New Book Release: Voro's Return!

Ah yes, it’s finally here. The fifth installment of the Land of Szornyek series—a post-apocalypse filled with rampaging monsters. The Voro’s Return has new monsters and old, new characters and old, and enough plot twists to hopefully keep you wanting the next book!

Blurb:

Askari and the others spent their winter in the Vault, taking the time to heal, rest, and learn as much as they can. But with the first drops of melting snow, an all too familiar face appears: Devor.

Askari knows he is taunting her, trying to get her to react and she knows she should resist. Yet all she wants is to kill him... until she finds out that there might actually be a way to save Agi in the process.

As the days grow slowly warmer, Askari and the others embark on a mission to save their friend and fellow warrior--and possibly the future of the human race.

This is the 5th action-packed book in the Land of Szornyek series.

In related news, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a series good. You know, crafting the plot of one book is a skill—but doing a whole series? It’s a lot more complex. There are a lot of moving pieces. A lot of characters. A lot of places and worldbuilding and little, teeny, tiny details to keep track of.

So what makes a series good?

I have no idea.

There are a few basics, of course: wrapping up plot holes; characterization stays consistent throughout; a new and exciting climax/challenge for each book; tie-ins from the beginning to the end; no timeline inconsistencies; and a series climax that satisfies everything that has been laid out before it.

But you could have all those things, and the series could still fall flat.

So what I’ve decided is to not worry about it. I’ll tell the story I think I want to tell, read some books and articles on crafting series, and otherwise—just keep moving forward. Because the best thing I can do? Is to learn by doing.

Anyway, so in The Voro’s Return, a few questions are answered. Some new secrets are revealed. Information about …the other side… is shared.

Plus, you get to hang with some of the favorites—Rudi, Moose, and Minda, along with the others.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can do so on Amazon!

Letters on the Study & Use of History by Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke

Picture from Wikipedia & the National Portrait Gallery in London.

I bought a new book last week. It’s titled Letters on the Study and Use of History. By the late Right Honorable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke. Published in 1770.

It is officially my oldest book.

One of my hobbies is collecting the oldest books I can find. I currently have three published prior to 1800. Besides the one I just mentioned, I also have The Chirurgical Works of Percivall Pott, FRS. and Surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (Vol. II) published in 1783, and The World (Vol. III) by Adam Fitz-Adam published in 1789.

All three books are bound in leather, with damaged spines, and their lowercase ‘s’s look like ‘f’s.

There is something about old books that really resonates with me. Think about it: a book published in 1770 is older than the United States of America. It survived the revolution. The Civil War. WWI. WWII. Vietnam. 9/11. And all the big and small events that happened in between. And it will (hopefully) continue to exist long after the pandemic and me and you and whatever else happens in the world.

Most books are lost eventually. But the books that have not yet been lost hold not only the words, thoughts, knowledge, and feelings of someone who lived in a long-past century, but they hold whatever thoughts and feelings they were imbued with by those who purchased, owned, read, held, and loved that book.

They are telepathic time travel machines.

Honestly, holding old books for the first time makes me cry (and heaven forbid I end up in a library filled with old books—let the waterworks begin lol). I can’t help but think of all the people who loved that book, and how now I get a chance to love it before it passes onto someone else.

If magic exists, this is it.

I also can’t help but imagine that one day, my own books will end up in the hands of someone who loves old books. That a single copy of one of my books will make it 100, 200, 300 years into the future, far past when my own life has expired. Maybe it's a leather-bound special edition, or a well-loved, well-preserved paperback, or a digital one-of-a-kind edition built using an NFT.

I have spent a lot of time trying to visualize time as a four (or more) dimensional construct, and when I add books into my image, I see a spiderweb that connects the far past to the far future, and spreads out from person to person in an impossible complex and beautiful pattern.

From the late honorable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount of Bolingbroke: “The child hearkens with delight to the tales of his nurse: he learns to read, and he devours with eagerness fabulous legends and novels: in riper years he applies himself to history, or to that which he takes of history, to authorized romance: and, even in age, the desire of knowing what has happened to other men, yields to the desire alone of relating what has happened to ourselves. Thus history, true or false, speaks to our passions always.”

