The threads are finally coming together; the skein’s pattern is starting to show; the scenes are getting increasing more fun and, seemingly, exponentially complicated to write. Still happy to say, I am making excellent progress on the next book, Thread Skein.
Every now and then I reach out to fans to help guide the latest book. I do this using my Facebook page for that book’s series, and my Twitter channel. I call this #FanFun time. This time I needed some help with naming a technology that has been in my world for some time, but oddly enough never actually referenced by name. If you missed the fun, don’t worry there will be more. Just watch my pages or Twitter feeds for the #FanFun hashtag to get in on the fun moments. You never know what I’ll post under that tag. And they don’t last long, I usually have something to roll with that is amazing within a day.
In this case, I couldn’t find the right name for a piece of technology that is wrapped inside of my fantasy novels and just about everywhere in my near cataclysm sci-fi books. Personally, I actually laughed when I realized I had never named it. Then, I spent too much time trying to come up with a good name.
Finally, I posted this description of the technology along with the request to help name it under the #FanFun tag on the Golden Threads Trilogy Facebook page (which also feeds into my Twitter channel):
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I also posted an excerpt from Thread Skein where this was going to be first used:
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Ellua paused for a moment but then turned to follow. Electra ran pulling Ellua with her. Ellua was having trouble keeping up as she was wearing a dress instead of loose pants. Electra shoved some staff out of the way as she pushed open a pair of doors to the throne room.
Ellua slid to a stop as Electra screamed at the room, “Aperta ministerium defensionis!” Electra strode to the throne room, turned to Ellua, and swept her arm indicating the glowing columns that shot out from the floors and spread looking exactly like a beautiful set of fountains, except instead of water she knew they were actually bunches of glowed nanobots. They looked like liquid gold columns with stars sparkling in them. Instead of falling to the floor the columns liquid filled out into glowing command consoles.
‘I had no idea they would look exactly like they do when I’m working inside the network with Vesta. They are so beautiful. Electra recalled the name Light-Emitting-Attraction-Nanobot-Unified-Displays or LEANUDs from the technical manuals she read months ago.’
“We can use the city’s LEANUDs.”
The LEANUDs finished forming and the displayed images were perfect as if they were looking through a clear window right at the scenes being shown. The controls all glowed slightly but the switches, dials, and keyboards looked almost solid. Ellua looked around at the floating consoles showing the city from dozens of positions. Electra reached out and pulled the air which held one of the displays. Her hand gripped the edge of the display. She was surprised it actually had a tactile feedback. She had assumed they would just be light images. Apparently there was some form of power that also gave the interfaces a partial ghostly presence she could actually touch. Although she noted her hand could press into the surface deforming it.
She pulled two displays to her and started adjusting their settings to show the two breaches in the city’s walls.
[/dropshadowbox]– – – – –
Now I am privileged to say thank you and congratulations to Sarah Eaton’s idea of Light-Unit-Malleable-Emission (LUME). I liked LUME for a few reasons. I managed to resist turning the name into LUMEN (making the villain of the series being ironically named the same as an advanced piece of tech). Still, the name would let me add a ‘D’ for display and felt like something bright and shiny. (I like shiny things…)
Pushing the nanobots up a notch, I turned the bots used for this technology to microbots. (If you are going to make a semi-physical visible console why start at the atomic level?) This made the name, Light-Unit-Microbot-Emission-Display (LUMED). And this works great!
Now the section reads:
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Electra’s heart raced as much as her mind as she digested their predicament. Realization that this was no time to hold back made up her mind on what to do. She grabbed Ellua’s hand and pulled her to a stop. “No! This way!”
Ellua paused for a moment but then turned to follow, motioning for the other officers and guards to follow. Electra ran, pulling Ellua with her. Ellua had trouble keeping up as she was wearing a dress instead of loose pants. Still, Ellua managed it. A group of guards and palace staff were clustered in the halls. Electra ignored protocols and simply shoved people out of her way as she pushed through the throne room doors. Letting go of Ellua, she thrust the double doors open, stepping into the nearly abandoned room.
Ellua slid to a stop as Electra screamed at the room, “Aperta ministerium defensionis!” Electra marched towards the thrones, dramatically turning to Ellua and sweeping her arm, indicating the glowing columns that shot out from the floors, looking exactly like a beautiful set of fountains, except, instead of water, she knew they were actually millions of microbots. They looked like liquid gold columns with stars sparkling in them. Instead of falling to the floor, the columns filled out into glowing command consoles.
I had no idea they would look exactly like they do when I’m working inside the network with Vesta. They are so beautiful. Electra recalled the name Light-Unit-Microbot-Emitter-Displays, or LUMEDs, from the technical manuals she read months ago.
“We can use the city’s LUMEDs.”
The LUMEDs finished forming, and the displayed images were perfect as if they were looking through a clear window right at the scenes being shown. The controls all glowed slightly but the switches, dials, and keyboards looked solid. Ellua looked around at the floating consoles showing the city from dozens of positions. Electra reached out and pulled the air which held one of the displays. Her hand gripped the edge of it. She was surprised it actually had a tactile feedback. She had assumed they would just be light images. Apparently, there was some form of power that also gave the interfaces a partial ghostly presence she could actually touch. Although, she noted her hand could press into the surface deforming it.
She pulled two displays to her and started adjusting their settings to show the two breaches in the city’s walls.
[/dropshadowbox]– – – – –
Thank you to all who tossed in your ideas. They helped stimulate more ideas! Looking forward to more #FanFun in the future!
If you enjoyed this you will enjoy the rest of the Golden Threads Trilogy. Why check them out? The series has been a regular bestseller since it came out in early 2013. Trust me, it is best to start with book one Thread Slivers.
If you are a fan, why not join my Street Team? They get to know everything way in advance and help plan some of my events. If you’re not a Street Team kind of entity, but still like to know things before the general public, you should join my mailing list where I send announcements about new releases and coming work (http://eepurl.com/woxIX).
“It’s really hard to believe my books have been bestsellers for over a year! Guess that makes me a real fantasy/sci-fi bestselling author. Come and read all my books at http://amzn.to/16fsOUI.“
