Random thoughts on character names or A rose by any other name would probably be a tomato

(Cross posted on Genre Bender)

Okay, first up the latest name I need to use somewhere, Jerico Higgenbottom.

No, really, isn't that a cool name? And both the first and last name are real people's names, they just don't appear together (or at least I haven't seen them together).

Secondly, I was once asked where I got the name of a certain character (the person asking had the same unusual last name, and given the "rightness" of the first name I'm sure they knew someone with that name). The last name was Waterdown, and it first came to me as an homage to Richard Adams' Watership Down, but there's also a Waterdown just down the road from Niagara Falls, which I've visited a few times so I'm sure I saw a road sign for it. Plus the name had a nice staid feeling about it, a plumpness and security I wanted to use in the story.

Thirdly, I've had characters that stubbornly refuse to cooperate unless I find their "true name" ("true names" in case you don't know, have immense power in fairy and sympathetic magic). Once while writing a story I changed a secondary character's name for story purposes, and that character took their little red ball and went home. Until I changed it back and then they started helping again. Having the character's name correctly doesn't stop me from writing a story, but it certainly helps having the right name. Currently the love interest in a story I'm writing only has a "working name" (like a "working title"). The name just doesn't fit her. Right now she's not on stage, yet. I know by the time she is I'll need to know her name.

But that doesn't help us in finding names, which is what authors normally get asked about. Well, I have several strategies.

First off is knowing a whole bunch of very diverse people. From them you can find names of cousins, other friends you don't know, mothers, brothers, etc. Now, you shouldn't lift a name wholesale, that would be wrong unless you're intentionally making a Tuckerization. However you can extrapolate from what you know of your friends to make appropriate choices for family types and economic backgrounds.

Another strategy is to use the numerous Baby Names lists (just Google "Baby Names"). These lists are especially helpful if you're trying to find an unusual name, one that has a certain meaning, or one that fits an ethno-type you wish to portray. What they normally won't help you with is family names (although you can fake it) or relevancy (such as not many teens carry the name Ethel these days). If you know lots of people you can mitigate that issue by induction.

Still another way is to haunt graveyards. This is especially good if you're writing a period piece and you have access to graves (hmm, I mean a grave site you can visit) from that general time period. Tombstones and markers are also good for other things that concern writing, especially if you know a little symbolism and the "language of the graves." There's an author with the name Storm Constantine. I've always loved it and wished I could use it, but it seemed to iconic. Until I discovered that name on a grave in Painesville, Ohio (late 1800's).

I have another way, but it's not going to help you all that much. For my day job I plate at least a hundred business cards a week. They are a constant stream of source material (and humor) for both names and business titles. My most favorite title, and one that I need to use somewhere is "Senior Unexploded Ordinance Technician." Really, somebody has that job. But I guess this is just saying that keeping your ears open and knowing a lot of people always helps in choosing names.

There's also the phone book. It's chock full of names and can definitely help choose a name to evoke regionalism in your story. Names do tend to cluster regionally (and by economics and ethnicity). I doubt very much I would use the name Eustice for someone from the Yukon.

Finally there are tons of considerations to take into account when choosing a character's name. Fit is one, does the name fit the character. If you have a Vietnamese-American Tai-bo master named, "Shakira" I think you're going to have to explain that one. The opposite of this (or a concern for me at least) is to shy away from the "morality play name," like Prudence, Handsome, Charity, Peace, names that match a character's role or personality type directly. Also there's the timeliness and appropriateness. You're not going to have a modern day twenty-something named Ebenezer Escrutias or a late Renaissance power player named Phodaddy Big. At least not without a lot of explanation.

Names also come with baggage. An Ebenezer is going to be considered a Scrooge unless you quickly discourage that. Names portray history and lineage. So choosing a name needs to be done carefully.

All that said, usually the first name that pops to mind for a character, just like using the first word that comes to mind for a sentence, it usually is the best. Trust your instincts. Much of our culture is so deeply ingrained in our consciousness that you'll "feel" the correctness of names.

Story Bone

There's this gas station I pass every day on my commute to work. It's a big named gas station owned by a British company, and one that is huge with something like 20 some odd pumps. There, of course, is the associated convenience store with fast food that serves subs and a coffee shop side. There's also a car wash over on the side.

