Welcome back, my fellow creatives!

Firstly, Thank you all for your kind comments as I slowly find my way back here. It’s been a long, lonely year without you. x

Secondly, I know I need to finish finding my footing, but I wanted to call back on a writing problem I wrote about a few years ago as I am facing it anew…with my new project. 

Waaaay back, in the midst of editing my first novel for publication, I was struck by a mixture of land, music, and toddler twin terror.

See, life consisted a lot of the classic train show Thomas and Friends back then. Like, a lot. A lot a lot. So much a lot I can STILL remember no less than two dozen train names as well as several of the songs.

Aaaaaaaaaanyway….

My point is, my attention was often drawn to the rails because Biff and Bash would watch for any sort of train or train sound. Because we crossed a few sets of tracks every day to get their sister, I couldn’t help look down those track lines m’self, wondering…where do those go, really?

And in this new project, I answer that question in the most fantastical way…for when used right, those tracks don’t stay on earth.

They connect the stars.

~*~

“RUN!” Johnny threw Elmore out in front of him into the yard, his own feet twisting and tripping and staying up, please stay up. They had to keep going for their bikes and the road and some honest-to-God HELP. He kicked up his backpack and it slowly. elevated. 

Turned. Over. like it. 

Was stuck. In gelatin.

Whatever the Officer Walrus Man-Thing had done to their Dad had happened outside: water droplets from their neighbor’s sprinkler hung in the air as though strung on wires. A car was barely. Moving. In its. Turn around. Their house.

But Elmore sure wasn’t stuck. He twisted his whole damn body away from Johnny, turning to face the Officer who filled the doorframe, blocking any view of their father or the man with the blades ready to slice their throats. “You say you’re the law, you get that killer away from our dad!”

“And I will! We’ll all take a lovely trip with the Imperial Peace Corps to the Capitol. Including your guest,” he pointed his flipper-hand at Elmore’s wrist. 

Elmore’s bracelet cackled and crowed, “Go tear a sail, you old bloat!” A shock ran through Elmore’s body that lifted and turned him like a toy towards the rusted rail line at the edge of the yard. “C’mon, boys, let’s lay a line!”

“But the road’s this way!” Johnny whipped up his bike and sat on it in one quick motion. “The police station’s two minutes–”

“EEEEMPRESSSS”

The name hissed like steam from behind the Officer. Threads of light erupted from the wall of the house, a thin shriek of metal and wood and God-knows-what-else.

Elmore’s bracelet dragged the rest of Elmore over to his bike. “Organics can’t help us now, boys. We’ve got to find the next Guard!”

“No,” Elmore growled through his teeth as he fought against the lightning that seemed to wrap around his bones, a puppet in his own damned body. He dug his ankles in deep, refusing to touch the pedals, yet the bracelet, its lightning, they moved him through that dirt towards the rusted rails in the trees. “My DAD–”

“Will be safer when we’ve found help off-world. Now stop fighting me and MOVE!”

~*~

Empress…um…Empress Whatzhername???

It’s a strange thing, seeing so much of the story play out in one’s mind, but not knowing what anyone’s called. Perhaps this is partly because of that short story series I worked on a while back where folks hid their names behind their occupations so darker forces–or the law, depending on who you are–couldn’t exploit them. But now I’m in the story, I’m in the world. I can see the star lines, see the planets these two must cross with the Empress to restore her to the throne and put down the coup. 

But then there’s the names.

Even naming the twins was a trial. For a long time, I called them Jake and Elwood after The Blues Brothers because these protagonists have a passion for blues music thanks to their family. Biff and Bash are also big fans of Blues Brothers music, so it seemed like the perfect fit. But there’s this thing called copyright, and I don’t feel like making Dan Ackroyd mad.

So, what to do?

Thankfully, my husband Bo has an extensive music library, and that includes Blues music. I perused several of his albums and came across two particular artists who had songs that just–hit. Hit like YES, THIS IS FOR ONE OF MY BOYS.

One is Johnny Lee Hooker. His guitar and voice have tears and joy and that deep longing we all feel as we nod over our drinks in a smoky, sticky bar on a late summer night. Once I heard “Boom Boom,” I knew I found my boy of tenacious attitude to prove himself.

The other is Elmore James, a true master of the blues guitar with songs that make one feel lonely and not alone at the same time. Once I heard “The Sky is Crying,” I felt a sense of mourning–love’s loss for Elmore James, but for my protagonist Elmore, love’s loss in his family. With a mother dead and a father lost in grief, Elmore wants to count on his twin brother but is sick of his brother getting them into trouble

The cast to this story is not huge, and I want to make every name count like I did with my Fallen Princeborn novels. Just as every culture here on Earth has names that signify wisdom, strength, or loyalty, so should the world beyond the stars that I am building.

Or, I should say, engineering. 

For we won’t be dealing with trains who speak in rhyme and pout saying “Bust my buffers” because the clown’s giant balloon rolled off the freight car.

This will be a world of iron and steel and cosmic dust, fire and flight and missing souls.

A world of Star Lines.

Have you found naming inspiration from music? I’d love to hear about it!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!