What's in a Name

RHYS BOWEN:

I was doing a book signing last week and someone asked me about my character names in the Royal Spyness series. Do you make up some of those really ridiculous names? She asked. “They can’t be real.”

The answer is that I do make up some of my ridiculously English names—Hortense Horze-Gorzley for example. But they are no more ridiculous than some real upper class English names I have known. I was at school with a girl called Amanda Featherstonehaugh-Skelley (pronounced Fanshaw-Skelley).  You can’t really beat that, can you? And then there are the silly nicknames that seemed to litter every aristocratic family. My husband’s family has a slew of cousins with crazy nicknames including Fig, Dudh, Podge, Toots and a distinguished elderly lady called Puff.

Names are important to me. Elmore Leonard said, ““Once I know the name, I know the character.” And I completely agree. Sometimes the name comes to me the moment a character walks into my consciousness. Other times I have to search for the right name. Sometimes I get it wrong. Things don’t go well. The story plods along slowly. And then the character turns to me and says “Why do you keep calling me Richard when my name is Ronald?” I switch the name and the story leaps forward merrily.

As you can tell in the Royal Spyness books I love having fun with my characters’ names. I have a very naughty older woman called Virginia in my latest book, Heirs and Graces. I had a French inspector in Naughty in Nice who wore squeaky shoes and whose name was LaFitte.

And I have a confession to make. Sometimes I use a name as revenge. We writers have a great way of getting back at people who have annoyed or slighted us in real life—we turn them into characters in our books. So in Heirs and Graces I have turned my really horrible headmistress at school into the butler. In real life she was overbearing so it gives me great pleasure to have reduced her to a servant. I know of other authors who have killed off real life ex-husbands on the page.

So I’m curious, Reds. How much trouble do you take over names in your books? Have you ever taken revenge on a real person in your life by making something bad happen to them in your books? Do tell all….

LUCY BURDETTE: I don't spend too much time on this Rhys. I try not to have a lot of names beginning with the same letter. And I don't mind changing a name as I need to while I'm writing along. The worst name faux pas I had was realizing I'd changed the name of a character between AN APPETITE FOR MURDER and DEATH IN FOUR COURSES. It was too late to do anything about it--they were both already published. And no one seems to have noticed--or at least no one has complained.

HALLIE EPHRON: I confess, I do not take a lot of time with names. Usually a name just comes to me, I go with it, and if I need to change it later, well that's why the good lord gave us Search and Replace. No, I would never take revenge on a real person by making something bad happen to them in my book. Really no. Never.

The challenge is when I've auctioned naming rights to a character, trying to fit someone's given name to one of my characters. Because once you give  a character a name, well, along with it come baggage. Just for example, name a character Hortense and there are certain things she simply would not do.

ROSEMARY HARRIS: I nearly made an annoying neighbor a wifebeater in one of my books - but I came to my senses. No..no revenge naming.

With five major female characters in The Bitches of Brooklyn it was challenging to make their names reveal something about them in a time when every girl seemed to be named Heather or Jennifer. So I went back further..to their parents and used some of their (doesn't show on the page) backstory  - ethnic background, socio-economic class, etc to decide on Rachel, Clare, Tina, Jane and Abigail. Hopefully they are memorable enough to keep all of there women straight!

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  Like Rhys, I do take a lot of trouble with names. I'm always making lists--I love movie and TV credits for this.  Sometimes the names for characters comes instantly, and sometimes  I struggle through an entire book to get it right. I don't think I've ever done revenge-naming (sounds like fun, though.) But I hate giving a name I like to a character I don't like.  The trick for the reader would be to figure out which names I like...

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Yep, I'm in the takes-forever-to-name-characters camp. I have a  "Name bible" spreadsheet with the names and some info on all the characters I've had in the series to date, with an index listing the first and last names in alphabetical order AND a numerical count of how many times I use a starting letter. For some reason, I seem to revert to K names. I have to watch that.

