Character Names

JENN McKINLAY: I recently handed in my latest WIP. It was a marathon of writing to get it done. My final day was almost 5K words! But here’s the problem: I don’t love my character’s names. I changed them several times while writing and I’m still “meh” about them. 

Yes, we have talked about this before but we’re living in the modern age so it should be easier, right? I mean I used to name my characters by scrolling through the white pages of the phone book - paper version!

It being 2025, I tried a name generator but that was awful, too: REEDSY CHARACTER GENERATOR Another blow for AI, I just don’t think it can craft something as cool as this:

Thankfully the lack of love for my character’s names didn’t impede my writing process — sometimes it does. I’m hoping my editor has some input about them. But if she likes the names so be it.

Of course, when thinking about this I started thinking about some of the great names of characters in fiction —Atticus Finch, Katniss Everdeen, Ebenezer Scrooge, Holly Golightly, Scarlett O’Hara, and James Bond to name a few. Like naming a child, I started to ponder if the story is what makes the character’s names iconic or if it’s the name itself.

Here me out: If Ian Fleming had named 007 Harvey Bean would the “spy who loved me” still be as memorable? If Margaret Mitchell’s Scarlett O’Hara had been named Doris Winkle, would we think of her as the vain selfish force of nature she was portrayed to be? Would Jay Gatsby really be as interesting if he’d been named Timothy Dickson? 

Of course, none of this pondering has made me feel any better about the names of my characters. So, I’ll turn it over to you, Reds and Readers. How much do names matter to you as readers? How hard is it to come up character names as writers?

RESEARCH REVELATIONS by Jenn McKinlay

JENN McKINLAY: After sixty books written, I have to say I’ve had to research a wide variety of topics from hoarding to driving in Ireland. But in A MERRY LITTLE MURDER PLOT (coming out on Oct 8th), I had to research the possibility of death by electrocution using a string of holiday lights…well…oh, wait, I can’t tell you anymore because it might spoil the book. Suffice to say, it is very possible. 

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Now tell me, Reds, what is the most interesting/oddball/alarming thing you learned while researching one of your books?

HALLIE EPHRON: How easy it is to kill with an overdose of Tylenol. It’s scary how little it takes. Also: dead bodies don’t bleed. If it’s bleeding it ain’t dead (yet). Also: It’s pretty easy to “accidentally” kill someone in an MRI lab (between the super-powerful magnets and the massive amounts of liquid nitrogen, easier than you want to know). It’s amazing that mystery writers can even sleep through the night.

RHYS BOWEN: as Hallie said, in real life too many people get away with murder. How easy it is to tell an elderly person he’s forgotten to take his pills so that he gets a double or triple dose. And if an autopsy is done you say “ he was getting so forgetful!”

 

My garden is full of oleander. While not as deadly as rumor would have it it looks like a bay leaf in a casserole.

The most interesting research I ever did was asking John to help me in a scene where Evan has to wrestle a gun away from a man on a steep mountainside. We tried to act it out and ended up in an interesting position entwined on the floor, much to the horror of one of our kids!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, so much fun! And if someone looked at my search history, they would really be perplexed. How long does it take to drown in salt water, what does someone look like when they’ve been asphyxiated. Can you make mac & cheese with bananas? Seriously, I cannot tell you why I looked that up.

 

There are always, always, wonderful things you find that you were not looking for. For instance, my character Jane Ryland is called Jane Elizabeth. Her idol is Nellie Bly, the reporter. Guess what Nellie Bly’s real name was? Elizabeth Jane. I just loved that, and I did not know it when I wrote it.  

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Just think what our collective search histories would look like! a veritable smorgasbord of murder methods! Jenn, I electrocuted someone in my very first book, and learned why it's not unreasonable that regular outlets are not allowed in bathrooms in the UK… Also for that first book I remember posing myself on the stairs as if I'd been pushed down them–ouch! And like Rhys, we've done our share of role-playing. The lengths we will go to for our plots!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I went down a rabbit hole while researching the 1930s scenes in OUT OF THE DEEP I CRY and wound up learning how to harness a horse team for plowing. I actually used some of, too, as Harry McNeil questions someone! 

