NANP: Names On A Train

Joining me today on Names: A New Perspective is Black Library’s most recent debut author, Joe Parrino, who has been putting out a lot of short fiction from them of late. I haven’t had a chance to read anything by him as yet, but I’m certainly looking forward to it. Joe has some great insights on the Warhammer 40,000 setting and seeing his insights within the context of his stories should be fun indeed. While you and I wait for Joe to put out a full-length novel, here are some of his thoughts about names in fiction.

Names: A New Perspective Part 3

The last two weeks have been spent in a mad scramble to get people on board for the next phase of Names: A New Perspective. I really should have gotten this done a month ago, but I kept getting sidetracked by other things (Game of Thrones, finishing edits on Project Dharmayoddha, reading a ton of graphic novels, catching up on my monthly reading, etc), that it just didn’t happen on time.

But, I have the new schedule done and all worked out, and my thanks to everyone who has agreed to participate. The last few guest posts that have gone up have not been mentioned in any of the schedules, since I was mostly just winging it all, but now everything is set for the most part. This is the schedule that I will be referring to in the coming weeks, and I will also be expanding on this one as I contact yet more authors and bring them on board.

Here they are:

Fresh Shenanigans

So I have been absent off the blog for a while. My apologies.

It has been a busy couple of weeks. Quite busy. You see, I have been having a blast with the Bolthole forums. The community there is just tremendously great. And the amount of sheer talent over there is unbelievable. Not to mention that there are forums dedicated to asking some of the authors almost any questions relating to their work with BL or their experiences as writers. Even some of the BL staff hang out there sometimes! It is fabulous to say the least.

And most of all, a learning experience as I mentioned in my previous post. My success in getting the short story done and submitted (and hopefully accepted!) will be due to all these amazing people for the most part.

The other thing I have been busy with is particular to the Bolthole. A bunch of the forumites have gotten together to work out a campaign history for an Imperial crusade. Proud to say that I have done my share in contributing to the thread. And elated. Its been another learning experience. This time with the Tau.

And I have come to hate the Tau a little. Just a little, but enough.

You see, its their naming conventions. They are utter ridiculous to say the list and completely bonkers in my opinion. Take a look here. Nevertheless I persevered and came up with fairly simple eleven names for the campaign. Then the matter of fleet assets arose and I volunteered to do the Tau section. Here it gets even better. The convention for naming ships, according to Battlefleet Gothic, is thus: [Sept where vessel is built] [Vessel’s class name] [Personal name of first commander] [Personal name of current commander]. Hardly makes sense to me. Needless to say, the vessels I have come up with seem to be hardly any different from each other. They have no personality I guess. Compared to the names of Imperial vessels. Like the Vinco Redemptor of the Dark Angels, or Tycho of the Blood Angels, or the Lord Solar Macharius and the Guardian of Aquinas of the Imperial Navy. These names have a personality, they represent something. I just don’t see the same with the Tau.

Other than that though, it has been awesome. The Sable Swords strike force was fun to design with a minor discussion involving the use of a battle-barge versus a plain old strike cruiser. But thankfully, with effort, everything is justifiable. The Sororitas are proving to be a little daunting, given the severe lack of background on them really or how a lot of their units actually work on the battlefield. System designing was fun and intense – matching proper (and random) planets together is no easy task. Especially when you are working to a set idea. Its all moving along quite nicely and I am definitely excited with this.

Feel free to check out the thread here.