What I really admire her for is the richness of the language of the termites (and for an alien bird species as well). Called 'conlangs', constructed languages have a surprisingly large number of human adherents. Not satisfied with an occasional mix-up of consonants with an apostrophe or two, writers like Lorinda build complex vocabulary and grammar.
I mentioned Star Trek earlier. As you might know, Klingon is one of the conlangs the Star Trek fanbase developed from the seeds planted early on. Why Klingon? I think because everybody just can't resist saying Gagh! with gusto when dining. (If you'd like to see a fun list of Star Trek foods, click on this link.
Read Lorinda's informative blog post on constructed language building for beginners. Don't just toss in some odd punctuation for your alien beings. Be brave. Build the entire language. Or at least build a consistent base for a language as the writers of Star Trek did for Klingon. Then let it loose on the fan world to fill in the blanks. The Klingon Language Institute fills in the blanks, including an alphabet! Read this article for the interesting background that brought Klingon to life.
Conlanging for Beginners by Lorinda J. Taylor
Try out Lorinda's Writing with this FREE Book on Smashwords: The Blessing of Krozem
An Article on Alien Language (xenolinguistics) with some good links
Reddit Articles on Conlangs