Weirdest research was with the help of my dear late friend, Tim LaMar. Tim was my go-to guy for guns and violence. Despite being a gentle and very physically unimposing man, Tim knew his stuff, and he walked me through how to turn a sapling into an offensive weapon, and what hitting someone's head with a big rock sounded like. 

And I second the concern over our search histories! You can imagine the sorts of things I was Googling for when researching the upcoming book, which is about a Neo-Nazi militia. Please don't come for me, FBI!

LUCY BURDETTE: The searcher would find my history heavy on poisons as well! Lily of the Valley? Check! Some kind of poisonous nut that would work well in a pie crust? Check! I also loved my research for the golf lovers mysteries–I went to actual LPGA tournaments to talk with the players, and even bought a slot to play in the professional/amateur tournament. It took most of my (admittedly small) first advance, but I wouldn’t trade that memory for anything. John caddied for me and was paid $50 at the end:)

How about you, Readers, what bizarre information have you learned while reading or researching that you didn't know before?

What We're Writing: Proposals, proposals, and more proposals

JENN McKINLAY: I'm in the In-Between that restless spot between Out of Contract and I Have a New Idea. I think it's much like the Upside-Down from Stranger Things, which is described as an alternate dimension that's inhospitable to humans and should be avoided at all costs. Yes, very much like the In-Between for authors, at least for this author.

For me, proposal writing is the same as outlining. In fact, my proposals are usually what I use for my outline when the project gets the green light and it's a go. 

I recently turned in a proposal for a new genre (cozy fantasy with a mystery and a light romance tucked in) that I'm very excited about but because it's a brand new genre for me, the outline was twenty-five pages and the sample was forty-five. I wanted to be certain I was getting it right. If and when it sells, it should be easy peasy to write.

 [pause for laughter because it's never easy]

Aside from the cozy fantasy, I am working up proposals for two more romcoms, two more library lovers mysteries, and trying to decide if there is room in the schedule for more cupcake bakery mysteries. Given that most retailers are no longer carrying mass market paperbacks, which is the format for the cupcake bakery mysteries, I have a feeling that series is dusted and done but I will wait to hear before I declare it so. 

I had written up proposals for two more hat shop mysteries and my publisher said I could write them and they would publish them but where would they be sold if retailers no longer carry mass market? It's a conundrum. 

I do feel as if the publishing world is undergoing some dramatic changes. It used to be that they wanted books that were clearly definable by genre. If you wrote a romantic magical mystery, they were never clear on where to put it. Romance or fantasy or mystery? They couldn't decide so the book was rejected as unmarketable, which given the success of Gabaldon's Outlander seems short-sighted, but whatever. 

Now, it appears they no longer care and mashups are all the rage. Do you have a time traveling, sword wielding Amazon who likes to knit with vampires and runs a chocolate shop with her wily grandma while  they amateur sleuth the village murders? Let her rip! Yes, I'm exaggerating...but just a little.

So, how about it Reds and Readers? What are some genre mashups that you've read and enjoyed?

Sympathetic Characters or Not So Much by Jenn McKinlay

JENN McKINLAY: I recently read a book that was a debut novel last year. It sold thousands of copies and hit the bestseller lists, primarily because of the buzz it received on BookTok. I was excited to find a new author and bought it...only to discover that it was the WORST book I have ever read. To clarify it wasn't bad because of the writing but rather the characters or more accurately because of the lack of character in the characters.

This is a subjective opinion (clearly) and no I won't say the title or the author because that's not what this post is about. What hit me square in the face was the reality that "sympathetic" or "likable" characters as we once used to know them are gone, baby, gone. Now the unsympathetic character is not the same as the unreliable narrator. The reader knows going into it with an unreliable narrator that they're, well, unreliable. 

The unsympathetic or unlikable character is just that. A person who does things or makes decisions that are so thoughtless or mean or just bleck that you can't like them or forgive their transgressions. And it used to be that your editor would encourage you to find ways to make the protagonist likable because readers want to root for the hero or heroine and see that they had a character arc worth being invested in.

But here's the thing, judging by the immense popularity of recent books with awful protagonists, I'm thinking the unlikable character might not be as forbidden as it used to be. Naturally, I started to ponder why and when this changed.

