My second book is almost ready for release and with it will come more names that make people ask me, “You named your character WHAT?”

Maybe I can explain. You see, I have this thing for words and names. Maybe it’s because I so dislike my given name, sorry to anyone else named “Dorothy” who likes the name, I don’t. Or, maybe it is because I enjoy words and playing with them. Can’t really say.

Even as a kid when my brother got to name the family dog, I was appalled when the dog was named Duke (and no it was not in honor of John Wayne). After all, the dog had an almost perfectly shaped white diamond mark on his head, wasn’t it obvious he should have been called ‘Diamond Head’? Or at the very least ‘Diamond’? Seriously!

So, when I got my own animals, I tried to come up with ‘unique’ names. Even when I inherited a pre-named beastie I often added middle names to make them more unique. So, through the years I have had cats and dogs named Shiloh Anne, Vlad the Impaler, Sara Sue, Tiberius, Chubacca (my favorite Star Wars character), Simon Augustus, Mashishiiro and the list goes on. I even named one cat after my grandmother – Angelica Cecelia Boos Caffrey, the Second. ACBC2 for short!

And, when I got into writing fantasy, well, you can just imagine the joy that possessed me at the prospect of creating names for an entire world.

So, where do I get them? Well, I would love to say it is 100% cleverness and wit, but, that would be a lie. Some of the cats are named after things – Civil War battles; movie, anime, history or literary characters – or actual people, and some of them I do indeed ‘just make up’.

And my characters? After all, I can’t go ‘borrowing’ other worlds’ names – don’t think George Lucas would approve of Han Solo showing up in my world. And, somehow, “John and Mary” just don’t sound like they would fit in my world either. Though, I will admit, on occasion I do put so-called ‘real’ names in my writing, but only if I find them interesting. I guarantee there will be not be a Dorothy anywhere in this universe! Not even on the Author’s Page.

So, where do the rest of them come from? That is where the fun comes in. The fun of listening. Listening to sounds, words and names and then playing with them. Turning them around, chopping them up and combining them with other words or just rearranging the letters or syllables. I also like to flipping words – Regnaryn, the main character in my first book, for example is NY Ranger (NHL hockey team, for the unitiated) backwards.

So, when you read my books or hear about my cats you can be assured that, even if they sound ‘normal’, a great deal of thought went into them, unless, as in the case of my cat Rascal, he came “pre-named”.

And, now you know.