Welcome! This launch was long was long delayed, because the world is a hard, cruel, place full of…actually, the truth is it has me in it, and I am slow and, not improbably at all, bad at website building! Who knew? (I knew.) I thought I’d start with something a bit fun, and so I share with you this character information anecdote!

Maybe you have characters of your own, whether they’re in writing, or a game, or an RP – maybe just a favorite character in something you’ve watched or read? In whatever case, I know I can’t be the only one to nickname them, hell, all the “ships” in fandom have strange names, so single characters have to get them too.

Currently, I have only one idiot that gets a consistent nickname, and that is Bran Fionnan – the son of the Summer Queen who stars in Eight Kingdoms alongside the Red King. Before I tell you what the name is (and here’s a hint, this post is posted with a picture of it), I have to tell you how it came about – which, like many other things in my writing life, is the fault of Microsoft Word.

Microsoft Word is a necessary evil, and every time I get a new version of it for my editing I have to learn how to turn off all the things that annoy me, like autocomplete and autocorrect. BEFORE I do this, all my invented words, foreign language words, and names are in danger (ask me about Maracas sometime, but prepared for me to jump out a window before I tell the story).

In this instance, Word decided that Bran was wrong, and I had obviously meant bran – as in, the grain – and changed bunches of “Bran” into “bran”. He was being an uncooperative character at that point, on top of Word deciding to take matters into his own hands, so I ignored him for a while and then….and THEN…I went back, and found all the brans, while simultaneously listening to Bob Dylan.

You know that song, “Blowin’ in the Wind”? Yeah. That song. The answer to the Red King’s prayers was blowing in the wind, and it was Bran, only it was bran….so Bran Fionnan, Summer’s son, became and has remained….”the wheat”. Yes, that’s right .The wheat. As in a field of golden grain. As in it turns into bread. Wheat.

So now if you happen to be in Connecticut, and you hear “God damn it wheat!” come blowing on the wind….well….

At least you know where it came from now.