Sunday, August 1, 2010

Repost- When a name isn't really a word

I felt it pertinent to re-post this blog in light of the pending sale of my fantasy novel, THE LIGHT OF EPERTASE, to Rhemalda publishing as it discusses my choice of the word Epertase.

How did I come up with Epertase you might ask? That's pretty easy. While those who know me, will recognize Epertase as the name of the fantasy novel that is due out in the spring of 2011. Actually, it is THE LIGHT OF EPERTASE, but that's not really important right now. The real credit for Epertase goes to my then-four-year-old son, Aiden. When he was in the early stages of being able to talk... and talk... and talk, he used to enjoy building towers with his building blocks or whatever he could find to stack on top of each other. For some unknown reason, when we asked him what he was building, he would always say his Epertase.

At that time, I had just began my epic fantasy novel and even with all of my creative juices flowing, could not come up with a name for the world I was creating. Meanwhile, Aiden was running around screaming "Epertase" all day and, somehow, I was still stuck. This is the part where I would like to tell you about my genius epiphany, you know, the one where I came up with this wonderful name for my fantasy kingdom, even if it would have been a lift from my son's new-found vocabulary, but that wasn't so. No, instead it took my beautiful wife to explain to me the awesomeness (not sure she used that exact phrase) of Aiden's word.

Then it clicked. I ran to my computer and logged onto the google website where I typed in "Epertase." That's right, I googled. You know what? Not a single entry for "Epertase." Google thought that I wanted to see a definition for expertise. That's as close as they could get to my kid's brilliant word. Dictionary.com... Pertuse—which means Punched; pierced with, or having, holes. Actually, that's a pretty cool word too.

So there you have it. My son named my book, my kingdom, and now my blog. But if anyone asks, I'm telling them it was all my idea. Heck, he was only two.

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