Archive for June, 2008

The Name Game

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

I ended up writing about names today over on Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs.

It was a topic in the forefront of my mind this past week because I was still aware of Natalie and Christo and how they came to have their names (two of my cousin’s grandkids sport those names as a matter of fact, and I thought the name Christo suited my hero, and my cousin’s descriptions of Natalie made me think she’d definitely be A Force!)

But after that, I kept thinking because my friend Anne Gracie bullied me into writing up two more ideas for books because she kept saying, “What if –” and “I like that. I think you could get more out of this if you only — ” and so pretty soon, there I was, looking for more names.

They were heroine names because I already had heroes — two of the Savas brothers, Demetrios and George — and I needed heroes equally as strong as the men in question.

And, as luck would have it, I got both women’s names wrong the first time around. Adriana is right — but her nickname I thought would be Addie. Turns out it’s Annie. She won’t answer to Addie. Interesting.

Even weirder is Sylvie — but I think I owe that to Liz Fielding. She had a Sylvie not long ago and I could see the picture of her Sylvie as being rather like George’s heroine. But my fingers knew better. They’ve been typing Sophy ever chance they get. No question now but that she’s a Sophy.

Makes me wonder what my fingers know that I don’t.

And the winner is . . .

Friday, June 20th, 2008


Kate Walker!

I suspect Gunnar of being bribed, but he insists that I am the one who put the treats on the names. He’s only the eater.

And Kate’s name was the one on the slip of paper he gobbled his first treat off of.

So, Kate, you are the winner of the signed copy of Tess Gerritsen’s The Mephisto Club – and a definite departure from your normal reading fare it will be.

I’ll post it on Monday. Gunnar hopes you enjoy it. And of course, so do I.

Thanks to everyone who participated this week. I appreciate the discussion.

I spent part of the afternoon at the movies enjoying Indiana Jones — and the other part with the three ideas for future books I sent my editor yesterday.

We are going to discuss them on Monday. So I need to be prepared. It’s not often I juggle three book ideas in my head at once. It’s not often I even have enough plot to talk about one of them. Let’s hope I do on Monday.

So the next guy up might be Christo — or it might not.

I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, on Sunday I’m going to be blogging over at Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs, so drop in and say hi. I’ll come back and make a live link when I’ve put up my post.

I was wrong!

Friday, June 20th, 2008

A closer look at my trade-sized foreign edition has convinced me I erred. It isn’t Dutch (it didn’t look quite like Dutch somehow, but I knew it wasn’t German).

It’s Afrikaans.

It was printed in Natal. That’s the give-away. At least I think it is. Maybe it’s Dutch as spoken in South Africa. I can sort of read it. A little. Very little.

Anyway, I’m thrilled as not all my books get translated into Afrikaans. I hope some readers will enjoy Spence and Sadie’s jaunt to Fiji in Afrikaans — or whatever languages it gets translated into.

I’ll be back as soon as Gunnar has determined the winner of Tess Gerritsen’s The Mephisto Club.

He’s just had breakfast and can’t be counted on to do justice to a number of treats so soon after (unlike Mitch and Micah who will snarf them down with nary a qualm). Gunnar is, um, fastidious. And inclined to be grouchy when I impose on him.

So . . . stay tuned.

Oh, and a Japanese edition of The Santorini Bride appeared late yesterday afternoon.