Name That ...

Every time we suffer through a long winter here in the Flathead, a strange phenomena occurs the following fall: we have a baby boom. This fall, practically everyone is having a baby. Yes, it was a looong winter. No, I'm not announcing anything (thank goodness). While the new little munchkins are exceedingly cute and snuggable, I'm glad to give them a squeeze and then hand them back to their mothers. I don't miss the sleepless nights, the endless poopy diapers, and having my body turn into a dairy. I also don't miss having to name the little squirts. That's a daunting task. What if you name them something they eventually hate? What if people make fun of them? What if everyone else decides to name their kiddo that exact same thing? Or the problem we have--what if the boy name you use becomes a popular girl's name? Sigh.

But even though my child-bearing days are over, I still don't get out of the name dilemma. As a writer, I have to give careful consideration to each character's name. I have to avoid strange spellings, similar sounding names, even using too many names that start with the same letter. And as I'm learning, writing a series is a whole new ballgame. I might mention a character only once and give him an average name like Mike and than forget and call someone else Mike in the next book.

It's kind of strange how some names come out of the air without really attaching a real person to that name. And then later, you realize that you've used names from half of your extended family and most of the children in the 6th grade class.  For me, it's never intentional to name a character after a real person--unless I'm trying to serve a vendetta. (Beauregard  was such a big jerk when he dumped me just before prom, so in my next book, my villain will be named Bequregard. Ha ha ha! Revenge is mine!) However, I do feel like I'm running out of names. Pretty soon all my characters are just going to be called Bob. Even the girls. Unless! Maybe you can help!

Share your favorite names with me. Do you have any old family names that you would like to revive? How about names that are really edgy but you were too afraid to use them? How about a name that you've just always loved, but never used? Do share! And not only will one random commenter win a weekly prize, you might just see your suggested names used in a future book. How seriously awesome!

(Notice I said name(s). Anyone leaving just one name will be branded as greedy. Unless you plan on having as many kids as the Duggar's, you should have plenty names to share. And guess what! I could even use last names. If you've heard a really cool last name, share that too.)

And don't forget!!! I'm giving away five copies of my new book. All you have to do is click here and give me your name and contact info. You get bonus entries if you do extra things to help promote my book. It's a win win situation!