Welcome back to the Burning Salt – Jaka Cultural Exchange Archive. The previous entries focused on the history and institutions that shaped Jaka civilization. This entry turns toward a smaller problem that became unexpectedly important after first contact: what humans should call an individual Jaka. The Jaka did not lack a way to identify one another. Their system was far more precise than human naming conventions. The problem was that precision alone did not create familiarity, trust, or the…

Welcome back to the Burning Salt – Jaka Cultural Exchange Archive. The previous entry explored why the Jaka continue to maintain what humans would call a monarch. This entry moves backward into their history and examines the crisis that created the Royal Caste. The conflict did not begin between unrelated civilizations or competing species. It began when one civilization adapted itself to two environments on the same world, only to discover that biological separation could eventually become…

Why I Wanted to Be an Entomologist When I Was Five The Inspiration Behind Burning Salt People occasionally ask where the idea for Burning Salt came from. Like most stories, there isn’t a single answer. There were dozens of influences over the years, but one of the biggest started long before I ever thought about becoming a writer. When I was very young, well before I even started school, I had already decided what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be an entomologist. My mother has…