Kotta kottomira (Tomorrow News Network: A to Z)

Hello, friends, and welcome to week three of the A to Z Challenge!  For this year’s challenge, I’m telling you all about the universe of Tomorrow News Network, my upcoming Sci-Fi adventure series.  In today’s post, K is for:

KOTTA KOTTOMIRA

My muse is right.  If I told you what the words Kotta kottomira mean in universe, that would be a huge spoiler for The Medusa Effect, book one of the Tomorrow News Network series.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any other K-words to write about.

Hmmm….

Well, I can tell you this.  As part of my writing process, I host what I call “editing parties.”  I invite a few friends over for dinner.  Then after we eat, I read aloud a selection of whatever my current work in progress is.  It’s a great way to get instant feedback.  It’s far more effective than traditional beta reading, in my opinion.

Now in earlier drafts of The Medusa Effect, Kotta kottomira (whatever that is!) was originally Komse komsavia.  As far as gibberish space alien words go, I thought Komse komsavia looked good on the page.  It sounded right in my head, and beta readers never commented on it.  But when I read those words aloud to my friends, my friends started laughing.

Turns out that Komsa komsavia sounds too much like the French phrase comme ci, comme ça, meaning “neither good nor bad” or “eh, it’s so-so.”  At that point in the story, I had not yet revealed what my alien gibberish was supposed to mean, but it definitely was not supposed to mean that!

So I changed it.  Very special thanks to David and Andrea for helping me catch that little mistake.  Hopefully Kotta kottomira makes better alien gibberish than what I had before, and hopefully the ending of The Medusa Effect has not been spoiled for you by this blog post!

Next time on Tomorrow News Network: A to Z, Litho is a peaceful, isolated colony world.  Nothing bad could ever happen there.