Names

We all know the names of Pippi, Ramona, Winnie, Sherlock, Charlie Bucket, Harry Potter, and many more.

Character names represent more than a word on a piece of paper. The name of the character comes to life and becomes a real person throughout a novel.

Authors take great care in naming their characters. The ideas can come from many sources and places of inspiration.

In my children’s book, Turtle Tube: An Erutuf National Park Novel, I selected the names of Reese and Dean by using my children’s middle names. Reese and Dean fit their characters really well.

I based other characters’ names on their personalities and characteristics. I even changed a name at one point. Olivia was originally named Eva. In the editing process, I discovered that Eva and Emma were too similar of names to have in this book. I couldn’t imagine changing Emma, so opted to change Eva to Olivia.

I’m working on the second book in this series and need a name for a 5 year old boy character. I decided to ask for some help and who else best to help than a class of children. 🙂 A local fourth grade class agreed to help and all wrote down name suggestions on pieces of paper for me to review.

I love the suggestions! I am really impressed how serious the students took this task and wanted to help.

Thank you to Mrs. Anderson’s class for all these thoughtful and creative suggestions!

Signs and Stickers

National parks all have iconic signs such as these two examples below from Yellowstone National and Yosemite National Park.

It came to my attention recently that my national park needed a sign. To explain, I created a fictional national park as the setting in my children’s book, Turtle Tube: An Erutuf National Park Novel, called Erutuf National Park. I have a map of the national park, but no sign.

I really love the idea of creating this sign as a visual for children. In particular, I like the idea of creating it to use as stickers. Stickers are the rage right now covering water bottles, laptops, and more. So, I started the process of working with a designer (as I am definitely not an artist).

Here are the first few draft designs:

We went back and forth with ideas and came up with this final design:

I love it! And I’m having it made into stickers! Yay!

Just thought I’d share a bit of author life and work today. Thanks for reading! 🙂

Library Shelfie Day

Happy Library Shelfie Day! Yes, it’s a thing!

The New York Public Library created Library Shelfie Day back in 2014 and it’s celebrated on the fourth Wednesday of January each day. On this day, go and enjoy many photos on social media and blogs of books on shelves. Look for the #LibraryShelfieDay. Escape the news and work deadlines and check out some fun book photos!

And maybe you’ll even find a new book to check out and read! 🙂