Ariele University: The Memoir Project | Heartbeat

I know it’s been a minute since I’ve posted about my fake master’s degree, but never fear, I’m still plugging away at it. One of my goals this year is to sit down and hash out exactly how much work I’ve done and how much I have left to do—and if I think I’ve officially “graduated” yet or if I want to move onto my fake Ph.D. or what.

At any rate, the current book I’m working my way through is called The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith. Obviously, I’m a fiction writer, not a memoirist, but one of the whole goals of my fake master’s degree is to challenge myself, and reading about and writing memoir is certainly a stretch for me. In addition, like most writers (I think), I have a few memoir-y type things that I’ve considered writing, though they are so low on my priority list, I’m not sure I’ll ever actually get to them.

That said, while I haven’t finished this book yet, it does lend itself to writing exercises. And so, I’ve completed my first writing exercise, about 1/5 of the way through the book. In it, she describes a-750 word piece she asks her students to write based on a big theme or concept, using themselves as the illustration for the concept. So that’s basically what I tried to do here.

I’ll be honest—I’m not being graded so I didn’t count the words or edit this lol, but I wanted to post anyway (since that’s what I promised myself I would do). This short essay is called “Heartbeat.”

TW: death, s*icide

Heartbeat

The first dead body I ever saw was cousin Marty, lying in a casket. I was 5; he was a 45-year-old alcoholic who died by suicide. I couldn’t stop staring because I kept thinking I could see his chest move like he was breathing. I couldn’t really though—it was just an illusion.

My only memory of cousin Marty was from a family party a few weeks before. We were a family of teetotalers; he was the only one drinking. He brought his own beer and hid it in the car. And when he got so drunk he couldn’t walk straight, he tripped on the stairs and broke one of my mom’s plant pots.

The next dead body I saw was lying by the side of the road in Chapel Hill, NC. The cop had just arrived and an ambulance was pulling up. I didn’t know the man, but I was driving and the shock of seeing him just lying there made my heart pound and my hands shake so badly I had to pull over at the next gas station to let myself breathe. I was 20; he looked about 50. A heart attack, I always told myself.

The third dead body I saw was my grandmother. I was 31; she was 87. For the last hour of her life she gasped for breath. We sat around her telling stories. And when the end came, we knew it was coming. There was a smell and I was holding her hand.

And then she died. But her hand was still warm. It was 2:47 PM on a rainy day in November.

For a while, nobody said anything. Then, after a bit, I let go of her hand.

I don’t remember that part though. But I know I must have let go because I’m not still holding her hand.

What I do remember were my fingers on her pulse. I could feel her heart beat.

And then I couldn’t any more.

Heartbeat.

No heartbeat.

After I let go of her still-warm hand, I left, because after all, she wasn’t there anymore, so there was no reason for me to stay. And I had decided that the next part, with the undertaker and the body—that was for my mom to do, and my uncles. I would probably have to do it one day, yes. But not today. Not this time.

The first thing I did was call my big brother. I told him she was dead. I told him I had been holding her hand. I told him about her heartbeat. I didn’t tell him about letting go.

Because the truth was, I let go, but I also didn’t let go. And I don’t mean in a metaphorical sense, like I will never be able to get past the loss of my grandmother. I mean in a literal sense. Like I never let go.

If you think of time as a construct, something that has always existed and always will, then everything that has happened inside of time has always happened and always will.

Which means, I always held my grandmother’s hand as she passed from this world to the next. And I always felt her heart beat. And then not beat.

I always will.

And I will never let go.

For Writers: How To Name A City

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One of the hardest parts of my job is naming things.

And you wouldn’t believe the number of things that need to be named in a fictional work:

• Character first and last names and sometimes nicknames and titles

• Cities

• Towns

• Rivers

• Mountains

• Continents

• Imaginary species

• Communities

• Races

• Businesses

• Fictional book titles (not to mention the title of the story itself) and movies

• Stores & coffee shops

• Monster names

• Pet names

Endless. Seriously endless.

And every time I run up against a new thing that needs a name, I find myself Googling “how to name a city” or “how to name a continent.”

So I’m writing this tactical checklist for myself as much as for anyone else. So next time I need to name a city or a civilization, I won’t have to Google it. I’ll already have a system in place.

(Just as an aside, I’m focusing on city and town names here, however, many of these strategies could also be used to name other things as well.)

