Starsreader asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

I am devouring the snippet like short books on Penric, excellent idea pacing them out like this and whispersyncing the ebook with the audiobook. When writing these, I always love the names you find for the protagonists (may have mentioned that earlier). It's almost sad if Penric gets shortened to Pen, though, so would you consider this compromise: use Pen in spoken language, and Penric, in full, in storytelling?

Lois McMaster Bujold After typing out "Vorkosigan" approximately one million times, I was determined that my next series protagonist should have as short a name as possible.

"Pen" vs. "Penric" is decided on the fly, according to who is speaking, in what mode, whether I'm just establishing things or am further along, sentence rhythm, and how much variation or lack-of-repetition I need in a particular passage.

(I actually made up the name "Penric", constructing it from a syllable salad, and then discovered it is also a real name. Not a common one, though.)

Unlike Tolkien, who apparently adored naming things, naming is a bit of a burden for me. It is necessary to defamiliarize names from our-world, key them to their respective distinct languages and cultures, and try not to inadvertently name people after obscure airplane parts or bad words in foreign tongues. The rise of internet searches makes checking the latter much more possible than it used to be, but also more necessary.

Ta, L.

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