What's in a Name?

When I am asked about my book, one of the most common questions is, "How do you come up with the names for your characters? There are so many." Oddly, creating names used to be a pet peve of mine. Then I turned it into a challenge. Admittedly, many of the names I use are ones I just liked the sound of hearing. As for the others, I use a variety of approaches. Sometimes I take two words that describe the character and blend them together. Sometimes they are words spelled backward or anagrams. What is really fun for me is that the reader would have to put some thought into discovering what method I used. It could be simple and it could be complicated. That's the beauty of writing. I can fill my story with hidden meanings. If you do not catch them...it's still a great stroy. If you do catch them, you begin to wonder if you caught them all. I want my readers to think. It is not an attempt to be cruel, but rather to give you just a little more in which to sink your teeth. There was a song I loved for years and I was singing it one day. Then a friend said, "Hey, did you ever know that it was actually about..." Whoa! Totally blew my mind. That's what I strive for with my readers.