Terrifying!

I looked at the different shows/media that have shaped the current readership  for the past twenty years and realized that "reality TV', which has gifted us with such gems as Dance Moms, Keeping up with the Kardashians, The Bachelor, Survivor, and Love Island--to name just a few--have fine tuned diva moments, bad behavior, lying, cheating, fighting, and flouncing into high entertainment. 

Dance Moms - Eek!

It occurred to me that we're now writing for readers who think people behaving badly is normal -- and, yes, I know it's not just reality TV modeling the bad behavior. We've definitely become a country of self over community but that's another blog post entirely.

According to thestreet.com, reality TV boomed in 2007 ironically during a 99 day WGA writer's strike that allowed studios to create fresh content without relying on writers, establishing a foothold with Gen Z viewers that is going strong to this day. Is it any wonder then that the fiction which features incredibly unlikable or unsympathetic characters is suddenly hitting the top of the bestseller's lists? Nope, it isn't.

So, tell me, Reds and Readers, without naming titles or authors please, have you noticed that some of the most popular fiction features protagonists that are not sympathetic or likable? What other formats do you think have changed reader's expectations in fiction?

The Robots are Coming! by Jenn McKinlay

Jenn McKinlay: When I was a kid, I was a huge fan of The Jetsons and Lost in Space, mostly watched as after school reruns. I genuinely believed that by the time I reached adulthood, I'd have a flying car and a robot companion. "Danger, Will Robinson!" You can imagine my disappointment that none of these things have manifested.

But then, I was driving through Tempe with Hooligan 2 and his Plus 1 as we were looking at off campus apartments when what do I see but a food delivery robot. I kid you, not. 

I watched it navigate the crosswalk at a busy intersection and roll on its merry way. I have to admit I wished I lived closer to campus just so I could give it a go. Maybe when I visit the Hooligans in their new digs. 

Playmate Pet

As things always seem to pop up in waves, I was chatting with some lifelong friends about their 92 year old mother and her new dog, Funzie. Even though she's as sharp as ever, living alone can be isolating for someone who doesn't have the same autonomy they once had. Enter Funzie, the robotic pet, who responds to her voice and is a cuddly, interactive companion. She looooooves him.

Of course, there are all sorts of innovative technologies like Alexa, Siri, smart appliances that tell you when you leave the door open, and task specific robots, like the roomba, and now what I would call the lawnba, a robotic lawnmower, which Hub has been lobbying for quite ardently. Yes, there really is. See below.

Roomba

Robotic lawnmower - Husqvarna

Personally, I am still waiting for that one size does all robot who cooks, cleans, does the yard work and now, of course, it needs to take the self driving car and bring me food, preferably while doing my taxes.

In the meantime, as an author, I wonder how much do I need to work new technology into my stories? For example, if the roomba tries to clean up the murder victim at a crime scene, what does that story read like? Tracks of blood all ver the house? If Alexa is "listening", did she hear the person being murdered? If they screamed "Knife!" did she put an order of new ginsus into the victm's Amazon cart? Yes, these are the things I ponder as we roll into this technologically advanced society.

How about you, Reds and Readers, what robotic interactions have you had lately? If you read a mystery with a food delivery robot in it would it seem reasonable or pull you out of the story? Asking for a friend :)

Birth Order in Fiction and Real Life

LUCY BURDETTE: The other day on Facebook I stumbled across an article about the middle child syndrome, and also how middle children may become extinct as modern families are having one or two children only. I am the second of four, arriving only eleven months after my sister. (Can you imagine? What were they thinking?) Then a brother came two years after me and another sister after that. Actually I seem to have turned out more bossy and overachieving than my older sister, which doesn't fit the stereotype of the middle child as overlooked, under-appreciated, natural mediators. 

This made me think that even though I've had three main characters in my writing life so far, none have been the middle child in their families. Cassie the golfer had one older brother whom she adored but did not see that much. Rebecca Butterman, my psychologist character, had a younger sister whom she also adored though she found her to be un-psychologically-minded. Now Halyey Snow has no siblings at all except for Rory her stepbrother. I’m kind of sad about the lack of siblings in my series, as I had a rich sibling life, if not always perfectly smooth. Makes me wonder why? And ps, Middle Child Day is August 12 and I for one plan to celebrate!