Sometimes, I wind up using the name of a friend or family member as a place-holder, only to find that it's become THE name of the character in my head. That's how my friend Ben Beagle, editor of the Livingston County News, became investigative reporter Ben Beagle of the Glens Falls Post Star. I had written about half of I SHALL NOT WANT when I realized I couldn't come up with a better name for a "dogged" newshound...

RHYS: So dear readers, please confess... do character names matter to you? Does it spoil your enjoyment of a book when a character is given a name that doesn't go with her personality--a sexy heroine called Mildred, for example?

   

BOOK CLUB DAY!

BREAKING NEWS: If you are in a position to review or spread the word about an Audible copy of HEIRS AND GRACES, please contact Rhys for more information. She has a few copies....RhysBowen at comcast dot net 

AND Rosemary Harris's THE BITCHES OF BROOKLYN is free to download today and tomorrow only! Click here.

 


LUCY BURDETTE: It seems odd to me that mysteries and crime fiction can be lumped into a category of non-book club books--in other words, escapist reading, nothing worth discussing. We couldn't disagree more! With September around the corner and book clubs resuming meeting or planning their reads for the year, we thought we'd make a few suggestions. From each red, a book, a couple of discussion questions, and something memorable to eat along with it.

I'll start:)

TOPPED CHEF, the third book in the Key West food critic mystery series by Lucy Burdette

Things to discuss:

1.  TOPPED CHEF opens with Hayley worrying about her first negative review. How do you feel about restaurant reviews, either online or in newspapers? Do you trust them? Do you write them? Do you feel critics should write about their negative experiences as well as their positive?

2. One of the most challenging parts of writing a mystery with an amateur sleuth has to do with her stake in solving the mystery. Were you convinced by Hayley's insistence on getting involved in this story? How does this fit with her character?Find the whole list of discussion questions for TOPPED CHEF here:

What to eat: Lime cupcakes with lime cream cheese frosting


Recipe here.

  
HALLIE EPHRON: THERE WAS AN OLD WOMANThings to discuss:

1. The theme of remembering and honoring the past is prominent in There Was an Old Woman. Evie has dedicated her life to the preservation of memories, and Finn keeps all of the artifacts from the old Snakapins Park in his basement. Do you think it is important to preserve the past, and why? Are some things better left forgotten?

2. Evie and her sister Ginger are polar opposites. Evie played soccer; Ginger was a girl scout. Evie sees Ginger as the dutiful daughter and herself as the one who runs away. How might these two different personality types both have been shaped by the experience of growing up with an alcoholic mother?What to eat: Discuss it over Chinese Dim Sum.

 

ROSEMARY HARRIS: Now this is fun. I'm not in a book club these days. I went to a fabulous book club meeting in San Francisco last year. The members had agreed to read THE BITCHES OF BROOKLYN and act as my focus group. It was a blast.

Possible discussions -
1. Friendships - old and new - are at the heart of Bitches. Each of the women in the book, Jane, Tina, Rachel, Clare and Abby, questions the meaning of friendship, particularly childhood friendships. Are they better left in the past? What are the risks in trying to rekindle (no pun intended) old relationships?

2. Every decade of life brings its own set of issues. What are the insecurities each of the women faces?

3. All five of the women have called each other Bitch since high school when it was an epithet thrown by a jealous classmate. Now it's a term of endearment for them. What do you think about the word?

My gals are good eaters. Hallie's already claimed Chinese takeout and more's the pity readers can't camp out in Jane's Brooklyn bakery so I'd have to say a medium-priced Italian restaurant. Red-checkered tablecloth. With a bottle or two of good wine.RHYS BOWEN: This is most timely for me as I have an author buzz going out to zillions of bookclubs next week with questions about my new book, Heirs and Graces. So here are some questions I gave to them.

1.    Lady Georgiana seems to have a privileged life. What are some ways in which her life is not so rosy?
2.    This story centers around the heir to a great estate. Discuss that whole concept, plus other instances of property entailment disrupting lives in literature

3.    These Royal Spyness books are funny�gentle satire of English aristocracy. But there are always serious undertones. What are some in this book?

