Greetings, lovely humans!
Lots to get through today! But today’s newsletter includes the third and final installment of my story Refraction.
Before we get there, a little housekeeping: I’ve got a book to plug, some upcoming appearances to mention, and a quick reminder about the newsletter’s new Ask Adeena section. If there’s something you’ve been stuck on—writing, indie publishing, career stuff, or whatever—send me the question using this form. It’s quick, anonymous if you want it to be, and I love answering them. It can literally be one sentence.
Not sure what to ask? People send things like:
• How do you balance writing with a full-time job?
• How do you know if it’s time to leave a job or just push through a rough patch?
• What’s something engineers should understand early in their career?
• When does spending money on editing or covers actually make sense?
• How do you decide which project deserves your attention right now?
Today’s question deals with coming up with character names!
First up: T is for Time Travel is now available for pre-order! It’ll be available March 31st 2026.
You’d think robots would know better than to mess with time.
You’d be wrong.
Next… appearances! Someone asked me about coming up to Boston. At the moment, the closest I’m getting to Boston is Trek Long Island in June 2026. I don’t travel a ton for appearances. Most of my appearances are local-ish to me (I’m in Maryland, a little north of DC). I do, however, do virtual appearances! I’ve met with several book clubs and other organizations that way. I’ve even spoken to classes of students virtually. (All this to say is that if you have/know an org that hosts virtual speakers, feel free to consider me! I talk about sci-fi, STEM, and more!)
My next appearance is at Awesomecon in DC March 14th and 15th. My friend Paul and I will be hosting a TREKtivism* discussion that Saturday morning:
I will also be at Shore Leave in July and quite likely at Balticon in May and Capclave in October.
* What is TREKtivism you ask? Simply put, it’s the spirit of turning our love for Star Trek into real-world action—using Trek’s ideals of exploration, inclusion, and optimism to inspire positive change in our communities.
Today’s story is part 3 of 3 and concludes Refraction.
If you need to catch up on parts 1 and 2 first, read this:
…and then continue on here!
Hours later, the day’s work was finished. The camp had gone quiet. Venn and Arin were back on QED running data uplinks, and Jema was due back soon from coordinating with them.
Fomalhaut was setting, and it caused the atmosphere to shimmer faintly.
The biosignature was still there. Dor was staring at the computer console Jema had left active.
“We’ve got a plan worked out for tomorrow,” Jema said as she returned from the ship. “We’re going to start the site survey there, over that ridge popping up to the east.”
Neither of them could see the ridge Jema was referring to due to trees in the way, but they both knew it was there from the coarse survey taken that day with the drones.
Dor nodded without saying anything.
“And with that, I’m beat and going to bed,” Jema added. “Nite.”
She didn’t wait for any kind of response from Dor, but climbed into her cot.
Dor contemplated getting into his, but he didn’t want to risk falling asleep and missing his chance.
He waited for more than an hour to make sure Jema was sound asleep, and then went off to QED. All the while, he watched the motion of the orange blob on the handheld he carried with him. It wasn’t drifting, he determined. It was moving purposefully.
Moving quietly up the QED’s ramp, Dor sealed the hatch behind him and powered only the forward systems–flight control and life support–keeping the rest of the ship in low-power maintenance mode. The QED’s engines were nearly silent under minimal thrust. It was one of the perks of this particular Coalition design.
The others were asleep on the QED and Dor went right to the cockpit. It was large enough for the four of them, although QED typically only needed two people to fly, and really not even then unless there were complications.
Dor knew that his plan–fly a series of sub-orbital parabolic arcs–was complicated and not the usual for QED, but it was achievable. He would have to program the ship’s computer to make up for his lack of a co-pilot. Not ideal. The ship’s computer was never going to be as good at reacting to the unexpected as a real human pilot, but it would do. And he was still there.
“Who’s there?” came a half-awake voice over the comms. “Jema? Dor?”
“It’s Dor, Arin. Couldn’t sleep. Decided to come in and run a systems check.”
“Well, be a little quieter about it.”
Dor wasn’t sure what he did that woke Arin, or if the quiet hum of preflight had rippled through the ship.
He half-expected to hear Jema’s voice come through next, demanding to know what he was going. When none came, he exhaled slowly and focused on the display.
Dor sat in the pilot’s chair, hands hovering over the controls, watching the orange blob pulse on the display. It was climbing. Waiting. Calling.
“Just a few quick hops,” Dor whispered to himself, easing into the pilot’s chair.
The ship hummed in quiet acknowledgement, then QED lifted, smooth and cutting through the cool strata of air until the stars dimmed behind the growing haze. The water layer gleamed above.
The instruments flickered. Altitude readings were as scrambled as when they passed through this layer on the way down, and an alarm went off.
Then, silence.
The ship breached the layer, and everything outside was light. Light bent and folded all around. Dor had the ships outside cameras patched into the monitor so the viewscreen acted as a window. He could see shapes moving around, vast and slow, as though the water itself was alive and dreaming. For a moment, Dor thought he saw wings, or maybe they were fins, passing effortlessly between states of matter.