My siblings and I by John Lloyd

HANK PHILIPPI RYAN: Well, hmm. I saw that! SO interesting. I don't notice it in other books, I guess. I do in mine--Charlie McNally is the older sister, (as I am) with the requisite bossy/ambitious/achiever/needy-of-praise-and-attention personality.  Jane Ryland is the younger sister, who feels a bit second-tier, and is envious and annoyed with her as-previously-described  older sister. And I definitely thought about birth order when I chose that!  And in TRUST ME, Mercer Hennessey is an only child--to enhance her aloneness.  

Lord Nelson and the Angels by pellethepoet

INGRID THOFT:  I’ve never thought about this, Lucy, but how interesting!  Fina is the youngest of four, but I have three older sisters, and she has three older brothers.  We are alike in that we are both problem-solvers and take issue with the stereotype that youngest children are spoiled and inept.  Birth order was important, but the most important part of Fina’s family make-up was that she was one of many kids.  Her siblings play a critical role in the series, and I really wanted to show the family dynamics that can emerge among siblings.  The characters in my WIP run the gamut from youngest of two, and eldest of three, to only child.  I wonder if I’ve written any of them to type?  I’ll have to take a closer look!

Siblings by James Dennes

JENN McKINLAY: I'm the youngest of six, and I am the textbook youngest. I am loud, willful, impulsive, and essentially "want what I want when I want it". As for my characters, (let's just go with the heroines and leave the heroes out of it) I have Melanie the youngest of two, Angie the youngest of eight, hmm, Lindsey, the youngest of two, Scarlett, an only child, Mackenzie, an only child, uh oh, Annie, youngest of two with a lot of step siblings, Jessie, an only child, and (EUREKA!), Carly, the fourth of five girls. There's a middle child! And yet, not an oldest anywhere to be found. Huh. Very interesting, Lucy! Excuse me, while I go ponder this. 

Triple trouble by pellethepoet

RHYS BOWEN: I'm a typical eldest child: over-achiever, wants to please. Actually I'm more like an only child as my brother was seven years younger than me, so always a little brat rather than a rival or companion. We get along beautifully now! Molly Murphy has three younger brothers so had to raise when her mother died. They figure occasionally in the stories. Lady Georgie has an older half-brother, but I don't think she behaves like a second child, as he is much older. She is more like an only child. Constable Evans was an only child. What all of these have in common is that irrespective of birth order they are all on their own in the world without family support to rely on. It is only Pamela, one of the daughters in In Farleigh Field, who has the benefit of a family around her. And she is a middle child with two sisters above and two below. But it is the sister below her, Dido, who actually behaves like the middle child. Pamela is the sensible one!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I am an oldest child, was married to an oldest child, and have most of the typical traits associated with my spot in the family pantheon. My younger sister is the classic middle child (I sent her that article, Lucy!): always out there hustling. She is the communications hub of the family. Our brother Patrick is a true youngest child crossed with The Only Boy: a laid-back, easygoing, affectionate guy who basks in the knowledge that he's pretty much always adored.

My two main characters are oldest children, which I thought was a well-considered decision to make them the type of hyper-responsible people they are. However, seeing how closely many of our characters track our own birth order,  I'm starting to wonder! My secondary hero and heroine are different: always-eager-to-please Kevin Flynn is the smack-dab middle of five boys, while loner Hadley Knox is, you guessed it, an only child.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Lucy, I have thought about this a good bit. I am the youngest of two, but my brother was almost ten years older so I was in many ways an only child. Duncan is the older of two, and Gemma is the younger of two, both sisters. Did I always want a sister? Duncan has the assurance of an eldest child, while Gemma, growing up in the shadow of her critical, bossy sister, compensates by being very driven. Melody and Doug, their friends and sergeants, are both onlys. I do find I have trouble writing characters who come from really large families, partly because it's so outside my experience, and partly because it really complicates the plot! I LOVE reading about big families, however.

Lucy: Debs, yes I wondered about that--if my lower sibling count has to do with how difficult it would be to keep juggling all those people!