And food to serve? Well, it has to be a classic English tea party with thinly sliced cucumber sandwiches, warm scones topped with strawberry jam and cream. Mmmm. Now I'm feeling hungry (or peckish as my characters would say)

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: OH, fabulous. I'm  tempted to discuss THE OTHER WOMAN, with all its juicy discussion possibilities about infidelity, and sex as power, and the conflict in failing marriages. But let's go with THE WRONG GIRL, coming Sept 10!

1. The book opens with Jane's friend Tuck suspecting the adoption agency that's  reunited her with her birth mother has made a mistake---and, as she says, "sent that poor woman the wrong girl." As a reporter, I know that's happened in real life. What if that had happened to you..do you think--just based on instinct--you would know it? (Do you know anyone searching for their birth parents? Did they find them?)

2.  The Wrong Girl also takes an inside look at the state's foster care system--where children need homes--and there aren't always enough of them. HAve you been in foster care, or known someone who was? Have you ever taken in a foster child? Or wanted to? Why or why not? How well did that system work?

Food? Well,  Jane is always rushing, and I'm tempted to say fast food! But it's in Boston, so let's say luscious creamy clam chowder from Legal Seafoods with those little round crackers and a twist of pepper,, accompanied by a crisp white sauvignon blanc.DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, fun! (And I want everybody's food!) Here are a couple of questions for readers of The Sound of Broken Glass:

1) We see in the back story that young Andy Monahan is the caretaker of his alcoholic mother. How does this affect his ability to form relationships when we meet him again, fifteen years later? Do you believe it's possible for children of alcoholic parents to form happy and stable relationships as adults?

2) The seed of much that happens in this novel is bullying. How might Andy's life have been different if he'd had adult support in dealing with the boys who bullied him? Do you believe that Nadine was bullied as well? Were there characters who could have stood up for her and made a difference in the course of her life?

Now, food! I think my book group should have delicious, hearty sandwiches from The Jolly Gardener pub in Putney--roast beef with horseradish; thick, sharp English cheddar slathered with Branston pickle; roast turkey with cranberries--accompanied by a big platter of fresh fruit, good beer, and crisp Sauvignon Blanc. (My characters have theirs with tea, but they're working!)JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: This is a perfectly timed subject, because I need to supply my editor with questions for THROUGH THE EVIL DAYS, my November release. Like Rhys, I'll be having an author buzz going out to book groups (though not for another couple of months) and St. Martin's library division posts discussion questions online. Pro tip for book club organizers: lots of publishers do this! If your group is reading something that doesn't come with discussion suggestions in the back of the book, check the publisher's website.

1. At one point, Russ tells Clare, "I won't say a word against [having a baby]. But don't expect me to pretend to be happy about it." Is his attitude reasonable, given that they agreed, as a couple, not to have children, or is he being stubborn about not getting his way?

2. Officers Hadley Knox and Kevin Flynn are assigned to work together to try to find Mikayla Johnson, the missing girl. At the same time, they're becoming closer personally. Should they put the brakes on their relationship? Is it unprofessional for them to get involved again, especially during a high-stakes investigation?

3.  There are many types of families in THROUGH THE EVIL DAYS: Clare and Russ and their impending baby, Mikayla and her dysfunctional, criminal parents,  Hadley and her ex fighting over custody. What do these relationships say about the effect of parenthood on couples and on individuals? What is the author saying about the responsibilities of parenting versus the pleasures of having a child?

For an accompanying meal: Russ and Clare have a hearty, delicious stew in their remote lakeside cabin, perfect for a book group discussion on a cold November night. Of course, they don't have any alcohol, but I would recommend a nice Cotes-du-Rhone and some crusty bread to sop up the broth.

Don't forget to leave a comment--best book club discussion ever? best meal eaten with a book group? And you'll be entered in a drawing for an advanced copy of THROUGH THE EVIL DAYS.

