Made-up Monday - Pleovis

The Pleovis is at the core of New Zigon's science fiction.  I came up with the story for New Zigon over a decade ago, but it took me years to build enough pieces to start writing.  I knew my characters would have some kind of power, but I wanted a scientific reason for it other than magic.  I was so excited when I came up with the Pleovis concept.  I forget what exactly kindled the idea, but I was brainstorming, thinking of books and movies and how they incorporated science fiction.  I read a lot, but most of it is fantasy, so I didn't have many literary examples.  The Morganville Vampires series uses quantum mechanics to explain a portal system.  I started thinking of how much has been discovered since I graduated from high school.  We just studied protons, neutrons, and electrons, not quarks and leptons; if we did, it was nominal.  I have trouble with the concept of vacuums, having a space with nothing in it; I mean, it still is space... there has to be something there, right?  I had heard of the discovery of the "God particle," and I did a little research.  Here's a clip from www.gotquestions.org that sums it up nicely:

"Question: "What is the God particle?"

Answer: The "God particle" is the nickname of a subatomic particle called the Higgs boson. In layman’s terms, different subatomic particles are responsible for giving matter different properties. One of the most mysterious and important properties is mass. Some particles, like protons and neutrons, have mass. Others, like photons, do not. The Higgs boson, or “God particle,” is believed to be the particle which gives mass to matter. The “God particle” nickname grew out of the long, drawn-out struggles of physicists to find this elusive piece of the cosmic puzzle. What follows is a very brief, very simplified explanation of how the Higgs boson fits into modern physics, and how science is attempting to study it."

I thought, what if there is more to it?  What about all that space between the subatomic particles?  I am a huge Star Wars fan.  I was pregnant with my first son when they remade episodes 4,5, and 6 and re-released them to the big screen.  I thought he would come out of womb humming the Star Wars theme; he certainly seemed to jump to the vibrations in the theater where I spent many a late Friday afternoon.  Oh, how I wished the Force was a real thing; that would be so cool! 

I merged the God particle and the Force, and came up with the Pleovis.  It didn't have a name at first.  It was at the top of the list of words to make up when I did my Latin research.  "Pleo" means "filling," and "vis" means "power."  Filling power; perfect!

I often ruminate on how made-up words and names from books and movies make their way into common culture, like "the Force," "muggles," "mundanes," "warp speed, "kryptonite," and the like.  Maybe someday "Pleovis" will join that list...buy your license plates now people!

Made-up Monday - Crystavis

Crystavis is one of the first words I created for New Zigon.  One of my early concepts is that I wanted the characters to have a piece of jewelry (amulet and/or ring) that could help them focus their "power."  I spent several weeks going through a Latin-English dictionary and using Latin translation and information websites on the internet, looking for words or parts of words that I could use.  When translating "power," "force," and "energy," I continually came across the Latin word "vis," defined as "force, violence, STRESS, strength, energy, strain."  I have used "vis" in several of my New Zigon terms.

Translating "crystal," I found words such as crystallum, crystallus, and crystallinus.

You shouldn't need to consult the Letter People to see how the word Crystavis came about!

Made-up Monday - New Zigon

Made-up Monday is where I will share the background behind the creation of a word or term in New Zigon.  I put a lot of thought into every new word I created or picked.

I'll start first with the series title, New Zigon.

I've shared before that the concept for New Zigon started about ten years ago when my oldest son wanted a "new" story at bedtime.  The story I gave him evolved into the Prologue of the book.  About five years later, my two oldest boys were deep into the #Webkinz craze and had just discovered Club Penguin.  They had to create usernames.  Before they picked their final "#handles", "Zigon" came up, and I latched onto it for my book title.  It made me think of both "Zion" and "Zodiac."

When I started writing my book earlier this year, the working title was simply "Zigon."  I had even set up my blog and facebook page under "Zigon."  The problem was, that when I googled "Zigon," I got lots of hits for people with a last name of "Zigon."  I wanted a unique title that would bring my novel to the top of a search engine list.  By calling it "New Zigon" I obtained that objective, and it better aligned with the storyline.  Now my blog and facebook page both use "NewZigon" in their URL.

As a side note, the second part of the title, "The Founder's Curse," didn't get defined until the book was nearly finished.