Strategy 1: Consider the immediate context.

Why is your character in this location? Is it to find a lost treasure? Lost Treasure City. Is it to climb a mountain? Great Mountain Town. Is it to meet a mysterious stranger in a bar? Stranger City.

Need a famous example of this technique? Metropolis. Literally “big city.” Or in Latin, “mother city.” It makes sense. Clark Kent is going to fight crime in the big city, as opposed to “Smallville” where he’s from.

Strategy 2: Consider the geographic context.

In real life, many towns, cities, counties, etc. are named after geographic features. Think Springfield, one of the most common town names in the US: “spring” (a place where water wells up from an underground source) and “field” (a open expanse of cleared ground).

Natural Bridge, VA features a big rock sitting horizontal across a gorge which functions as a… you guessed it—natural bridge.

The White Mountains are mountains that are white. The Green mountains are mountains that are green. The Rockies? You guessed it. Mountains that are… rocky.

A few more common examples:

• Brookview

• Fairview

• Greenville

• Oakland

• Newport

• Riverside

• Ashland

• Portsmouth

Essentially, people aren’t necessarily creative when it comes to naming their surroundings. Think about the landscape—how might the first colonizers/people to see it have reacted?

“Wow, that’s a big rock!” — Big Rock

“What a big sky!” — Big Sky City

“It’s so green here!” — Greenville

A couple fictional examples: Bedford. Castle Rock. Springfield. Hill Valley. Basin City. Eaglewood.

Strategy 3. Consider the historical context.

Now, I know not everyone plots and plans out the entire history of a civilization before drafting a piece of fiction, but sometimes it can help to think about what the history of a specific place might have been—even in vague terms. For example, did it have a king? Or perhaps, the people who first colonized it were loyal to a king? Kingville. Kingston. Kingstown. King Village.

Who was the first mayor? Governor? President?

The most common town name in the US is Washington. Another super common name is Georgetown. Franklin. Baltimore is named after Lord Baltimore.

Another piece of relevant history is where did the first settlers come from originally? There are a lot (LOT) of cities, especially on the East Coast of the US, named after towns and cities in from other countries: Bath and Dover for example (two towns I’ve lived in lol), Lebanon, Greece, Athens, Berlin, Cairo, Chili, Delhi, Lima, New Madrid, Milan, Palermo, Italy, Russia, Tripoli, Versaille, Montpelier, Vienna, New Prague—these are all small towns in the US.

Strategy 4. Consider the indigenous context.

There have been a lot of wars throughout history. A lot of people taking land from other people. And while sometimes places may get renamed, many of the original names get passed on through the generations. Who lived on the land your fictional town is set in first? And what might they have named it? Would it have been translated into a modern language, or would it have kept it’s original name?

Think of places like the Susquenna River, named after the Susquehannock Tribe. Or Big Foot, IL, named for a Potawatomi chief. Or think of Mount Denali/McKinley in Alaska. The name "Denali" is based on the Koyukon name of the mountain, Deenaalee ("the high one") [source].

Note: If you’re using real life indigenous names, make sure you do your research! Understand the history and the meaning behind the words, and only use them if you are fully confident that your use is not disrespectful or appropriative.

Strategy 5. Consider the lingual context.

Perhaps the name “Big Rock” is too boring for you. That’s fair. Invent a language! Or, if you don’t want to go to the work of actually creating a language, consider borrowing from parts of your own language or Latin or another language.

There was a town near where I grew up named Buena Vista. That’s Spanish for Beautiful View. Los Angeles is literally “the angels”. De Roche is French for “of the rock.”

I sometimes take a word I feel represents the town or area in my work, and tack “ville,” “ford,” or “ton” at the end. Or “burg” or “polis” or “land” or “dale”. You can also add: “Spring,” “Falls,” “Beach,” Fort,” “San,” or a directional (North, South, East, West, etc.).

Here’s a helpful list of generic place name parts.

Think Duckberg (Disney). Riverdale. Stepford. Bedford Falls. Toontown. Sunnydale.

Strategy 6. Consider the narrative context.

One of the fun parts of naming things is considering their deeper meaning within the context of the story. This might mean choosing a name that fits with a theme of the work, or that represents something symbolic. It may also function as an analogy or allegory.

