What would you call this little critter that looks to be part tiger, part squirrel, and part pussycat? I’m sure there are similar undiscovered species lurking somewhere on this earth or another. These names are culled from my Twitter feed, from the years 2017 – 2020. Imaginary Animals Mammalian predators Gray-marbled Tigral Bat-Eared Leopard …
Entirely by coincidence, I found out that tables used for generating magic spells could also generate names suitable for blues singers from the first half of the twentieth century. Enjoy! Blues Singers Sissy Withers Addie Gate Sister Willie Ella Denny Durst Quincy Pearl Slow Soft Bird Nickie Jackson Jerris Howler Jerkie Davis Viola Peach …
Over the summer as I was immersed in Narnia I read a lot about the Old Testament, and in turn about the ancient civilizations of the Near and Middle East. Most people know of Ur, Assyria, and the Phoenicians, but there were many others more obscure — Adiabene, the Girgashites, Hayasa-Azzi. Some were kingdoms, …
It’s common in fantasy books for characters to be wounded, and commoner still for said characters to experience miraculous cures from native plants. Sometimes these are authentic, like those in the Brother Cadfael series of historical mysteries. Others are fictional. Stephen Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant series had hurtloam, Tolkien had athelas, Narnia had the juice of …
It’s not an easy task to worldbuild a fictional rock band. You need to have polished writing skills, a finger on the pulse of contemporary culture (or history of pop culture, if set in the past) and an in-depth knowledge of the music world. That’s a rare order. Nevertheless, some writers in recent years …
I like how casually this woman is aiming the gun. The illustrator caught her right at the moment before she pulls the trigger. How cold-blooded and hard looking she is! This is one tough cookie. Usually crime pulp cover women are plumper-cheeked and younger: Dames. This woman is firmly in Broad territory. Incidentally, I’ve …
The American military has a long tradition of giving colorful nicknames to its various companies, divisions, and specialty groups. To go along with these nicknames are specially commissioned patches to be worn proudly on uniforms or jackets. Take a look at the assortment above. The graphics reached their height of bizarreness during the Vietnam …
Yes, there is such a thing as beer for dogs. You can buy it here. One of my favorite things to randomize is food. Because it itself is so random — most people don’t know exactly what they’re going to eat that day. They grab a hot dog from a cart on the street, have …
Charn vies with Tashbaan as my favorite Narnian fantasy setting. Not that I’d want to live there, of course. It’s dead, dry, and spooky. But Charn in its prime… well! It must have been something to see. One of the reasons it’s so evocative is the name. It’s short and blunt, like a location of …
In last weeks’ Worldbuilding Wednesday I took a look at the etymology of Prunaprismia and how other women of Telmar might have been named. This week, I’ll look at the men. I think Lewis designed his names with French and Spanish in mind. The pronunciation of them, glottal and oily, recalls spoken Italian as …