

I'm pre-published, so you can't read about my secondary characters yet. But the one who's gotten the most interest and fangirling over would be Mist from my Dark Queen's Daughter manuscript. This book is based off Norse mythology and Mist is the equivalent of a Valkyrie commander. She's foul mouthed, scarred, and as tough on my main character (MC) as she can possibly be, all because Mist sees the MC as one of her sisters. Oh, and she gets turned into a lynx in the beginning because she mouths off to a druid.

That's my pick for which of my characters do readers crave more of the most. Mist of Íssheim. And if you'd like to see the artwork by Eve Ventrue that inspired Mist, you can check it out on Pinterest here.

How about you? Any books you've read recently where you'd have loved to get another book based solely on a secondary character?

A girl is no one

Hmm. This week we're supposed to talk about characters that readers are clamoring to know more about or begging us to write about. As a reader, I absolutely know what that means, for I fangirl with the fangirliest who've ever fangirled. As a writer, though... welp.

After my first book, a few people asked for Chloe's story, so I wrote it. I think most of those people who had some interest have already read it? Not sure. If you were one of those people and never got around to buying the book, please feel free to contact me privately. I would be happy to send you a copy. I published it for you.

Other than that, this topic really isn't applicable to me, so I will refer you to yesterday's SFF Seven post, which was super exciting: Jeffe Kennedy, our Sunday blogger, released  her latest book, The Fiery Crown. Check it out!

Aaaaaand I'm off to read. :)

New #Fantasy Release: THE FIERY CROWN by @JeffeKennedy

Out today is the highly anticipated second installment in Jeffe Kennedy's Forgotten Empires Fantasy Romance series!

THE FIERY CROWN
A desperate alliance. A struggle for survival. And a marriage of convenience with an epic twist of fate come together in Jeffe Kennedy's The Fiery Crown.

WILL THEIR LOVE STAND THE TEST OF TIME

Queen Euthalia has reigned over her island kingdom of Calanthe with determination, grace, and her magical, undying orchid ring. After she defied an empire to wed Conrí, the former Crown Prince of Oriel―a man of disgraced origins with vengeance in his heart―Lia expected the wizard’s prophecy to come true: Claim the hand that wears the ring and the empire falls. But Lia’s dangerous bid to save her realm doesn’t lead to immediate victory. Instead, destiny hurls her and Conrí towards a future neither could predict…

OR TEAR THEIR WHOLE WORLD APART?

Con has never healed after the death of his family and destruction of his kingdom―he’s been carefully plotting his revenge against his greatest enemy, Emperor Anure, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. When Lia’s spies gather intelligence suggesting that Anure is planning an attack against Calanthe, Con faces an agonizing choice: Can he sacrifice Lia and all she holds dear to destroy the empire? Or does his true loyalty exist in the arms of his beguiling, passionate wife―’til death do they part?

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And the winners are...

To quote Jeffe: "Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is the Character your readers ask you to write for or are waiting for to get their own story."

The answer is easy. Jonathan Crowley gets the most requests. It's interesting to me, because Crowley is a bastard. I mean that. He's not loveable. he doesn't try to make friends. he's more likely to insult you than to even consider being nice, but he's probably y most popular character to date, seconded only by Rufo the clown, who is absolutely psychotic and will kill damned near anyone at the drop of a hat. 

Jonathan Crowley is an immortal monster hunter. He's been described as "plain," and "average" more times than I can shake a stick at He blends into the background is my point here and he's supposed to. But I've had multiple people to me he's sexy. Male and female. All I can say is that was never my intention. 

Crowley has shown up in UNDER THE OVERTREE, SERENITY FALLS (WRIT IN BLOOD, THE PACK and DARK CARNIVAL) CHERRY HILL, BLOODLINES, BOOMTOWN, ONE BAD WEEK and in at lest a dozen other novellas and short stories. There are more planned and currently I am writing THE TOURIST'S GUIDE TO HAUNTED WELLMAN which will also favor him heavily as a main character. He will continue to be a complete bastard throughout that story, too. 

I have absolutely no idea why he is considered sexy. I don't intend to investigate the matter. I just let it happen. 

Just for the record, he faces off against Rufo the Clown (number two on the I-Have-No-Idea-Why-There-Is-Fan-Fic-Of-This-Character-But-Okay list) in SERENITY FALLS and in ONE BAD WEEK. I know they'll encounter each other again, too. 

Crowley, by Alan M. Clark

                                                  Rufo by Dan Brereton

The Forgotten Empires: Who's Next?

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is the Character your readers ask you to write for or are waiting for to get their own story.

Since THE FIERY CROWN, Book 2 in the Forgotten Empires, comes out on Tuesday (!!!), I'm *very* aware at the moment of all those secondary characters that readers are asking about. This trilogy focuses on Queen Euthalia and the Slave King Conrí - Lia and Con - and their epic battle to defeat a totalitarian emperor. As early readers plow through - seriously, I *cannot* believe how fast some of you read! - this second book, they're looking forward to Book 3, THE PROMISED QUEEN, - and beyond.

So, the questions I'm getting now are ALLLL about whose stories might come next. Who are readers asking about? In anecdotal, completely subjective order, I'm going to say the intensity of interest is:

AMBROSE

Everybody seems to want to know what's up with our favorite enigmatic wizard. Will there be more stories with Ambrose? Yes. Yes, I absolutely think so.

SONDRA

The emotionally and physically scarred warrior woman who serves as Con's lieutenant and sarcastic bestie has excited a lot of interest. She definitely has adventures ahead of her!

PERCY

The intense interest in Percy kind of surprised me - and he's definitely taken on a larger role as the series progresses. I have ideas for what could happen next.

MERLE

It could be this is mostly me glomming onto anyone who mentions Ambrose's raven familiar. But you all also haven't read THE PROMISED QUEEN yet. Just wait.

Who did I miss? (From this series, Carien - I know you want to say Zyr!)

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