The Arrivals

Author’s Note

The Coffin Text used by Ajani to open wormholes and assign himself deathlessness is modified from Coffin Text 1031. To the best of my knowledge, Egyptian spells have absolutely no connection to wormholes, nor would travel through a wormhole allow a person deathlessness.

Saloon girls didn’t use modern idiomatic phrases. If Kitty were back in her rightful time (late 1800s), she would not have said, “Seriously!” The characters use language from eras other than their birth eras to reflect their years spent in the Wasteland with people from later eras. If you do happen to fall into a wormhole and end up in an 1800s Wild West town, do avoid giving yourself away by using modern phrases.

Each character’s name is selected for meaning as well as a vague sense of “fitting” that I can’t explain in any remotely rational way. Here are a few of my etymology notes that started the book.

•Jack (Jackson Reed)—diminutive form of John (God is gracious) or Jackson (son of Jack)

•Katherine (Reed)—pure

•Chloe (Mattison)—verdant and blooming

•Edgar (Cordova)—rich spear

•Francis (Miller)—free

•Melody (Blankenbecker)—song tune

•Hector (Soto)—anchor, steadfast

•Ajani—he who wins the struggle

•Garuda—king of birds

•bloedzuiger—literally “bloodsucker”

•Verrot—rot/rotten

•lindwurm—a wingless dragon of Nordic folklore

•cynanthropy—a mania in which the patient thinks he is a dog