Mood:
spaceyNow Playing: Caitlyn Hunter
Topic: What's the problem?
I've been working on the final edits--well, okay, probably not the final, but I'm getting close!--of Storm Shadows, the second book in my Eternal Shadows series. This one has been tough to edit because my heroine, Betty Sue, wanted the story told her way and if she couldn't have what she wanted, no way was she going to let me have what I wanted.
Who would've ever thought a character that started out meek and mild would turn into a demanding, um...witch? I certainly didn't, but I learned quick. With Betty Sue, it's "my way or the highway", and she wasn't about to let me get my way. She laid down the law pretty fast and all I could do was follow her lead. But, I think hope I've finally got her down and now the only thing to do is check to make sure I haven't left any dangling threads or made any huge glaring mistakes.
And as I wind down with Storm, I've been thinking about the next book in the series. Number three is the story of the third brother, Lucien, and though I have a vague idea of where I want it to go, I haven't really worked out all the kinks yet. Hopefully, that'll come when I start writing it. I do have a pretty good idea of the female character I want for Luke's heroine and just an inkling of her personality, but no name yet.
I always struggle with character names but that was one thing I didn't have to worry about with Betty Sue. Her name was a gift from an unknown woman who lives somewhere here in western North Carolina who just happened to dial my phone number one day when I first started writing Storm. At that time, I knew who my heroine was, a sort of plain Jane middle school librarian whose grandfather describes her as a "pert-near woman". You know the type, never makes waves, doesn't date much, and is, in her words, "as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs," around men. I knew exactly who I wanted her to be, but I couldn't come up with the perfect name for her. Then my phone rings out of the blue and when I went to answer it, the name that showed up on the caller ID was Betty Sue Corn. I didn't answer the phone, I just stood there and stared at that name. Call it kismet, karma, fate, whatever, that name was, in a word, perfect!
I'm hoping the same thing happens with this new character, but I sort of doubt it will, so I've been thinking, maybe I'll have a "Name The Heroine" contest. I've seen other authors do that, but I don't know...what if I hated the name the winner picked? Or if it was completely innappropriate for my heroine?
Nah, I think I'll just go back to running through the lists of baby names on the Internet...and waiting for the phone to ring.