One form drifted close. Its surface shimmered with fractal geometry that made his eyes ache. When it turned towards him, he thought he saw and recognized something impossible: a reflection of his own face staring back from within the creature’s body. Younger. Eyes wide with awe. The child he was when he dreamed of this place.
We remember you.
The voice wasn’t sound, but vibration, and Dor felt it deep in his chest. You fell. We caught you.
The cockpit lights flared white.
When Dor opened his eyes, he was on the ground again. The camp was bright with morning, QED parked exactly where it had been the night before.
Jema and the others were rushing toward him. He was drenched, his clothes cold and damp as though he’d been standing in the rain.
“Dor, what happened? You disappeared from the sensors for a minute, then reappeared!”
He didn’t answer. His gaze was fixed on the handheld display clutched in his palm. The orange blob was gone.
In its place was a large set of data. It scrolled by, numbers resolving into something stranger than coordinates.
Base-pairs. Sequences.
A final line pulsed once before fading:
REMEMBER US.
Dor stared at the words until the screen went blank. His reflection lingered there, and for a moment, he thought he saw the child he was, wide-eyed, reaching upward toward something just beyond the glass.
He whispered, “I remember.”
Outside, the first light of Fomalhaut broke over the horizon, and the water layer shimmered like a living sky.
[THE END]
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Indie authors are here to help out other indie authors. This simply means we cross-promote in each other’s newsletters in the hope that we’ll find readers for each other!
In that vein, check out Perilous Quest: A Galaxy Flux Short Story by Adrian Murphy:
Over at The BIG Sci-Fi podcast, we’re several episodes into Season 10! We’ve been discussing lots of sci-fi, including one of the more bizarre episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine called Move Along Home:
…and then a classic sci-fi era techno-thriller: Colossus: The Forbin Project:
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This is quickly becoming my favorite section of the newsletter… so if you’ve got a question, ask!
Questions can be about writing, indie publishing, engineering careers, school, technology, book recommendations (sci-fi or nonfiction), fandom, or just figuring things out. If something’s been rattling around in your head, send it my way.
You can submit your question here (it can literally be one sentence). I read every question, even if I can’t answer them all publicly:
https://forms.gle/yWzLbKjYAhJpuvQGA
Today’s question is from Nancy:
Adeena,
One of my biggest blocks is names. How do you name your characters? Do you also have to resist changing it after a short time?
-Nancy W.
Dear Nancy,
Let me answer the second question first: No, I don’t have to resist. I only change names if something doesn’t feel right.
I don’t have a single answer for the first question. There are a lot of ways I’ve named characters and no one way that I consistently stick to.
One way I’ve used are name generators. This particular generator is one I’ve returned to consistently: https://www.name-generator.org.uk/
I also often ask friends on my private FB page if they want to be in one of my stories and have used their names (or sometimes a version of their name). That’s where Patrick Marsden came from in Silly Insane Humans.
Sometimes I encounter people in real life, and I think their (first) name is awesome and I write it down to remember later. That’s where Dib came from in my story Final Orbit. And Liqi in the upcoming T is for Tangent.
Ruby, in my Robot Galaxy Series, was originally Stella. She also wasn’t the main character initially. Initially, the MC was Ethan Palmer. (I don’t remember where/why/how I chose that name!) The book also had a different name that I eventually changed to Ethan’s Robot Planet. But then I decided to ditch Ethan altogether and Stella took over as the MC. When I did this, I decided I didn’t like the name Stella. I love alliteration, especially with names, so I was intentionally looking for a name that began with “R.” Ruby popped out at me because it’s also my birthstone.
So then I had Ruby’s Robot Planet… but the name of the book changed to Crazy Foolish Robots when I was going back and forth with the cover designer! And here we are!
The only other thing I have to add is that if I’m writing a “period” piece I will do some research to look for appropriate names. Most of my upcoming novel, T is for Time Travel, takes place in the year 1201 in Italy, so when I was naming characters I found websites that listen period-appropriate Italian names.
So there you go: name generators, friends, strangers, and name-list websites.
…and I stop changing them when they feel just right!
-Adeena
I am deep into evaluating the early beta reader feedback on T is for Tangent. Getting that book done is my priority right now!
But I’m also really enjoying drafting answers for the Ask Adeena section. If you’ve got a question you’d like me to tackle—about writing, publishing, careers, engineering, or whatever’s been rattling around in your brain—send it my way here. I’m always looking for good questions:
https://forms.gle/yWzLbKjYAhJpuvQGA
My bonus picture today:
Last week, I was on Star Trek: The Cruise IX! (And I’m already booked for next year’s Trek cruise). This was my third year and it’s just as fun as the first! Really hard to pick just 9 out of the 1200+ photos I captured last week! lol.
Until next month… be kind, be well!
-Adeena
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