SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER ALAFAIR BURKE wants YOU to Help Her Name a PORN STAR! (and win a book too!)

 

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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