Breaking News!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Coming to you from the fabulous Midwest Writers Workshop in Muncie Indiana! Gave the keynote speech..here's the audience..and still floating from the wonderful response. If you ever get a chance to go--it's wonderful.

Okay, Reds, time to check  in! What are you up to this coming week?

I've got a great story on TV Monday night--about rats (Wait til you see the pictures!) in a certain apartment building. Guess who the landlord is?



My smiling face is on the cover of the new RT BookReviews Magazine, how cool is that? And The Wrong Girl got 4 1/2 stars--the same rating as Sue Grafton and Lee Child. :-)

Only a short time til THE WRONG GIRL comes out in hardcover--Sept. 10--very exciting!

And THE OTHER WOMAN is out in paperback! If you haven't entered my contest to win a Nook, Kindle or $$ to a bookstore of your choice, here's the link!
 http://bit.ly/15BngW1

And starting Friday, I'll be hanging out with Ro, Brad Parks, Jane Cleland, and a host of others--as Guest of Honor at the Deadly Ink conference! It's my first DI, and I'm very excited.

Reds and friends of Reds, what's up with you for the next week?

LUCY BURDETTE: My gosh Hank, I get dizzy just reading about what you're up to! I'm waiting for edits on MURDER WITH GANACHE (coming in February)--which should arrive in my inbox on Monday. It's been nice to have a break from the story--I had one good, new idea, but not sure I'll have time to work it into the manuscript. But meanwhile, it's available for pre-order. I have to say, the cover is adorable! 


RHYS BOWEN: I'm also breathless just thinking about your schedule, Hank. A different city every weekend, all those flights and airport security... eeek.
I'll be catching my breath after the Book Passage Mystery conference, enjoying time with my family visiting from Phoenix. We plan a hike to Arch Rock in Point Reyes. it's 9 and a half miles so I'm hoping I'm up to it. Also Exploratorium with kids, ballet tomorrow and lots of high energy in the house. Oh, and I do have a deadline and a Jungle Red blog so I'll need to squeeze in some work. 


And I've just remembered a launch of Heirs and Graces the week after. How could I forget that?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Indeed, Rhys, how could you forget that!!! We haven't!

I am writing. Or should that be #IamWriting... Trying to settle into a good routine after lots of stuff going on this summer; work on the house, a wonderful visit from my brother, my daughter's engagement and the craziness of wedding planning. 

The Sound of Broken Glass came out this month in Germany and is doing very well, I think.

As for upcoming events, I'll be at the Hardesty Library in Tulsa on September 6th, then Bouchercon in Albany, NY, from September 18th-22nd.  And the weekend after that, MY DAUGHTER IS GETTING MARRIED!!!  

Then it's back to work for me on the newest (#16) Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James book, To Dwell in Darkness. It's due to my publisher in November and should be out sometime in 2014.

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm writing writing writing. Working title: Night night, sleep tight. Set in Beverly Hills in 1965 and 1985. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

And busy with events. On August 5 I'm on Nantucket teaching a crash course on mystery writing in the morning and giving a book talk in the evening at the Atheneum. The the Duxbury Library on August 8, and really looking forward to speaking at the Green Brook Country Club Book Club Luncheon in North Caldwell, NJ on August 21. Lots more to follow.

HANK: Pals I met at MWW13 also have books coming out very soon--the incredibly talented John Gilstrap's new thriller HIGH TREASON is out August 1..Suspense Magazine says  "This is the fifth book in the Jonathan Grave series and very possibly the best." (The First Lady is kidnapped. There's the definition of a terrific hook for you!) 

And the fascinating DE Johnson's evocative and original mystery DETROIT SHUFFLE-- set in corrupt Detroit in 1910 during the battle over women's suffrage--is out September 3--"Johnson’s immaculate plotting and high-tension writing make for a spellbinding read!"  (He is a wonderful writer!)





And don't forget our Rosemary's THE B*TCHES OF BROOKLYN is now available as an ebook!

