Finally, the much delayed (hey, life's been demanding!) continuing installment of Song of the Laggorn's interesting facts is here. First, let's talk about the inspiration for Cyos, the living nebula originally mentioned in Tolagon. As an author, at least for me, I sometimes develop characters in my mind and then find a place for them in my stories. Cyos is one of these cases.
I've worked at my employer, Daugherty Business Solutions, in Creve Coeur, MO, for the past seventeen years. Okay, stay with me here as I'm about to delve into bathroom talk, but I promise this is not going to be graphic! On the floor where my office resides, the men's bathroom has granite walls. So, as you could easily assume, I had spent many instances dispensing wastewater at the urinal. While relieving my bladder, I stared into the confetti of specs and swirls that detailed the onyx-toned granite wall. During those moments, I couldn't help fixating on a particular spot that looked like a face with a large open mouth spewing a cone of particles. Day after day of looking at this little guy, it began to spark my imagination about where he came from and what he was doing. This was around the same time that I was drafting the first book of the series. The more I looked at it and the mixture of details surrounding it, a massive nebula came to mind. Since it had a face, it must be alive, and since it was blasting a cone of particles from its mouth, it must be hostile. Voila! Cyos was born!
Since it has been so long since my last post, I will provide one more interesting fact. The Halioc Blade was inspired by the beginning of a well-known song. Welcome to the Machine by Pink Floyd. Now, if you've already read Song of the Laggorns, that might be enough of a clue for you to figure this out without any further explanation. Got it? Or do you need more clues? Fine, I'll give you a long explanation. You knew I would anyway.
Another byproduct of my job, at least when I was still commuting into the office each day (pre-COVID), I listened to music like many people do to help boost my mood before starting the long workday. I did the same on the way home to recover from the day. One of the songs that came up frequently on my playlist was one of my favorites from Pink Flyod. Welcome to the Machine. The start of the song has a swooshing sound that, in my mind, comes across as a large industrial fan blade spinning high above with a subtle approaching pulse, probably from some AI that's controlling the oppressive "machine". That's how my imagination deciphered the mixture of sound effects. It spawned images in my imagination of a massive space blade manipulating how populations think and live, and I had to incorporate this into my story. The Halioc Blade spawned into existence.
That's all for this edition my fellow science fiction fans. Take heart and enjoy the blessing of each day as though it were your last!