HALLIE EPHRON: I grew up, third of four sisters, with the bossiest, most overachieving oldest sister anyone could have. I've always admired LITTLE WOMEN, because Alcott managed to bring FOUR sisters to the pages of that novel and not confuse the reader, and because Jo is a middle child.

The relationship I most often mirror in my books are between a main character and her sister. YOU'LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR is all about an older sister who, in her forties, gets a chance to find the baby sister she lost when she was seven. Come to think of it, COME AND FIND ME is about a missing sister, too. Hmm.

Here's me (on the left). My sisters Delia and Amy are both focused on Nora (far right), and there's me at the other end, looking at the photographer.

LUCY: Reds, do your characters match your life? Readers, is birth order something you notice in a book?

On stuff you can't make up

HALLIE: Reality sometimes trumps fiction. I remember one day I'm sitting in a coffee shop in New York, one with stools and a little counter across the front window. I'm sipping and gazing out when a man on the street walks by, his head buried in a newspaper. He walks smack into a metal pole. He rears back and punches the pole.

And then there's the time my husband and I were staying at one of those fancy hotels on a Caribbean island. A pair of newlyweds took the hotel's water taxi to nearby island and got stranded there. It grew dark and they became more and more desperate. The wife started digging in the sand and found...a flashlight. Really, she did. Not only that, it worked. They used it to signal until someone on the beach at the hotel noticed and they sent a boat over to rescue them.

I wish I could use either of those incidents in a book, but I don't think anyone would believe it happened, and I can't footnote it (*this really happened). In fiction, reality is no excuse.

Do you have any moments in real life that you couldn't put into a book because no one would believe it happened.

RHYS: Some amazing coincidences--hearing a familiar voice at the Berlin Wall and finding it was my next door neighbor's mother. Bumping into friends in the middle of Sri Lanka. I found a watch buried in the lake bed in six feet of water, dug it out and it was still ticking.

I've overheard some amazing things: I was once swimming laps and from the next lane I heard a woman say, "Of course, the gun belt weighs you down." Had to swim extra fast to try and keep up this conversation.

I was once locked into the gardens at Gramercy Park by mistake and was luckily rescued as it was getting dark. But I did use this in a Molly book.

But you're right--critics jump on any use of coincidence in a book when in real life there are coincidences every day.

ROBERTA: here's a funny true story that people have found hard to believe. In graduate school, I had walked out to the far parking lot when a woman accosted me with a dead battery problem. I told her that I did own jumper cables, but was not confident using them. She was quite scornful about my reluctance to take charge and my reliance on father/boyfriend/husbands in the past. She hooked the cables up, I started my car, and her engine began to spark and smoke. She grabbed a random male student in the next row of cars, all the while screaming: "We need a man! We need a man!"

RO: I love that!! We need a man!

HALLIE: I think I could put that in a book.

RO: I've had my copyeditor comment that one or two things I've written weren't plausible and of course they were things I'd lifted from newspaper articles...like the accountant who bought a horse and managed to turn it into a champion. I was in Costco today and overheard a 13-14 year old girl on the phone having an incredible conversation that involved babies, cops, and some rather extreme circumstances. I can only hope she was talking about a movie. That I might use in a book.

JAN: When I was working as a reporter in Rhode Island, I was listening to a radio talk show, when Raymond Patriarca, the head of the New England mob, actually called in. He wanted to tell everyone that he truly had a lot of respect for Arline Violet, the (then) state's attorney general (and a former nun), because she was the only honest (and presumably incorruptible) politician in Rhode Island. No one would believe THAT if you used it in a novel.

HANK: As a reporter, sometimes coincidences happen in another way. Like I'll be thinking--I wish I had a person who's been scammed by a (pick a bad thing) so I could use them as an example in a story. Then bing. I'll get an email from just that sort of person. How does that happen? And I mean, things like that occur so often that my producer and I just tell ourselves--If we need it, it will come. And SO CONSISTENTLY, when it's the right time, the universe provides.

But if you put that in a book, it's instantly ridiculous.