At least once in every two weeks the place is closed, yellow caution tape strapped across all the entrances. Now, it's not closed more than a day (usually a few hours), but it's really strange. The station is in a high volume area (right off the highway in a high traffic area next to a McDs) so being closed for even a few hours is taking a big chunk o' change out the owners pocket. So I keep wondering just why it keeps closing so often. Robbery, can't find people to work, EPA regulations, just what could it be?

Now, one thing to know about this station is that it wasn't always this big. It used to only have 8 pumps and a smaller store. But about a year and a half ago, they moved the small cemetery that was next door (it had been filled for a long time) and expanded the station.

The station never had this problem when it was smaller.

So for my sake, teach me to take one day at a time

To answer some questions, yes I'm writing things. The past few nights I've been working, but only lightly. I've only written about 500-1000 new words, but have been rearranging some old words. I'm not back into the groove yet, but hope to pick up a thread soon. Might have to skip things. And there's other ideas floating in that I think also need to be handled. So this year looks like it's going to be very confusing and wondrous. Who knows what it'll see.

I feel like I'm holding my breath, and I don't know what for.

Someone sent me a story to critique. I didn't ask for it, but I feel an obligation. hint to new writers, don't send manuscripts for review that aren't asked for (that is, get an agreement before sending the story). This one will be slow slogging.

In other writing news I'm reading the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (Datlow, Link, Grant, et al). I'm skipping a lot of stories. Some that are written well, and I've given them a chance, but one too many "here's a hint of what this story might be about" without getting to the story and I'm skipping to the next on. Really, foreshadowing, it's an amazing thing. Way to many writers too in love with their own words. Now, this may seem like the pot calling the kettle black here, but I get to the story quickly (or I think I do).

There was one story, not a bad story at all, but you're halfway through it before you get to the fantasy part. Considering it was almost novella length (which it seems that most of the stories are on the long-esh side) this isn't a good thing in my book (and there really wasn't any reason to hide it and it could, IMHO, have been brought up front). I did read that one all the way through, the ending wasn't worth it (again IMHO). Decent, but too much fiddling on the edges. A nice action sequence (when we get there), in fact the opener of the action seemed a bit abrupt given the luxurious pace we took to get there. And the final thing, which I just realized, is the story "just happens" to the POV. Okay, he's changed his view of the world at the end, but it was from an epiphany, not from any hard work on his part.

With A History of Lightning one of the repeated critiques was to bring more of the story forward, which I did. Not enough to ruin the main action sequence, but enough to let you know that one of the major characters wasn't exactly as he seemed in other's company. With the new frame of War Stories you get up front (within the first 100 words) that Bobby isn't all together anymore and Fenny isn't as innocent as he claims. And I do that with one sentence.

I almost skipped Jeffrey Ford's The Drowned Life, but fortunately went back and gave it another try (that was mostly because the language was way up there, it was very beautiful). I'm glad I did. He was a bit heavy handed with some imagery, and I'm still pondering others, but at the end I think it was a good story. Given how much I still love Boatman's Holiday, I think my expectations weren't in line for this one.

So there it is. Still writing, no major progress to report. Just slugging away at it day by day.

Joe Reduxs and might not re-duck

So now Joe the Plumber is working for a conservative website. Wait, he's a conservative? Could have knocked me over with a feather. And that conservative website is so happy with him they're sending him to Gaza to cover the war.

You know, the non-jounralist who probably doesn't have any combat experience. His friends are sending him into a combat zone. As Dr. Zoidberg said, "With friends like this, who needs anemones?"

I wonder how well those journalist credentials from a website will work?

Personally I love some of the interviews he's given about it. You know, like how, as a Christian, he knows God will protect him, so he doesn't really need a bullet proof vest. And then there's the one about not being a real journalist but being an expert in media bias, because, you know, that'll help him so much covering a war zone.

Sometimes watching those episodes of Nature on PBS, I find myself routing for the lions. Go lions, go.

Anybody else see a Darwin Awards recipient in the making?

"supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting"

I think I'm finished with the new frame. Looked over the hard copy and only found a few things that needed changing. Either I'm getting better at this, or the new frame totally sucks and I don't know anything from shinola. All that remains to be seen is if I should be proactive or wait. Total word count, 4986.