And you can make it obvious, like naming a town “Ethicsville” or you could make it more subtle—for example, “ethics” in Hungarian is “etika.” So a town could be called “Etika” or “Etikaton” or “Etika Falls.”

A really simple example of this is Gotham City from Batman. “Gotham” technically means ‘homestead where goats are kept,’ however, it was also used as a nickname for New York City—which creates easy parallels when using a story to interrogate concepts of crime, poverty, and heroism.

Or consider Sunnydale from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This cheerful town name (based on a generic idea of a California town), creates a deep sense of irony when paired with the fact that it’s set on a “Hellmouth” and pretty much overrun with vampires.

Strategy 7. Use a generator.

There are tons of online “whatever” generators. Fantasy name generators. Place name generators. Character name generators. Book title generators. Writing prompt generators. Pet name generators. Some have filters so you can use, for example, to limit the number of characters in a word.

This particular website has dozens of different types of generators for all kinds of things.

I’ve also used this one a few times. It has many filters.

This one does more realistic names. Or you could try this one just for kicks.

I’m a discovery writer, so I don’t plan out much ahead when I’m working on a manuscript. Typically, I will use random name generators when I need a name quick and it’s not particularly important to whatever I’m working on. Like, a character randomly mentioning the name of her hometown. Doesn’t matter, won’t come up again, so a random name generator is perfect. But I’ll spend a lot more time on important names—cities that appear repeatedly for example, or that play an important thematic role even if the character never ends up going there (like a historical city or something).

Strategy 8. Wing it.

There are tons of strategies if you just want to wing it. I once pulled out a star map and smacked my finger down on a random spot to pick a planet name. You could also pick up a phone book and point to a random person and read their address. This is also a great tactic for finding ideas for first names and last names.

You can bang on your keyboard and then try to make the result into a word. Let your cat or your kid bang on your keyboard.

Look at a real map and just pick a name.

Keep a notebook of cool names you encounter when reading the news, playing video games, or meeting new people in real life.

Pick a word and make an anagram. Want to name your city, Really Big? How about “Beragilly”?

Or go to Reddit and read through some ideas other people have. Here are a few discussion threads: one, two, three, and four.

In the grand scheme of things, I think you should name your town or city whatever you want. Whatever you come up with, there’s probably something weirder that already exists.

Like:

• Normal, IL.

• Hell, MI.

• Hell for Certain, KY.

• Satan’s Kingdom, MA.

• Rough and Ready, CA.

• Bacon Level, AL.

• Random Lake, WY.

• Blueball, DE.

• Why, Arizona.

• Whynot, MS.

• Bread Loaf, VT.

• Accident, MD.

• Nameless, TN.

• Hot Coffee, MS.

• Deadhorse, AK.

• ZZyxx, CA.

A couple final thoughts. First off, keep in mind, if it’s really getting in the way of finishing a project, you can always change the name during editing.

Secondly, make sure you google the name you choose to make sure that is either super common, or not already used by someone really famous. Don’t name your fictional school “Hogwarts.” Don’t name your fictional city “Gotham.” Don’t name your super cheerful small town “Disneyville.” And always double check, just to be safe, because there are tons of brands and stories out there that you might not be familiar with.

My general rule of thumb is: if it’s big enough for a Wikipedia page, then I pick a different name.

Finally, I think it can be easy to get really hung up on things like place names. But the truth is, a bad place name is unlikely to ruin your work (unless you name it Disney—seriously don’t do that). And bad is relative. I just like to think of it as “adding character.” It’s more important to finish a project than it is to get everything absolutely, perfectly right.

Keep writing!

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Vault of Bones Cover Reveal!

Guess what! Vault of Bones is almost here!

And the cover is stunning.

Take a look:

Blurb:

Find the Weatherman.

This vague directive is all that Askari and the others have as they head north into an increasingly cold and snowy winter. With Minda leading the ragtag band of Baratok members, they head to the Marketplace, a center of trade for the many communities and tribes that survive within the region. But no one has seen the Weatherman in weeks.

Their only clue is from a crotchety old man named Moose, who agrees to lead them to the most recent location where he saw the Weatherman in exchange for a fee. They set out despite the looming snowstorm, knowing that if they fail, it's not only their own lives at stake, but the lives of everyone everywhere.

They have to stop the flood of monsters into the world, or there won't be anyone left to save.