Thursday, January 01, 2009

Thought Process Thursdays

As a New Year thing - and hopefully a steady commitment - I thought I'd try to post once a week about developments in whatever I'm working on that day, whether it be worldbuilding, editing or short excerpts.

Since it's Thursday - Thought Process Thursdays? Doesn't have much of a ring to it, but titles were never my thing.

Almost done with my planet and space station profiles for my science fiction project. Next comes the micro-level detail, starting with my "Amazon" civilization and working outwards.

I'm currently puzzled trying to rename my "Amazon" space station. It was initially Amygdara just because I liked the sound of it. Now I'm stumped. It may end up being Haven or Refuge just to go with something obvious ... but I am trying very hard to avoid the "random syllables thrown together because they sound cool" effect.

If I were being a complete twerp, I would just fuss around with "Amazonia" or similar until I got a good anagram.

So far, I've used three mythological references - Solomon, Annwyn and Elysium - some regular words - Independence, Centurion - a reference to physical geography - Twin Fires (in a binary star system) - and two homages - Perica (after the setting of an invented SF cult classic from the 2040s) and Eastwood. (... yes, as in Clint.) I have two more to name, counting the above.

All the star systems, with the exception of Tau Ceti, are designated by a 2 letter + numbers combo. I've had great fun coming up with the ways these would morph into names that roll better off the tongue. CX-118, for instance, tends to be dubbed "Sea of Ecstacy" by the ... sarcastic? Where this differs from just-random-syllables is I'm being very careful that everything has a natural and explicable origin.

Signing off for now.

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