HANK: So Reds, what's up with you? Check in, please!

The Bitches of Brooklyn have arrived!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Well, I know I'm a writer, but this is impossible. How do I begin to tell you..well, I'll start with a tiny story.

Two newbie writers, strangers, show up at the same house at the same time for a Sisters in Crime meeting. One is a master gardener working on her first novel, one in a TV report working on her first novel. they're both wearing black, both happily married, both hard workers, and both basically clueless about the publishing world. Well, wait, the reporter was clueless, the gardener wasn't. Anyway.  They're thrown together on an impromptu panel when the scheduled speaker doesn't show up...and they've been talking together--constantly--ever since.

Rosemary, Jan, Roberta,Hank, Hallie--the original Reds!

That was--gosh, maybe eight years go? And Rosemary Harris and I have been though the trenches since then. You know our stories-- our successes and our adventures, and our travels and even a few escapades.  That encounter grew into..Jungle Red. And here's a photo of us from around that time...

And now, dear RO is embarking on yet another new adventure. Her new book--NOT a mystery but a chic, sleek, funny, wry, witty, clever, emotional and hilarious novel called--well--let Ro tell you.


And let me admit, this brings tears to my eyes. Ro, I love you.

ROSEMARY HARRIS: You...you're amazing! And too kind.  Right back to ya. That day was prophetic. We fell into it as if we'd been giving talks together forever! This book is a new adventure for me. And it's been fun.

Ever felt like you were sitting in the middle of a scene from a book or movie? One that's already been written or one you could see yourself writing?

I had that feeling about three years ago and it was the inspiration for my new book, The Bitches of Brooklyn.

Four friends and I had planned an all-girls weekend in Sedona. We had discussed and agonized over the location for months (we'd be coming from all parts of the country and wanted to be fair in terms of time and expense.) One of us even created a spreadsheet so we could compare the various choices. (She's an accountant.) And then, at the eleventh hour, one of us had to cancel. If I'm not mistaken she had lobbied hardest for the place we finally decided on. That first night - without her - was interesting.

We didn't trash her (hint about the book?) But I did start to think, hmmmm what if she DIDN'T have a last-minute work obligation?

Happily she didn't suffer the grisly fate my missing character did in the first draft. And she didn't do what my character ultimately did - send a note saying that she'd run off with one of their men.

That was the genesis of The Bitches of Brooklyn and in it the four women at the heart of the story, childhood friends named Jane (a bakery owner), Rachel (a vet), Clare (an unemployed producer) and Tina (a teacher and fledgling novelist) spend the weekend eating, drinking and reevaluating their friendships, their marriages, their jobs and their memories. But when Monday comes, these babes want answers. And they go to vastly different lengths to get them.

For me, it was a lot of fun not to feel obliged to have bodies dropping all over the place and to have a non law enforcement professional irrationally inserting herself into a crime scene. Think Paula Holliday with misdemeanors instead of felonies! And...hallelujah...unlike most cozy heroines, they get to have sex.

There's a fair amount of humor - because I can see the humor in practically anything. And if you liked Paula, Babe and Lucy, I think you'll have fun with The Bitches of Brooklyn.

Available as an Amazon download for only $1.99. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E3XMPN0

(Don't have a Kindle? I just learned Amazon offers free Kindle apps so you can read a Kindle book on virtually any computer or device. Who knew? http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=pe_390220_30905230_sa_menu_karl?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

HANK: Rosemary! You are brave and fabulous. ANd I know this will instantly be picked up on Lifetime TV! (Would that be fun or what?)  I have a question for you--was it difficult/fun/challenging to write a that's not a "mystery"?  

ANd how about you, Reds--do you have a good friend--who, one day, surprised you? I do--but--hilariously--I can't tell you about it. SInce I promised to keep it secret. But you--you can tell us! But first, go download THE BITCHES OF BROOKLYN.  And toast to our dear RO--who has done something wonderful!