When my hero contacted me on Facebook....by Sheila Claydon

Dedication

To the real Dirk Van Allen with many apologies for unwittingly stealing his name

Writers are used to strange things happening to them. Those moments of serendipity when the story they are struggling with suddenly becomes clear thanks to a chance remark overheard, or the glimpse of a stranger's face on an everyday journey. From such things whole books are born. From them, too, characters spring to life, and for most writers those characters are almost  real. Almost, but not quite. So imagine how startled I was when the hero of my book Empty Hearts contacted me on Facebook.

Of course it wasn't quite like that. I'm a writer, so I exaggerate! But it was pretty spooky all the same. You see nowadays most of my heroes have ordinary names like Matthew or Sean or Daniel, but for some reason I gave the hero in Empty Hearts a much more exotic name. I called him Dirk Van Allen.  Because I wrote it a long time ago I don't remember where the name came from although I do remember the person I modelled him on (never to be revealed) and I remember too that he had a double-barrelled name, so I guess that was the trigger for Van Allen.  My choice of Dirk, however, remains a complete mystery to me. So when the name Dirk Van Allen popped up on my Facebook page I was more than startled.

So was the real Dirk Van Allen. How he found my book I have no idea, but he wanted to know why I had used his name, and he had a point because it is unusual. Van Allen is unusual and so is Dirk, so marrying the two together for a fictional hero and then discovering the name belonged to someone after all was an almost unbelievable coincidence, so that is why I have dedicated the 3rd edition of Empty Hearts to the real Dirk Van Allen.

Written in the 1980s it is now a vintage romance that has stood the test of time sufficiently for a 3rd edition to be republished by Books We Love, in print and as an ebook, so the least I can do is acknowledge the success of a very unusual name. Thank you Dirk, and because you and I are now Facebook friends, I know your own romance was one of the great ones, so this is in memory of your wonderful Lanny too.

Go to Sheila's Books We Love author page to see the rest of her books, which are available on:

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What's in a Name? by J.Q. Rose

For more information about BWL books by J.Q. Rose , 

and to purchase, please visit J.Q.'s 

Books We LoveAuthor Page .

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The month of February is known for cupids, hearts, romance and love. It’s the perfect time of year to remember Shakespeare’s famous love story, Romeo and Juliet. This is my favorite passage from the play.

Juliet:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

Juliet-"What's in a name?"

By any other name would smell as sweet."

In this famous scene Juliet asks what’s in a name. She answers by telling Romeo Montague that a name is meaningless. She loves the person who is called "Montague," not the Montague name and not the Montague family. 

Alas, Juliet is wrong about a name being meaningless as far as writers and readers are concerned.

As a writer, I've discovered a name helps to convey to the reader a character's personality. If writing a story set in Victorian times, an author would not choose Jayden or Madison, the popular names in 2010. Names also help to establish the setting of the novel. Arapaho Valley conjures up a setting in the West, not in an Eastern city. Do you agree?

A strong, powerfully built hero would probably not be named Herbert. How about that gorgeous sexy blonde character at the bar? A name like Edith just does not evoke the matching image in the reader’s mind. (But it would be a fun twist to name her Edith anyway.)

When penning my romantic suspense novel, Dangerous Sanctuary,I tried several contemporary names for my main character who is a female minister. In a moment of creative energy, the name Christine swirled through my brain. I knew that was exactly the name I had been searching for. Later I discovered the meaning of the name is "follower of Christ." 

Think about the name of your favorite character in a book you've read. I love Mark Twain’s Huck Finn. There just is no other name that would fit that adventurous kid. In Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, what better name than Lula for that wild and crazy lady of the night and Morelli for the sexy rogue policeman?

When it comes to naming characters, what’s in a name? Everything!

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Books We Love and author J.Q. Rose are celebrating this month of love by offering the romantic suspense, Dangerous Sanctuary FREE today, February 20. 

Click here on the J.Q. Rose BWL Author page for a FREE download

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About J.Q.

After writing feature articles in magazines, newspapers, and online magazines for over fifteen years, J.Q. Rose entered the world of fiction. Her published mysteries are Deadly Undertaking  and Dangerous Sanctuary released by 

Author J.Q. Rose

Books We Love Publishing. Blogging, photography, Pegs and Jokers board games, and travel are the things that keep her out of trouble. She spends winters in Florida and summers up north camping and hunting toads, frogs, and salamanders with her four grandsons and granddaughter.

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