A Rose By Any Other Name (might not smell that sweet after all...)

Apparently ‘A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet’ (excuse the tweak please, Will) well, that is as maybe but my brain kind of interferes with theories like that and adds a bit to the mix – allow me to explain: if a rose were called ‘Snotweed’, my brain would start imagining that it didn’t smell half as nice as a ‘rose’ would. Which is why I spend a long time on names of people and places in my books. Because names, to me, can interfere with things too much if they aren’t right. I don’t want my hero to be called Gaz Pickles. (Apologies to any Gaz Pickles out there, I hasten to add – I’m sure you’re really nice blokes). I want my creations to be called Max Masters or Dan Knight. I want his name packed with enough testosterone to leap off the page and snog my face off.
Blame my lovely English Teacher Miss Taylor for my overactive imagination in this area. I remember her dissecting the names of the characters from Far From the Madding Crowd and how Gabriel Oak was a name of a good, strong, dependable man. What a seed that English lesson planted – or should I say ‘acorn’. But it’s a very fun part of the book, choosing the names – and with each book I’ve become more obsessive to fit in with the themes.
‘Silkstone’ is a place near Barnsley, which I’d never really looked at closely – but once I did it became the perfect name for the hero of book 1... a mixture of softness and hardness, both in the right quantities. Adam in book 2, a name synonymous with ‘man’ (unless you have a really awful ex called ‘Adam’ in which case – soz) . ‘Honeywell’ too is a district in Barnsley, and seeing as my book was about Birds and Bees, it fitted in beautifully and I had to use it. Lou’s surname in ‘A Spring Affair’ was Winter, because that symbolised her marriage. And I had a lot of fun with ‘Winkelstein’. ‘A Summer Fling’ was like a party picking the names... the five main characters have names all associated with the sun – albeit slightly tenuous in some cases, but there is still a connection that I hoped would flavour the book with sunshine – Grace BEAMish, Christie SOMERS, RAYchel Love, DAWN SOLe, Anna BRIGHTside. Christie lives in WEST House, the pub and restaurant are called ‘The Rising Sun’ and ‘The Setting Sun’. Vladimir is one of those names that turns my knees to jelly and very Transylvanian. Al Holly, sounded dependable and virile (absolutely nothing to do with snugging up to WWE's Hardcore Holly strictly for photographic purposes).
I’m not giving anything away about book 5, but there’s a dreadful pun on the Captain’s name (that I’m ashamedly rather proud of). I’ve started work on book 6 with my Autumn story – and you can imagine the fun I’m having with that. Can’t wait for the Winter one either.
Of course there is always a worry that you pick a name for the ‘villain’ and it’s the same name as someone you know and they think you’re having a pop. Not true. The trouble is, sometimes when you find a name for a character, it locks down and you can’t change it because that person/character has started to be born. Which is why there’s a bit of a numpty woman in book 1 called Lisa who is absolutely nothing to do with my lovely cousin Lisa. I just imagined this woman in my head, she ‘picked her own name’ (writers will know what I mean by this – characters are like diva actors, they often ignore what you direct and go their own way) and that was it – unchangeable. Set. In. Stone. If your name crops up in one of my books (even if it’s attached to a villain) it’s not because I bear any grudges (plus I don’t want to get sued) it’s just because the name fits. I thought ‘Spatchcock’ was an unusual comedy name until I met a lovely woman at a recent signing whose name was ‘Miss Haggis’. Now if I’d written that in a book – especially my very Scottish book 2 – I bet you would have thought ‘this author really is stretching credibility just too far!’