what are the chances?

Sometimes you make something up in your fictional worldbuilding that ends up having real-world implications.

Back when I first wrote A New Beginning (published in April 2019), I made up a game that involves play pieces on a board of moves and countermoves, a game of intrigue enjoyed by one of the characters. The name I gave it was Trellix, which wasn't used until book 2, The Rule of Yonder. I pulled that out of thin air, completely made it up, and it's in my copyright submission from 2019.

On a whim recently, I typed it in the search engine to see if anyone might have been enough of a fan to mention it on the internet. Lo and behold, a cybersecurity company formed in 2022 took the name Trellix and are award-winning in their industry.

I had it first, as a game of intrigue in my space opera setting and continue to reference it in Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds. I swear I had never heard of it before and thought there's no way anyone else would come up with that.

The game in my series is one of tricking other players with moves that takes their pieces off the board (a bit reminiscent of chess and Chinese checkers with some other unique rules). It's a fictional game that requires a lot of skill.

A cybersecurity company needs to have a lot of skill to anticipate moves and countermoves by cybercriminals to take out those criminals and their activities. It's a perfect name to match the game I made up. Makes me wonder if the person who decided on that business name had read my book and liked the idea behind it. 🤔

I think it's a suitable link between the two uses, considering I made up the word and just thought it sounded good for my fictional game. I'm flattered that someone would like it that much.