The Last Great Conservative Experiment

It seems the Fed isn't any better with tracking their money than any other government office in the past eight years. All that money for the TARP that the Fed gave to banks, well, we're not sure just how those banks are using that money. You know, after they promised to use the funds to help secure "illiquid assets" and help homeowners. Then Benny Boy Bernanke decided the money would be better spent giving it directly to banks with no oversight or direction.

You might also remember the pallets of shrink wrapped bills we shipped to Iraq. You know, the money we couldn't even have a sign out sheet for and went "unaccountable."

Hey, Republicans, aren't you supposed to be the party of "fiscal discipline" (okay, well I guess since you took a budget surplus and quickly turned it to the largest deficit I should be surprised, I'll wait while you all shout "9-11" - you know, that excuse is getting old) and the "anti-government waste" people?

But then it hits me. Why did they give the money directly to the banks? In some cases they supposedly "forced" it on them. I mean, this money was supposed to help turn around the economy by helping the credit flow. The Fed outsourced the recovery.

That's right. Along with all the other functions of government, the conservatives felt that "the market would know better on how to fix the market." So, instead of having their own plan, you know, like buying up the "troubled assets" that were dragging the credit market to a halt, they figured "the market" would have a better plan.

You know, except they never do.

And on that thought, there's also a lot of asking economists why they didn't warn us what was coming. Many of them dodge and then say that they all bought into "the self-regulating market" myth. And then obviously that didn't work. I beg to differ. Strongly. This is how a "self-regulating market" works.

Many business people like to make analogies to biology, because you know, business is so like biology. Or at least their misunderstanding of the biology survey courses they needed to take for their BBA (bachelor of business arts, MBAs don't need that extraneous coursework crap). See, they never learned how Mother Nature self-regulates. Many people say that MN likes to keep things in balance. And for the most part, that is true. What they don 't tell you is how MN keeps things in balance. See, biological systems swing toward unbalance because of latency and lag issues. Then something bad happens. Populations crash. Hard. Like a wildebeast population expands because their are fewer lions and lots of fresh grazing. Those furry ruminants then destroy the local ecosystem by over-browsing. And the population of lions grows because, hey there's all these wildebeasts just waiting to be lunch. Then the wildebeast population gets over hunted, because they can only push out so many more. The ecosystem also starts starving them. Think it's done. Oh no. See the zebras then have a hard time because there isn't enough browsing. And then, because the grasses don't come back right away, the zebras crash as well. And then there's all these lions and no wildebeasts and zebras to munch on. Their population crashes. Which then leads to a perfect opportunity for the wildebeast population to regrow and overgraze, because there aren't so many zebras and lions and plenty of fresh grazing.

Sounds like a boom-bust cycle? Yeah, it does. A self-regulating system. Go figure. Point for an externally regulated system. You know, unless you want to be some lion's lunch or a starving lion. Or the grass. Poor grass.

Another Round in the On-Going "Industry Must Innovate" Saga

Via S. Andrew Swann over at Genrewonk we have a link to Dear Author and an article about the doom of book publishing. Okay, well it's more a "change or die" article.

There are a few pieces I disagree with with the author, such as POD machines in stores (the cost per piece is much higher than even an offset printed book with quantity), but there is plenty I do agree with. I suggest if you're in this writing business thing you give it a read. Lots of good advice backed up with examples from other entertainment industries.

Snow is here, wish you were deep.

Winter came a callin'. We've got about 6-8 inches out there as of this morning, and it's still coming down. We're under a winter weather advisory until 1am tomorrow morning and we're expecting another 8 inches today. So to all my NE Ohio friends, I hope you're keep warm and dry and that your exits are all cleared of snow.

This morning I had to go to a meeting (yeah for local governance!) and it was a mess out there. We have two state highways that run through our village, both are the responsibility of the State to clear (we get tons of calls every year). It's actually illegal for us to plow those roads (the parking spots along the side are our responsibility). The highways were dangerous this morning at 8:30. And when I left the meeting at 10:30 they were still dangerous. This "lack of salt" thing is getting crazy.

Anyway, spending the day inside catching up with chores and paperwork (I have two reports to write this week, yeah for local governance). Tried to get some pictures of the cats being especially cute, but once I got the camera out, they stopped their antics and just looked at me. Sigh.

