(Don't worry, it won't literally be Sally.)

To no one's surprise, the winner of the Cradle bow-naming poll is Sally. Now one of the most dreaded shadow artifacts of the Cradle world will be named like a baby girl.

EDIT: Also, there were 720 votes in the thread! That's a lot of votes. It reminds me of the time when I had to count up votes manually, and then wept tears of blood.

Here's Paden's winning suggestion, copied from the original thread: 

A female name as if it was sentient.

umm..."Sally"

potential character dialog: "what's the name of your bow?"
"sally."
"sally???"

So, per the spirit of the suggestion, I'm going to come up with a simple female name that fits the setting. Which won't be Sally, but could be something like Sali, Sari, Sa Li, or Jim.

Maybe in this culture Jim is a woman's name. You don't know.

-Will

So uh...it turns out Strawpoll has a cap for poll options, and in less than three days, boy did we exceed that cap. I included as many of your submissions as I could, but if you don't see your name on here, try to vote for something similar. Even though I couldn't include all of your suggestions, that doesn't mean I don't love you anymore.

The poll is now live, so click here to vote: www.strawpoll.me/15366690

NOTE: You'll notice that several of these submissions don't really fit the Cradle setting, most notably Sally and Bowey McBowFace. In those cases, I'll be coming up with a setting-appropriate variation. I won't sacrifice the setting for the sake of an online poll, don't worry.

I kept it restricted to one vote per person, though I wasn't confident about that decision. It might have been better to allow multiple votes, so I'll consider that in the future.

Speaking of the future, you guys definitely came through in terms of submissions, so let me know in the comments if you'd like to do something like this again! And if so, what sort of thing would you like to name (character, place, another weapon, etc.)? And in what universe?

-Will

P.S. I'll probably include a few of these names as titles the bow has acquired over its long career, so your favorite name might make a cameo even if it doesn't win.

We've got a while before the next Cradle book comes out, but I was trying to think of something fun to do on the blog, so here's your chance to name a weapon in the Cradle series!

First, I went on the Cradle subreddit and asked what sort of thing--weapon, location, Path, whatever--the fans might like to name in the next Cradle book. There were a lot of votes for weapon or artifact, so that's what we're going with!

Initially I was going to provide all the options myself and you guys were just going to vote, but it seemed pretty clear that people wanted to come up with their own names. So here's what we'll do: I'm going to provide a brief description of the weapon here, and you all make suggestions for the weapon's name in the comments below.

In a few days, I'll put up a poll of all the options, and you can vote on the name of the weapon. I'll use the winning name in the Cradle series!

Here are some criteria for your submissions: first, it can't be from something copyrighted. I'm not going to name a sword Excalibur, but I could get in legal trouble if I call it a Shardblade or something. I'm not going to include any copyrighted options.

Second, you have to be willing to let me use the name you suggest in the series. If you don't want me to use the name...don't submit it. I feel like this one goes without saying, but just in case.

So here's the weapon we're naming: it's a longbow made of shadow madra that has been handed down through generations of shadow artists. Its arrows pass through anything without madra, and only impact objects with a soul.

This is a real weapon that will be involved in the story, by the way. This isn't just some weapon that will be mentioned in one scene and then go away forever. 

If this goes well, I might do more of this kind of thing in the future. Have fun with it!

-Will

I’m sick this week. Nothing fun to say, just...sick.

It’s this cold/flu/ancient curse that’s been going around lately, and it’s made the last few days pretty miserable. Hoping to shake it by this weekend.

Until then, I’m basically just coughing up lung after lung. Eventually, I’ll run out of spare lungs.

​-Will