So I came up with what the consortium of non-human races that have positive relations with the Epsilon Alliance call themselves: The A’duuin. It fit better than something like “the League” or anything like that (the League just makes me think of the League of non-aligned worlds from Babylon 5). Colloquially, humans of the Alliance simply term their non-human trade partners and sometime allies as “the Races.” But these people wouldn’t call themselves that. Hence, A’duuin.
On another, somewhat related note, I’ve set a tenative word count goal for the first part of Epsilon, which is 25,000 words (part one in the second draft was just over 20,000 words; by the time I stopped the original draft 3, it was 22,000 words) and I would like to finish it by about this time next month. We’ll see what pans out. I have a lot of directional ideas…but we’ll see how things end up flowing. Also factor in the fact that I am working on my graduate thesis and starting to look for a Ph.D program. Plus work, commentary on other people’s theses, ect ect.
It is as it is, which in part is why I’m trying not to be too ambitious. That said…Caren has some things that she’s been trying to say and do. So there may be some skipping ahead in my future. We shall see.
Word count as it stands at this very moment: 4969. And still in chapter one. Something tells me that part one is going to be a bit longer than 25000 words.