(I must say, Jan, I called the PR person for a certain government agency recently, and asked a question. She freaked out, and said, "Wait wait, I'm not allowed to answer that, you need to talk to a man." Truly.)

(Oh, wait. Here's one. We were in Nevis, in British West Indies, having a cocktail at an outdoor bar at our hotel. Suddenly we hear--Hello, Jonathan. It's Jonathan's law school pal, Supreme Court Justice Steven Breyer. I didn't know Jonathan knew him. And that's weirder because Breyer was also my boss when I worked on Capitol Hill in 1973. Put THAT in a book.)

HALLIE: The most bizarre, most un-fiction-worthy things happen all the time. So, what's happened to you that no one would believe if you put it in a book.

"I didn't know what day it was...."

Alright, it's not Friday, it's Saturday. And Saturday night to boot, but I'm begging my blog sisters indulgence. (I feel a little like Bob Cratchit explaining to Ebenzer Scrooge
why he was late to work the day after Christmas. "I was making rather merry...")
This week has flown...six cities since Sunday..including layovers. My Friday/Saturday surprise is an entry from Joanna Slan who writes a scrapbooking series and blogs regularly on Killer Hobbies.

My Magnificent Obsession

Lately, I’ve been dreaming about marketing my book. Yesterday, I woke up and realized I was in my bed, not folding colorful brochures. I could have sworn I was putting creases in those tri-folds! After I rubbed my eyes I noticed the sheets were bunched in an odd fashion, the edges perfectly lined up in three sections.

When my non-author friends ask, “How’s the book coming?” I tell them Paper, Scissors, Death is in the hands of editors, and my “baby” will be born on September 13, 2008. They smile. “Aren’t you excited?”

Nah.

I’m terrified.

Here’s what it’s like: I’m a horse, and all my fellow authors are horses, too. We’re lined up at the track. The gun will go off. Only a few of us will make it to the finish line. A couple might stumble, break a leg and have to be shot. Those of us who finish “in the money” will win the opportunity to race again another day.

But we live to run. We live for this. Well, I do at least.

I’ve been writing my whole life. I grew up in an itsy-bitsy town in Indiana, a place that looks its best in your rearview mirror. We only got three channels on TV, and that was if I could talk my sister Jane into holding onto the rabbit ears and wearing tin foil. (Sorry, Janie. I know I shouldn’t have asked it of you. But you were the younger one, and that’s the breaks, kiddo.)

Without much to do, I read a lot. The public library was my favorite place. I would stand in front of the stacks and crane my head back. The books went on and on to the ceiling. Had anyone read all these books? Probably not. Did the librarian even know what was in all of them? Doubtful.

When I ran out of stuff to read, I told myself a lot of stories. That’s the beauty of life in the middle of a cornfield where the only constant is the pump, pump, pump of the oil rigs. You gotta lotta nuttin’ to do. Which translates into “thinking time.” Daydreaming. Imagining. Fertile soil for dreaming up characters for a story or a book.

I won my first writing award in high school. Majored in journalism and wrote a column for the Muncie Star while at Ball State University. Worked for newspapers, radio stations, and had a talk show on TV. Did public relations. Wrote speeches. Gave speeches. Freelanced for magazines and newspapers. Taught writing in college, and now online. So I've been working at this career most of my life. You'd think I'd have some grasp of the process and the business.

Here’s the weirdest part: This isn’t my first book. It’s not like I haven’t been through this before. I’m the author of ten books of non-fiction. All of them sold well. A few sold REALLY well.

So why am I worried?

Because this is fiction. This is me. My imagination. My heart, my soul, my special talent, my little stories, my creations come to life on paper pages. And golly, I want other people to like what I’ve done as much as I do.

It’s pathetic.
It’s true.
I guess I’ll just have to wait until September and see.

About Joanna Campbell Slan...

Yeah, she really did grow up in the middle of a cornfield. Today she lives in a suburb of St. Louis, near a soybean field. Catch her blog with other mystery writers at www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com or her ideas on promotion (other than folding sheets) at her blog in her website www.joannaslan.com Paper, Scissors, Death: A Scrapbooking Mystery will debut September 13, 2008 from Midnight Ink.

Fall 2008, Midnight Inkwww.joannacampbellslan.com