It’s that time of year again. No, I’m not talking about publication day, even though my new novel, 212, drops on March 23. (Sorry, but I like saying drops. Very Snoop Dogg, you know?) In this instance, however, I’m referring to the time of year when I donate a character name to be auctioned off for our law school’s Public.Justice Foundation.
I struggle with character names. One of my protagonists is named Samantha Kincaid. I’ve never been sure how I came up with it, but I later realized that as I was starting the book, I was reading a Michael Connelly novel with a secondary character named Sam Kincaid. Was I influenced? Maybe. Then when I took up a second series, I used my mother-in-law’s name as a placeholder until I could make a decision. Guess what happened? Yep, Ellie Hatcher is named after my mother-in-law.
The same thing happened with my dog. I wanted to name him Stacy Keach,
but was vetoed by my husband. The poor dear was called Puppy for a week before I finally relented. The Duffer now has a name that suits him quite well, but I confess to invoking his original name on occasion.
If I’d ever had children, they’d probably head off for first grade as Girl and Boy.
I struggle with names because they matter. I have a friend who questions the relevance of naming, but names for me are more than random labels. Maybe it’s because I was saddled and blessed with this weirdo name of mine and can’t imagine being called anything else.
So back to the auction. When I auction off a character name, I make clear that the buyer doesn’t get to write the character. The buyer can opt to be good or bad, dead or alive, and that’s it. One would think I could take any old name and pop it onto any passing character, but I can’t. I go into casting-agent mode, creating an image to go with a mere name, and then matching that image to an existing character in the manuscript. I’m ashamed to disclose the number of minutes or hours I can spend on the task, usually only to come up with a safe casting call, like a crime analyst or defense lawyer. But in 212, the character name, purchased by one of my law students, went to a hooker. The buyer couldn’t have been happier.
I haven’t learned the name of this year’s buyer yet, but hope it’s something colorful. The recent discussion here about drag names inspired me. I need a good porn name for my new book and plan to take a long time thinking about it. I figure it can be a good dinner-conversation topic for the next couple of months if necessary. I also thought we could get the ball rolling (no pun intended) here.
Good porn-star names? Feel free to throw in accompanying movie titles. And, just for fun, try out this online porn-name generator. Ellie Hatcher is Nikky Pantsmaster, Esq. How great is that?
I’ll be raffling off a copy of 212 by randomly selecting among the comments posted by the end of March 17. (THAT'S RIGHT PEOPLE -- POST A COMMENT, GET A CHANCE TO WIN ALAFAIR'S TERRIFIC NEW THRILLER, 212! - Ed)
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