Characters' Names

 

The first in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series.

How important is it to get the right name for one of your characters?

When I first started writing, I usually picked the first names of the good characters from people that I liked, and added a last name that seemed to go with it. Of course, I sometimes did the opposite for the bad characters. Later in my writing career I tried to use names that carried some kind of meaning, at least to me, that the person I'd created had a touch of evil. 

As time went on I began to learn some fairly good rules about names: Don't have characters with names that begin with the same letter and don't use names that rhyme. One of my own rules is don't pick a name that no one can pronounce because that drives me crazy when I'm reading a book and don't really know how to say the character's name. 

As time went on I needed more sources for names.

Of course, nowadays one can go on the Internet and find every kind of ethnic name, first and last, plus popular boy and girl names for any year.  And yes, I've used these sources a few times. However, for me a better way has been to jot down interesting names I see in the newspaper and to save any programs such as from graduations and stage plays. I'll pick a first name from one and a last name from another that seem to fit the character I'm creating. 

My character Deputy Tempe Crabtree's name is one of my great-grandmother's names. I thought it fit the Native American woman I'd conjured in my mind. (And by the way, Tempe is short for Temperance, and is pronounced Tempie.)

First in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series

For my main character in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series, Doug Milligan came about because Doug was my favorite cousin's name and I liked the way the name Milligan went with it. 

I'd like to hear from other authors how they choose their character names.

Marilyn

I'm Doing it Again: Free Book on Amazon

From yesterday, October 12, until Friday, Oct. 16, the first book in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series will be free on Kindle.

https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Trail-Tempe-Crabtree-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B07R7XF4L9/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Deadly+Trail+by+marilyn+meredith&qid=1601992913&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

This is the newly edited, republished edition--the book that started it all, Deadly Trail.

Actually, the second book in the series, Deadly Omen,  was published first. I found another small press to publish Deadly Trail, but it never got much in the way of promotion.

The series has now grown to 19 books. 

Deadly Trail introduces Native American Deputy Tempe Crabtree, her son, Blair, and her fiance, Pastor Hutch Hutchinson. Nick Two John is an important character in this book as he is in most of those that follow. 

The story is set in the mountain community of Bear Creek that has a striking resemblance to the town I live in, with some necessary changes.

This is a great way to start the series, and I hope some of you will try it.

Marilyn

Why Do You Write?

Recently, we learned of a fellow writer who passed away unexpectedly. Though extremely talented, she never reached her full potential, mainly wrote about what she wanted to write someday. She felt unless she made a lot of money, she was wasting her time.

Though I've never made a lot of money, I've never felt like I was wasting my time by writing.

I enjoy writing. I'm thrilled when I hear from one of my fans that they really liked one of my books. Receiving a good review is like a reward.

But as far as why I write--it's what I do. I spend a lot of time with the characters I've created, and I always want to know what's going to happen to them next. The only way to find out is to write the next book.

Besides writing, I find myself doing a lot of promoting.

Recently, Mundania who publishes my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series reedited and redid the covers on several of the books in the series.

These are the first two and are now available.

In the meantime, the latest in my Rocky Bluff P.D. series, Tangled Webs will be sold for only .99 cents for Kindle from Friday, January 25th through Monday, January 28th.  Anytime there's a sale like this, lots of promotion needs to be done. So of course I've been busy with that too. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

If you want to check it out, here's the link

https://tinyurl.com/yabj9z9f

'

The sale starts this Friday.

How about you, why do you write?

Marilyn

And the New Year is Off and Running!

Last year 4 new babies entered our family--a great granddaughter, and 2 great-greats, a boy and a girl giving us a total of 4 great-greats. Truly amazing!

Our family celebrated New Year's Day in the usual manner--having my super special seafood gumbo with lots of shrimp and crab legs, and a wild game of Estimation afterwards.

In my writing world two of my old books in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series have come out re-edited and with new covers and are available on Kindle.

The first one is Deadly Trail.

https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Trail-Tempe-Crabtree-Mystery-ebook/dp/B07M8P1S7C/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1546179243&sr=1-1&keywords=Deadly+Trail+by+Marilyn+Meredith

This one was published by a great but now closed publishing company and was picked up by Mundania and called a Prequel though it is the first in the series and introduces the setting and the characters.

The setting is a mountain town which slightly resembles the one I live in though there are changes.

Deputy Tempe Crabtree is a Native American who knows little about her heritage. Nick Two John, a fellow Indian is ready to give her instructions though he may have to do it from jail. Her teenaged son and her love interest, Pastor Hutch Hutchinson make their appearance too.

It has not been updated timewise--things are as they were back when I wrote this book.

Marilyng

New Days for Me by Marilyn Meredith

I'm switching to posting on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays--and this is my first for this day.

Tomorrow hubby, daughter and I are headed off to Las Vegas--and no, not for the usual, no gambling or shows. This is the week for the Public Safety Writers Association's annual conference--and my favorite.

I'll be busy there as I'm one of the instructors for the pre-conference writing workshop and will be talking about writing descriptions of people and places. I'm also a moderator for a panel on and on one about point of view.

Both my hubby and my daughter work in the bookstore--and since it's at the back of the room where the conference is held they get to enjoy the speakers and the panels.

One presentation I'm really looking forward to is an inside view of the massacre at the concert in Vegas last year. A fireman who was at the conference and worked to save lives is one of the speakers. The other is a retired police officer who organized a place for all those working the crime scene to come for free food and drink People don't realize that where the concert was held was a crime scene and it took days for it to be completely investigated.

Another bit of news is some of my older Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries have been re-edited and will have new covers. The first in the series, Deadly Trail, has the first new cover.

The idea is to make them look more like those later in the series. This book was first published by a wonderful publisher who is no longer in business. Though the cover was nice it didn't fit with the new ones.

I'll see you again on the 4th Tuesday and share a bit about the conference.

Marilyn

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

My guess is that every author has been asked that question many times. And I would suspect that most of them have more ideas than they'll ever have time to develop into a story or book.

Sometimes something that happens in life will trigger an idea for a story. That has happened to me more than once. I used a murder that actually happened in our area for three different books. The female owner of a mountain lodge was murdered in one of the cabins while asleep in bed with her Indian employee. (The handsome employee lived though he was shot too.) Her husband was in the southern part of the state tending to his automobile sales business giving him an airtight alibi. As the years passed, the man hired to do the murder decided to blackmail the husband and got killed for his trouble. That's when the husband was found out and arrested for the murder of his wife.

I used the murder of the owner of an inn, rather than a lodge, for my firs Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, Deadly Trail. The story wasn't much like what actually happened, the murder victim was the male owner of the Inn, not female, and he wasn't killed in bed, but that real murder is what triggered the idea.

For another mystery in the Crabtree series, Intervention, I used the lodge in the real murder as the setting for a completely different story.

And once again, in a later Crabtree tale, Kindred Spirits, I lifted some aspects of that first real murder.

I like to save newspaper articles of interesting crimes and murders too. The story I write won't be exactly like the real happening, but often will give me a jumping off point for a plot of my own.

We recently had two deaths in our community that are far too coincidental. Female friends were found dead in their homes within hours of each other. No autopsies were done. One lady had no family at all and the other's family didn't acknowledge her until after her death. Of course I will work that into one of my mysteries.

And my latest book, Lingering Spirit, a romance with a touch of the supernatural, was inspired by a tragedy in my own family when my son-in-law was killed in the line of duty. I must add that it was only the inspiration, what happened after that is fiction.

You can learn more about any of these books on my website http://fictionforyou.com

What about you? Where do your ideas come from?

Marilyn