We've already cleared the drive once today (right after the meetings). I have a feeling we'll have to do it at least twice again today. I have a 50 foot drive, two cars wide. And I use shovels. No snow blower. And I haven't seen the plowing gods all day (we sometimes get a free plow from friends - yeah friends!). We'll also have to feed the birds a few times today as they're voracious little beasties.

Cat Blogging Fridays

Okay, no pictures, but just wanted to give you some updates. Vivian (the mom) really wants to go outside. Until she's fixed, that's going to be a "No." We also had a good petting session today. When they first came she just wanted to play with the string we had them chase. Lately she's been letting Cleo play mostly, but Vivian wants more attention. She also is begging for food every time we go into the kitchen.

Cleo is using her leg more. Sometimes she doesn't limp all that much. When she runs, though, it's still the three legged hop. And just a few minutes ago, she came up on the couch and sniffed around. She even laid down next to me for a second. Considering there's still times that she just runs away from us, or scoots out from our trying to pet her, that's a pretty good step.

Have Shovel, Will Work

So there's been a lot of criticism for the "shovel ready" projects. There's a gaggle of naybobs who are talking about how there aren't any such projects, how they all are road projects, how it'll just be wasted money, and we'll be building bridges to nowhere.

Bull.

Here's a concrete example. In my village we have three projects we submitted for consideration. The requirements for submitting to the block grant (I think we're going as a county-wide thing) are that:

a) Engineering needs to be done (as in finished and ready to go, as of Dec 31, 2008),

b) Isn't frivolous (as in showing a demonstrable need), and

c) Have readily available materials (hint to everybody, asphalt isn't all that plentiful these days, especially in the Northern States).

So, what are our projects?

1) Improved storm water drainage system, as in rehauling the whole system in our village (we had planned to get a grant to do phase 1 - of probably 5 to 7 - this summer). This involves ripping out the old hodpodge installations and install new pipe that's arrange according to an overall plan (that has growth planned in). This is a huge project.

2) Resurfacing of several streets. We have had a list for three years now of the same roads. We've just never been able to find the money. There are three roads, four cul-de-sacs, and our hall parking lot that need resurfacing (or maybe this year some need repaving, which is more intensive and costly). All of these are at a critical stage (we expect out parking lot to disintegrate this summer).

3) A new garage building to house our Street Department and include garage space for the Police Department. Our current structure is barely standing up. We expect the next good wind that hits it just right will knock it down. We don't have nearly enough room to house all the equipment (it's distributed around the Village). And the new building will include a bathroom. The current one the guys use doesn't have one.

All of these projects have been on the books for at least one year (many for much longer). We just haven't had the money to fund them. If we had until the end of the month to get engineering done I can think of three more projects we could have (updated firehall, fix a road that keeps developing a dip, second water tower). And that's just off the top of my head. Give me a moment and I can think of more.

Unfortunately we had just finished up one major project (part of the reason all these others are left wanting) that we could have used this money for. That was "Sunrise Development" (Sunrise, Breezewood, Mist, and Eastwood). That was a five year project to repair a road that the village should never have accepted (very long story).

So when you hear some gasbag go off on how all this money will be "wasted" on "frivolous projects", just keep in mind that I represent a Village of less than 2500 people and I have all these things that need doing and they're all "shovel ready."

Flu Shocker!

Shocked we are to discover that many of the flue strains making the rounds this year are resistant to Tamiflu. Here's an NPR piece about it.

This is a Bad Thing(tm) because we've stockpiled Tamiflu around the world just in case Bird Flu (insert dramatic music cue here) makes the jump to an easily transferable human strain. Now there is the possibility that it'll also be resistant to the drug.

As I said to my wife last night, "Shocked, shocked I am to hear that evolution has occurred in nature."

So, Mr Lame Duck President, how's that whole "teach the controversy" and "don't believe in evolution" thing working out for you?

Bone in the World

After a night filled with what seemed to be meaningless word substitution, I think I got "Scrimshaw Man" back in order. There were edits all over. I put in a word in the first stanza that I kept saying out loud when reading it. The second stanza is all new from the last time I submitted it, I think it's much stronger now. At least it's more concrete.

So after a quick search, it's off to Strange Horizons. We'll see how it does there. Good luck little poem. So that was what, two days?

Although I did skip writing a report for the Village. Oh well. I'll have to do it this weekend.