Gina Briganti asked H.L. Carpenter:

Some questions blossomed in my mind as I was enjoying The Skyhorse. I'm glad that Goodreads gives me a place to ask them! !) Where did the name Tovi come from? I find it to be unique, and beautiful. 2) How did you create the language of Sor? I loved it!

H.L. Carpenter Thanks for the questions, Gina! We love talking about The SkyHorse. :)

Tovi explains her name best, in this interview she did for a blog.

You have an unusual name. Would you like to tell us about it?

I guess. It’s a boy’s name, and means goodness or kindness, not that I’m any of those things. I mean, I’m not especially good or kind, and I’m sure not a boy. But that’s okay. My dad’s first and middle names were Tobias Vincent. Mom combined them and named me after him.

As far as the language of Sor, we’re very interested in the etymology of words, that is, where they come from. We based the words Aire uses on words with Indo-European roots because those suited the time and place of her heritage and background. Dictionaries are a very good tool for finding out the source of a word. Next time you look up a word in a dictionary, check for the word’s history. It’s usually in parenthesis at the beginning or the end of the definition.

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