A-to-Z Challenge Day 10: The Letter J

Yen Jab

The Universe and You

Space Corps Book 7

The final book in the Space Corps sequence was the final set of notes I worked on before writing Seven Thunders.  Do you remember Star Trek V: The Final Frontier?  It's the one where Kirk asks, "What does God need with a starship?"  (Although McCoy has a better line: "You don't ask the Almighty for his I.D.")  Anyway, the one where we meet Spock's half-brother, released in 1989, two years before Star Trek creator and Great Bird of the Galaxy, Gene Roddenberry, died.  It's the only part of the screen franchise he recommended be stricken from the record, much the way the 1970s animated series is rarely considered a part of the canon, except the episode "Yesteryear."

I happen to like the movie.  I find it endlessly intriguing.  One of the elements the film did screw up, as I'm happy to acknowledge, is the presentation of Nimbus III, the Planet of Galactic Peace.  The Romulan delegate who shows up is about as effective a screen presence as the cat lady, the one whose boobs are obviously made of plastic (but come in threes, and thus predate the more famous ones in the Schwarzenegger Total Recall).

Still, I find the concept fascinating.  It ended up serving as the basis for a colony world meant to try and make a go of humans and Danab living together.  The planet's name is Wanethrex, a name I coined when I spent all my time bugging a co-worker named Sam Lane (mentioned on C Day).  The story was originally named Firefly, but I knew I couldn't keep that one.  When I briefly considered trying to pitch it as a comic book, when I was convinced that 2011's Green Lantern was going to make movie audiences love exotic tales with aliens again, the way Star Wars almost did, it became known simply as The Colony.

Now, as with every book in the Space Corps sequence, it's named after my favorite chapter title in the story.  Anyway, Yen Jab was one of several characters who benefited from my attempt to convert it into a comic book pitch.  I figured I needed to know the character arcs for everyone in the story, and that pushed me to figure out where everyone landed, including their defining moments.  Yen Jab is a mystic, whose prophecies drive the story and motivate certain developments.  She already had her moments, being so important to the story.  She's also the beneficiary of a radical name upgrade, the way Odin Gram (from G Day) was.  I'm of the mind that if a character's name is hard to grasp, it's difficult to penetrate their story.  "Yen Jab" seems almost overly simple, but it's one I'm pretty sure you'll remember for longer than it takes to move to the next blog.

Angel Jiminez

Yoshimi and the Assassins Guild

Yoshimi Trilogy Volume 2

I keep referencing warrior orphan Yoshimi's whirlwind tour of the world in the second volume.  Angel Jiminez is one of the reasons this occurs, because she's a member of the Assassins Guild, the organization that surrounds Ronan Quinn (whom you'll officially meet on Q Day), the man who Yoshimi learns in the first volume murdered her parents.  You met Bill on B Day, so you know that part of Yoshimi's story is also my version of a young adult romance.  There are always romantic rivals, real and imagined, in young adult romances.  Yoshimi is not amused to learn that Bill has moon eyes for Angel.

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Stephen Drew officially joined the Red Sox yesterday, and that meant Jose Iglesias indeed left to go back to the Minors.  

Albert Pujols may be starting off slowly, but that doesn't mean he isn't reaching milestones.  Here's a link about that.  He also currently stands thanks to a hot 4 for 4 game in an Angels loss last night at 9 and 26, pumping his average all the way to .346.  As I've been saying, it's still been early in the season!  Mike Trout, meanwhile, is 10 for 36, standing at .278.

That loss was to the A's, of course.

I'm still celebrating, meanwhile, the Cardinals, who won big yesterday, as I said.