Finding time to write has been the difficult part of getting going for this book thus far. And when I have a bit of time, I can sit and stare at the screen. Sometimes I'm just not "feeling it" for whatever reason. That sucks and there's little to be done for it.
Another obstacle? What to listen to as I write. Readers know I listed to the thirteen-plus hours of the Galactica/Caprica soundtracks over and over, totaling thousands of hours, but what to listen to as I write a story set in a modern Roman Empire? Well, I started by listening to Roman and Greek music (or at least recreations thereof). Eh. Then I moved on to movie soundtracks, but those weren't terribly inspiring and I often got distracted thinking about the movies and scenes I was listening to. I ended up back in the Galactica-verse. Yeah, I'm listening to Bear McCreary's great music, over and over again, again, as I write.
Longtime readers know I love to map things. It helps me immerse myself in the worlds I'm building and maybe it helps readers, too. If nothing else, it shows the readers that I actually put some thought into the bullshit I write. This time, since I am writing about our world in a different dimension, mapping our world with Roman lines and names on everything would be helpful. So here you go:
I had to do a lot of reading on Roman history and indigenous languages to understand how the world might look. Europe was called "Europe," the Atlantic "the Atlantic," and "Africa" to the Romans is what we would call "north Africa." "Oriens" is Latin for "east" and I chose that for Asia's name; thus also the "Eastern Ocean" aka "Oriental Ocean" ("Oriental" not having been used as a slur in that universe). Some of the other continent names come from an ancient map of the world by Crates of Mallus. He called the land south of north Africa "Antoeca" while he also hypothesized a pair of continents on the other side of the world, Perioeca and Antipoda. Thus, when my Romans went exploring, that's what they called these lands in the "New World." Australia gets the name "Marege" from the Makassar people of Indonesia, who, centuries ago, spoke of the land to their south as "Marege," the "wild country."
I had to map Londin a bit, too, so I started with the various police districts and I imagined greater Londin as a bit bigger than the London of our universe:
"Southwark" is a name used in London today, but it's a quite ancient name, so I kept it for the book. Newfield and Broadhand are based on ancient Roman settlements in those areas and I just translated their Latin names into English. If you Google "Londinium," you'll likely see a polygon settlement on the north side of the Thames; that's the "Old City" in the above map. The "New City" is the provincial and city buildings (the governor's palace, the Senate house, magistracy, etc.) that function today on the south side of the River Tames (no "h" in that universe, and it rhymes with "aims"). "LIC" is the "Londin Intercontinental Skyport"; "The Star" is the massive railway and subway (called "underway") complex that got its name because the converging rail lines looked like a star. "Portaper" is a neighboring city that handles a lot of cargo because it straddles the Tames; name derives from Latin for "port" and "opening."
The story of Londinium is set today, but in a world where the Roman Empire didn't go away. (I wrote out a very detailed history of the world that I'll probably include in the book as an index. I did it mostly to keep things straight in my head as ideas came to me and to provide backstory to the various cultures.) The world is governed from Roma and all people born on Earth are citizens of the Roman Republic. Londin has been associated with Roma for almost two thousand years. The Normans never invaded, England never had its own kings or queens, English isn't spoken there ... neither is Italian, for that matter. The language of the Republic is called "Roma," and it's probably some flavor of Italian, but not exactly. (This is why some cities may sound Italian to our ears, like "Bonaventura.") I'm writing in English because that's what I know ... I'm not JRR Tolkien over here inventing a whole new language. Well, at least not this time. The people of Brittan are not reserved ... they are wholly different than the people of Great Britain. That's something I wanted to communicate in this first chapter. These aren't Brits, so don't imagine them speaking with a Cockney accent or something. Slang "yes" and "no" comes from corrupted Germanic, "ya," "na." There's no "OK"; these people are more apt to say "Aye" in its place. The Republic has existed in one form or another for almost three millennia. It is ever-present in the people's lives and no one questions it. It's a different world. I'm curious if all of this is conveyed.
Read the chapter after the JUMP: