Continuity

I was brainstorming a new idea and needed to know what the first hero and heroine looked like. I always go out online, looking for pictures that I save to reference. It helps me not get hair or eye color wrong.

Usually, if it's a multi-book series like Paladin League, I will go out and find all the heroes and heroines, although I didn't for this series idea.

That was fine. I actually was right about what color hair the next two heroines have.

It was the secondary characters that tripped me up.

The heroine's best friend. Clearly, she's brunette. I can see it clearly. And another secondary character, the best friend's little sister? Obviously a blonde.

But while I was looking for pictures of heroines 2 and 3, I started glancing around for the two secondary characters.

And discovered I was completely wrong about their hair colors. Not even close.

The best friend? She has auburn hair. Her younger sister? She's the brunette.

On the plus side? I'm not writing this story yet (I have two more Paladin League books to finish before I start another series), so there was nothing to fix. On the minus side? I keep thinking what if I didn't look for pictures of the two secondary characters? What if I did start writing the book and then found out later I was completely wrong? What if I had to do a search and replace and I missed something?

I know. I'm getting worried over nothing, but it was a reminder of why my OneNote is stuffed with photos of artifacts, characters, places, cars, and anything else I need. Not only so I know what they look like, but to avoid continuity issues later. 

Influential

If you're a newsletter subscriber, you've already heard this story, but it's one that makes me smile, so I'm sharing it here, too.

I've talked over and over about how my characters come in and take over the story. I make one wrong move and they go on strike until I do it their way, not what I was planning on doing.

But it gets better.

When my characters come in, I acquire their interests. It's so weird the way it happens.

While I was writing Logan's book, I developed interest in classic muscle cars. Yeah, the person who doesn't care about cars at all, was into muscle cars for about eight months.

Then there was the character in an unpublished work who was into Polynesian dance. Guess who has an entire collection of DVDs with Hawaiian and Tahitian dance?

Now I have characters who play musical instruments and I suddenly have this burning desire to buy an electric guitar. I am not going to do it, even if I did price out the Fender Jazzmaster. Just long enough to see the prices and then I noped out of there.

Because I know the interest will die when the characters leave. Been there, done that, have the DVDs to prove it.

I also have a history with musical instruments that is lengthy and filled with fail, including acoustic guitar when I was in grade school (and piano and viola and drums and more!). I know better than to think this interest in electric guitar is mine.

So I will content myself with giving my characters awesome musical instruments and pass myself. 

Secrets! Argh!

As I began writing Wicked Temptation, I knew Cal had stuff in his past. It was why he walked away from Io to begin with. I sort of had an idea what happened, but it wasn't clear at first. I'm not sure if I blogged about this when I got the information or not, but when it arrived, I was like, hmm, that makes sense.

This week, though, I got the full picture of Cal's background.

Keep in mind that until this week, I knew Cal had a family, but I didn't know anything about them. I knew he had siblings, but I didn't know how many or even any basic information on if they were older or younger.

I needed that information earlier in the book, but Cal was closemouthed. Anyone who's read this blog for a while knows that my characters can be uncooperative. I frequently get surprises sprung on me as I'm writing. At least most of the time, I know there's something there so I can foreshadow whatever it is.

Then there's the characters who just drop a bomb on me when I'm more than halfway through their book. Yeah, let's not talk about them.

So I needed information on Cal's family earlier in the book, he didn't share anything, so I guessed. I guessed completely wrong as it turns out. It was a quick tweak, so I went back and fixed it, but it sure would have been nice to have these details a little earlier in the book.

At this point--where I'm at in the story--even Io doesn't know what happened. She'll be getting the story later on, but at least I have it now.

I also have a slew of ideas for the epilogue, so many, it's keeping me awake while I play them out, trying to decide which one is the best option.

No decision reached yet, but it's tantalizing. 

Who's the Boss?

I've talked about how my characters love to overshare--and how it’s my job to be the gatekeeper between their trivia and the reader’s experience. But let’s back up a step.

Writing, for me, has always been about the characters. I can count on one hand the number of story ideas I’ve had that weren’t centered on the hero and heroine--and I’ve had a lot of ideas over the years.

Only a slight exaggeration.

My first published book? One of my critique partners read the draft and said I had all the character actions and reactions nailed, but they were playing off shadows. Draft two involved beefing up the plot that drove those responses. I’ve come a long way since then. I’m better at layering plot and character reactions now. But even with all that growth, I’m still a character-driven author.

Because my hero and heroine leave me no other choice.

I’ll notebook out the perfect plot idea for a scene--something that would work perfectly--and if either of them doesn’t like what I’ve written? They go on strike. Refuse to move forward. No words. No momentum. Just silence.

On my third book, I spun my wheels for six weeks. Six. Weeks. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t write forward. And then it hit me--I had the hero taking an action he would never do. One paragraph. That was it. I changed it, and the story unlocked. I finished the book.

You’d think he could’ve spoken up earlier, right? Before I wasted six weeks? And I was on deadline. I didn’t have six weeks to spare. I ended up burning some serious midnight oil to turn that book in on time.

These days, I catch it faster. If I feel stuck, I usually figure it out within a week. Sometimes the problem is buried several chapters back, which makes it trickier. Like, why didn’t you go on strike then so I could fix it sooner? (And find it easier!!!)

There are times I really wish I was the boss of my books. It would make my life so much easier. But I don’t even get to pick my characters’ names. No joke. They pick their names and let me know. I used to fight it. I tried to assert my dominance.

They responded by leaving me spinning my wheels. No words. No progress.

I surrendered. My hero and heroine are the boss.

When My Characters Overshare (And I Have to Be Ruthless)

I’ve said it before: my characters run the show. They tell me their names. They decide what happens. And if I write the wrong thing? They go silent. I spin my wheels until I figure out what they actually want. I’m used to it by now.

Sometimes they withhold information entirely--until they drop a bombshell. When that happens (looking at you, Damon from Ravyn’s Flight), I stop everything and revise from the beginning to layer in the foreshadowing. It’s disruptive, but necessary.

Other times, they show me scenes that are…boring. Not for me--I need the info--but for readers? Nope. What they spin out in 2,000 words can usually be distilled into two sentences in the next scene. The one where something actually happens.

I’m deep in this kind of detail right now with Wicked Temptation. Cal and Io have history. They have backstory. And they’re giving me everything. I need it to write their story. But readers? They’ll get thimblefuls. Just enough to understand the emotional stakes. My job is to screen what Cal and Io are passing along so the book doesn’t become a series of vignettes--it becomes a cohesive, compelling story.

Every scene I write has to accomplish three things. Backstory and transition aren’t on that list. They might be present, but they’re not the point. If a scene doesn’t hit three? It gets cut.

Have I written scenes that never make the book? Absolutely. Sometimes the characters are insistent. I write the chapter, stare at the pages of boredom they’ve spewed, and drop it into my unused scenes folder. Occasionally I try to salvage it--add enough to make it work--but it rarely does. It just delays the inevitable.

Take Cal and Io again. I know how they met. I know how they got married. I know what broke them. Readers will get the tip of the iceberg. I know 90% more than what’s on the page--including the scenes I’ve cut.

In some ways, I’m a gatekeeper between reader and story. I have to tell my characters, “That’s boring. No one cares.” And then write something readers do care about. Something that advances the story. Something that earns its place by accomplishing three things.

My unused scene folder grows based on two factors:

1. How much trivia the characters are sharing

2. How long it takes me to realize it’s not advancing the story--it’s just putting everyone to sleep

I’ve gotten better at this over the years. You do not want to see the amount of cut scenes from Ravyn’s Flight. It’s staggering.

Now? Not as much. I recognize a snoozefest much earlier. I’ve learned to be ruthless.

Symbols, Ink, and Storylines

When Cal first made his appearance in the Paladin League series, I knew very little about him. He was the team’s new medic, and that was all I had.

Then I needed to describe him—and there it was. An amateur-looking tattoo on the inside of his left forearm. I didn’t plan it. It just showed up. I paused, curious, but I was focused on other characters and let it slip past.

Then came Lurch’s story. And again, that same tattoo was mentioned. When something gets called out twice, I have to believe something’s going on there. I wondered why he kept it. He could’ve had it removed. He could’ve buried it under something bigger, more polished. But he didn’t.

Information wasn’t forthcoming. Cal wasn’t ready to explain himself. But now I knew something was there—I just needed to unearth it.

As Cal took up more “screen time” in the series, the details began to surface. He got the tattoo on impulse, shortly after he enlisted. It wasn’t planned, wasn’t pretty. But it mattered. He keeps it as a reminder that impulsive actions have consequences.

Which, of course, started me asking questions. What impulsive actions are you talking about Cal?

The tattoo is a symbol of something. He gave me easy answers first, evaded any follow-up questions, and was cagey as hell. I learned about his relationship with his heroine that crashed and burned, but that felt like one of his easier answers. Not the root cause, especially since he got the tattoo more than a decade before he met her.

Now I'm working on his book. I needed that information in order to know him well enough to write him. I pressed a little harder.

I got the answer. It's something that changed him and changed the trajectory of his life.

The tattoo marks that moment for him. No one else knows what it means or why he's kept it. He only gives the easy answers if someone is brave enough to ask. His other tattoos are precise and done by skilled ink artists, but Cal still keeps the dagger.

Because it's his truth that he feels he needs to carry. You can get all the answers in July 2026 when Wicked Temptation is released.

Fresh Beginnings

Writing the beginning of a book always takes me so much longer than any other part. The way I explain it to people is that it's like building a house. You have to get the foundation down right or everything else you add on top of it will be out of kilter.

Wicked Temptation is no exception. 

I know this happens and I try to be patient with the process, but I'm used to the speed I was writing on the previous book. As I'm heading into the end, my speed picks up.

Going back to starting speed? It's painful.

Book 8 of the Paladin League series is Callum "Baggs" Baggnell and Iona Desmond. Baggs has been around for a few books, so I know him fairly well, and because his heroine was mentioned so much in the previous book, I know Io pretty well, too.

But then I never start writing a book until I know the characters very, very well. It doesn't mean the start of the book will go any faster.

Cal is the hero where it took forever to get his name. I don't get to pick my characters names--they let me know when we have it. There's a reason why Cal was only referred to by his handle for a while. There was a stretch where I thought his name was Callan. It just felt a little off, and after the torturous route we went through to get this name, I was frustrated. And then we got to Callum and it was an ah-ha! moment. I had a name!

Io was easier. She and her sister told me their names right away. Ayla and Iona. The only (brief) debate was whether her name was Ione or Iona. It didn't take long before that was settled.

I'm not sure I ever told the story here about their names.

The plan for the Paladin League series has changed many, many times since I first had Finn and Zo from Wicked Intention come in and talk to me. One of these later plans was an eight book series--two quartets: The Musketeers (Ryder, Finn, Griff, and Kyle) and The Lost Treasure. Only it became clear early on that this would need more books. The Lost Treasure became six books.

And I knew I had a character named Ayla hanging around. She showed up when I heard the name Isla. The two names are pronounced the same, but Ayla made it clear that her name was not spelled Isla.

I have long since given up arguing with my characters about names or spelling of said name. Whatever they want, I roll with. I used to attempt to guide them a different direction, but they always ended up with the name they wanted anyway, so why waste the time and energy?

Surnames are easier for me to get them to change. They're not as stubborn about those.

Once I realized the Paladin League Lost Treasure arc was six books and not four, it became clear that Ayla was on of the heroines. And when I learned she was a twin, I knew who the heroine in the second added book was, too.

But beginning a book is hard and takes me so long to write. I'll just keep getting the foundation down solidly, no matter how slowly it goes.

The Name Game Part 10,035

If you've followed this blog for a while, you know that I do not get to name my characters. They tell me their names, and if I don't like it? Too bad.

Sometimes I get things like: My name starts with an R. And then I'll spend hours combing through baby name websites and books trying to find the right R name. Hours is understating it. It was weeks because this heroine had a name classified as a male name in all but one resource. If I hadn't stumbled across that, I might not know her name yet.

Then there are the characters who are sort of easy. I was walking down the hallway and I heard Mika. And while I had no clue who she was or what story she was from, at least I didn't have to work for her name. (Through a Crimson Veil)

I preface this blog post with all this information because it explains why I am in a tangle with names in my Paladin League series.

If I were picking names, I would have chosen ones that were a lot different from each other so that there would be no confusion. Instead, I have Case (Wicked Suspicion) and Cal (AKA Baggs). I have Iona and Ian (AKA Rusty).

To combat this, after Case's book, he is only referred to as Lurch. His first name is no longer mentioned. There's a book between Case's story and Cal's book, so I'm hoping that helps.

Iona also goes by Io. Ian is Ian. This one is going to be painful. I'm still debating how to handle this. I have one possibly good idea. If Ian was called Rusty by his family the entire time he was growing up, maybe he would think of himself as Rusty and then I wouldn't have the I-name issue.

The thing that's so frustrating to me is I worried that Ayla and Iona were too close. They are twin sisters. I probably couldn't have changed either name, but I might have been able to coax a nickname out of one of them.

I never considered the other books and other characters.

Although, in my defense on this one, Ian was going by Zack when Ayla and Iona made their appearances in my brain. Don't even get me started about the characters who give me the wrong name and then change it on me at the last minute.

Exploration

I think I blogged about Oz remaining secretive about himself, but I was sure I knew Ayla, his heroine, fairly well. It's not that I didn't know Oz at all--I most definitely know enough--but he's staying quiet about his background.

I know he can be manipulative (poor Lurch), but it's always for the greater good, not for any malicious purpose. It's part of why he was sent undercover with the drug lord.

He's still not sharing his background. Either that means there's nothing there or it means there's something major he doesn't want me to know. IIRC about blogging about this, I'm sure I mentioned talking to his friends and that none of them would share information either.

That's super strange. Whenever I have a character who won't talk, their friends will usually share so that they can have their happily ever after.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about today.

No matter how well I think I know my characters, writing is an exploration of who they really are, and things come up that I never knew about before I wrote the scene where they reveal something of themselves.

As an example, Ayla in Wicked Ambition. She didn't tell me that she's afraid of flying. It never occurred to me that she'd have this phobia since she hopped on a jet and flew nine hours from Los Angeles to Puerto Jardin to rescue her sister.

And then I wrote the scene where Oz is asking her why she didn't fly from the Puerto Jardinese capital to the city of Trujillo.

That's when I found out about her fear.

I don't know if this is a big deal later in the book or not. It did drive plot in the beginning of the story and (so far at least) it hasn't come up again. I'll find out as I keep writing.

Wherefore Art Thou Oz?

Book related, but not writing related topic today.

Oz, the hero of the book after Lurch's story, has long hair. Like really long. I didn't think much about this. My characters are in the driver's seat and I'm just along for the ride.

The long hair, though, became a huge issue while I was working with my cover designer. The photo sites she uses do not have any good options for men with long hair.

Literally none.

She asked me to see if I could find someone and I spent hours looking. Hours! And I ran into the same problem she did. There was one guy that could kind of maybe work except he didn't look hard and dangerous and Oz most definitely is both.

The other funny thing is that while I liked the heroine she put on the mock up, I wasn't excited about her hair style. I thought while I'm here, let me see if I can find a different heroine. Every image I liked for Ayla turned out to be the same model. I decided the hair wasn't an issue, not when my cover designer already found the right woman to portray the heroine.

We're still working on the cover, but the cover reveal will happen first for newsletter subscribers. If you want to join my list, you can sign up Here. Just scroll down a little to find the sign up form.

Wait Your Turn

There's always a point when I'm writing a book that the couple from the next story arrive and start talking to me. It almost always happens while I'm working on revisions to the book in progress.

This time, however, the next couple showed up and started talking when I was only slightly halfway through Wicked Suspicion.

To say this is not good timing is understating things. I'm only able to write one book at a time because my connection to the characters is so enormous, I can't fit more than one couple in my brain at the same time. I've tried to write more than one book at a time.

I've failed. And had to table one of the stories. It doesn't matter if they're in different stages of creation. My brain thinks of them the same.

So Oz and his heroine, Ayla, starting to talk was a huge problem.

I'd go to bed. They'd keep me up talking. I'd be driving. I'd listen to them talking. I'd be trying to concentrate on Lurch and Nyx. It would be Oz and Ayla talking.

The same scene over and over and over. Finally, it dawned on me to write the scene down. I just transcribed the dialogue, not the rest of the scene, It worked. I haven't heard from Oz or Ayla since I did this. I'm also confident they'll return when it is their turn to have center stage.

It was an interesting scene and it had information in it that I didn't know about beforehand, so it was good. Just the timing was less than stellar.

Yes, the Name Game is Back

There are six books in the second arc of the Paladin League. I thought I had all the names right, but (as it turned out) I was close, but not quite.

It all happened when I started thinking about Baggs' story. I know his heroine, I know her name, and I thought I had Baggs' first name, too. He'd been hard to pin down, but we'd settled on Cullen.

I will admit I had some unease. It felt right, but not right. I know that makes no sense, but it was one of those feelings of I don't think this is right, but I couldn't figure out why I felt that way.

And then I started getting pieces of the story. I heard Baggs and his heroine talking and she wasn't calling him Cullen. She didn't call him Cull.

She called him Cal.

I tried to re-imagine the dialogue and have her use his name. She wouldn't. That's when I knew I'd been right to feel uneasy. His name was not Cullen. It was something that could be shortened to Cal.

It didn't take more than a minute to get the real name. Callum. But everyone calls him Cal, except for his teammates who use his nickname of Baggs.

Mystery solved. That's why I was able to think Cullen was correct, but still feel uneasy. His name was very, very close, but not quite that. The uneasiness is gone now. This is the right name. And thank goodness I hadn't written his first name yet in any of the books.

Callum Baggnell and his heroine are book 4 of 6 in the second Paladin League arc.

After the HEA

When I go to bed, I think about my stories. Usually, not the one I'm actually writing because then I don't sleep. :-) I start worrying that I'm going to forget the dialogue or idea or whatever and so I work super hard to commit it to memory.

Wicked Suspicion has been an exception, but not the story. Well, not exactly the story. At least the main part of the story.

What I've been getting is an epilogue sort of thing. You see, Nyx's brother is protective of her, and while Case might be his best friend, Dylan is going to watch out for his little sister. Also, hey, dude, the bro code! You don't go after your best friend's little sis.

I'm seeing a confrontation between Dylan and Case. Like what are your intentions toward my sister kind of confrontation.

Dylan also shared some information about Case with me that I knew, but didn't put much weight on. After listening to Nyx's brother, I realize now that this is an important piece of who Case is and I better start putting some attention to it.

This is one of those scenes that I would get and not write since it isn't going in the book, but I think I am going to write this one and release it as a bonus for newsletter subscribers. At least that's the plan at the moment. If I run out of time before my release date, that might have to come later.

If you'd like to subscribe to my newsletter, the form is the Coming Next page of my website. Just scroll down to find it.

A Little Bit About Case

I've blogged in the past about Case lying to me. I think I've even mentioned that I'm used to characters doing this to me. Either by omission or flat out telling an untruth, this happens all the time.

Mostly, it's omission. They just don't want to tell me about their pasts. This is what happened with Damon from Ravyn's Flight. He didn't drop info about his past until I was halfway through the book and it required a lot of work on my first round of revisions.

Case, though, just plain lied to me, but I understand why and he came through with the truth shortly after I started his story, so there won't be a ton of work waiting for me when I finish the first draft and start to revise.

I was going to share Case's secrets here, but I deleted what I wrote. It might be something of a spoiler for Wicked Suspicion and I decided I didn't want to take the chance. Maybe the reveal of his past won't be that big a deal in the book, but I don't know yet, so I'll err on the side of caution.

I can tell you that Case is from Minneapolis. He has blond hair, blue eyes, and is six-foot-two. He has a degree in mathematics that he earned after joining the Army. He enlisted as soon as he finished high school. He's 27, but if you've read the earlier books, you know he looks younger than that. Nyx, his heroine, however, is not fooled by his baby face.

I always have inspiration pictures for my characters (and for places, vehicles, etc). If you'd like to see the inspiration for Case, you can check out this link.

Those Wheels Go Round and Round

One of the things that continues to amaze me is how long it takes me to figure out why I'm spinning my wheels and getting nowhere. So many times, it's because I wrote something my character would not do and they've gone on strike.

Despite this being a regular occurrence, it always takes me weeks to come to the answer.

In my defense, sometimes there are other reasons, but so many times, it's the characters protesting what I had one (or both) of them do.

It happened again last month. I'm stuck. I can't understand why. I have notes, I brainstorm more notes. I should be going ahead as planned. Then finally, after about two and a half weeks, I thought, hmm, I wonder if I messed up?

So I took my notebook to lunch one day and did some thinking.

And epiphany struck. Case wouldn't say some of the things I had him saying. Maybe ten or fifteen minutes later, I realized I had Nyx also saying things she wouldn't say. Problem solved!

Well, sort of.

I went in that evening and editing the dialogue that caused the strike by my hero and heroine. It was the next day when I realized I had another place where Nyx was in deep revolt. Another edit done.

Onward. At last.

Baggs

Again, I already shared this information with newsletter subscribers. If you want to subscribe, you can go here and scroll to the bottom of the page for the form.

So on Tuesday, I mentioned that I'm writing Lurch now and after Lurch is Oz. Today, I'm talking about the hero who follows these two. Baggs.

You met Baggs in Wicked Persuasion. He's the team's new medic. He replaced Griff who is in medical school when the Lost Treasure arc opens.

Baggs is who had me playing the name game and I hate that so much. But we did settle on a first name and it's stuck for a while now, so we're good there.

While I've started getting inklings of storyline for Oz, I have pretty much nothing for Baggs at the moment. He's too far down the road to be getting information. I think this is a good thing because I'd get confused if I had to juggle Lurch and Oz and Baggs, too. Two heroes is enough!

His heroine, though, is the twin who is in trouble. Although, she got herself out of the jam before her sister could reach Puerto Jardin. At least I think she did. Like I said, things are pretty nebulous at the moment.

She's the exact opposite of her sister, but she'll be making Baggs crazy in a different way than her sister made Oz crazy.

For me, it's all about the characters. Telling their stories. Giving them their happy endings.

Oz

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I'm writing Lurch's book now. He and Nyx are the next up in the Paladin League series. There have been a few hiccups, including the fact Lurch lied to me, but I think we're (mostly) on track now.

What I plan to talk about today is the hero after Lurch. His name is Oz and his first on-screen appearance will be in Wicked Suspicion. He's been on the team for a while, but he's been undercover, working for one of the drug lords.

He's big. His hair is long. His beard is in need of a trim. And he's scary-looking.

I suspect that he's also a great, big teddy bear. ;-)

Of course, I can't swear to this. He isn't talking to me yet, and until he does, it's just guess work on my part. And even if he does talk, he might not tell me the truth. Looking at you, Lurch. But Oz has this vibe about him that makes me think he looks a lot scarier than he is.

His heroine? She doesn't belong in Puerto Jardin, but her twin is in trouble--she knows it--but it's that twin sense. It's not as if she can call up the State Department and say, "hey, you need to find my sister. I think she's in trouble. I just have this feeling."

She's going to drive Oz crazy. I love it.

Lie to Me

My characters can and have lied to me.

Usually, they simply go with lies of omission. They won't tell me something major about themselves. I'll be writing happily away, and the boom! They drop a truth bomb on me. This means I need to go back and edit the previous pages of the story to foreshadow what's coming.

Case, my latest hero, just plain lied to me.

I wasn't writing his book when he fabricated things that were completely untrue about his past, so maybe I can't blame him? I wasn't completely plugged into him because I was focused on a different hero. If it had been his book, maybe I would have sensed he wasn't being honest with me.

Maybe, but maybe not. Maybe he would have lied anyway and maybe I wouldn't have realized it.

What did he lie about?

His family. He led me to believe he had a relatively normal upbringing in a single parent household. He led me to believe he had siblings. Neither is true.

Case is an only child and his upbringing wasn't uneventful. He was dealing with some major issues.

His upbringing shaped him in a lot of ways and he had this reinforced by an unfortunate romantic entanglement. If you've been reading the series, you might remember that Lurch brought Hannah to a team dinner, and that later, she dumped him. This turns out to be true, but with circumstances.

And Nyx, Case's heroine, is going to inadvertently step right in the middle of his issues even though her motivations are good.

Let the fun begin!

The Name Game: Variations

I've blogged before about how particular my characters are about their names. I'm not kidding when I tell you that I can't write them until I have their name. Sometimes they're helpful and let me know up front. Other times, they make me work for it.

One thing I haven't mentioned before is that their particularity goes right down to the spelling of their names.

I have a heroine in a future Paladin League story who was insistent on her spelling.

Her name (with her spelling) is Ayla (pronounced Eye-Lah). The more popular spelling at the moment is Isla. (Same pronunciation.)

I pointed this out to her--that most people are spelling Ayla as Isla, but she was all no, I'm Ayla.

I'm not complaining about this. She shared her name quickly, she was clear on the spelling, and it was done. No fuss, no muss.

The heroine in the book following hers made me work a little harder, but once I got in the right ballpark, she was clear, too. Her name is Iona, not Ione. One is an island off Scotland and the other is a Greek sea nymph. She is an island, not a nymph. ;-)

Iona's hero is the one that had me tearing out my hair. You met him in Deck's story with his nickname. Baggs. I even know his surname. It's Baggnell, but finding his first name was an ordeal that lasted weeks. So many false positives. I'd be certain I had the right name, but a few days later, I'd know I was wrong. It wasn't his name.

Things improved on this front when I realized I had the wrong picture. I always find pictures that represent what the characters look like. I just know when I see it. This time I was wrong. When I found the right picture for Baggs, his first name followed shortly thereafter.

He was the one I was complaining about in the earlier blog posts about the name game, but we're set now.

The Name Game Part 1000

I blogged last week about new characters. Well, dang it, one of the heroes won't settle on a name. Baggs. You met him in Wicked Persuasion. The new medic who replaced Griff on the team.

I've tried out maybe a dozen real first names with Baggs, but he hasn't liked any of them.

Not any of them.

I think--THINK--that it ends in -er. I'm not willing to bet on that because none of those names have stuck.

This isn't the first time I've had a character do this kind of thing to me. I had a heroine who literally had me going through every baby name book I own and every baby name website before we found her name. It's just been a while since a character has made me work this hard.

I'm torn between determination to learn his name, damn the torpedoes, and just letting it be since I don't need his real first name right now and he'll eventually tell me.

It's just that I have a hard time waiting.