What's in a Name? By Jamie Hill

Buy at Amazon

My very first novel ever, written on wide rule notebook paper when I was ten years old, featured a heroine named Shelton who had a lot of husky dogs and after she'd grown up, went on to have a lot of babies. I'm not sure at age ten I actually knew where the babies came from, but that didn't matter. My chapters went something like, "Spring came and Shelton had another baby, this one she named Thomas." You see, the naming (of dogs or humans) was the fun part for me.

I've always loved names and naming characters was (and still is) a huge part of my writing process. Back then I chose names because I liked them. I had no idea there was more to naming characters than liking the favorite nom du jour.

An early editor set me straight on the importance of choosing names. First tip, readers want to be able to pronounce a name. I might think Crouix is a cool moniker, but when you're reading if you're not sure how to say it, the nagging issue can pull you out of the story. If I insist on using it, perhaps early on I can make a reference to someone saying, "Crouix rhymes with Roo" or something similar, just to give the reader a hint.

Second tip, the main characters names in a book should start with different letters. I shouldn't have Susan fall in love with Steve who's son's name is Sam and his boss's name is Stan. Too much! I need to use a variety of letters to make it easier for the reader to keep characters straight.

Third tip, be very careful changing names mid-story. I've done this, and it can be done if you're very careful. If halfway through the story, Rob doesn't fit anymore and I want the hero to be called Marc, it's okay to change. BUT you have to catch every instance of usage (a stray Rob in a story about Marc will confuse even the best editor) and worse, if you use the search and replace feature, disaster can and has happened. Changing all instances of Rob to Marc may result in a bank being Marced instead of Robbed!

I still break rules sometimes, but I try to keep what I've learned about names in mind. I want the reader to feel comfortable when pronouncing the names I've chosen. I called the heroine in Blame it on the Stars 'Catlin' so people could call her 'Cat' as a nickname. But friends who discuss the book with me invariably call her everything from 'Caitlin' to 'Catherine' and several names in between. And to top it off, Catlin named her kids Cristian, Charlie and Clarissa. I know, sometimes I'm just a rebel.

Find Jamie Hill and all her glorious names at Books We Love: 

http://bookswelove.net/authors/hill-jamie/

and at her website: www.jamiehill.biz

[...and for the record, Jamie Irene was named after her father James and her grandmothers, both of whose middle names were coincidentally Irene. Jamie herself always thought Irene sounded old, and wished her middle name was Elizabeth. So she chose that as her Confirmation name during Eighth grade at Catholic school.]

17th Century Whitehall, Part 2, by Katherine Pym

Whitehall Palace

Previously, I told you the history of Whitehall Palace, its beginnings and its end. Today, I want to talk of the structure, and how London’s activities affected Whitehall Palace.

Part II, Other stuff about Whitehall:

Castles have a tendency to be drafty, and it was no different with the Palace of Whitehall. Due to the compilation of various buildings crammed together, the palace was more drafty than normal. During storms, winds whistled down chimneys and spread ash across the chambers. Fires sparked, then smoldered.   

London and its suburbs used sea coal and brown coal to heat their homes. It was inferior and smoked. London also seemed to have existed under a pall of inversion. Smoke and pollution hung stagnant over the city and its suburbs for weeks on end.

Coal was used to brew ale or beer. Dyers used coal to heat water. Soap boilers manufactured their product with ash. Glass houses, founders and most industries used coal for their fires and their products. As a result, smoke settled heavy on everything with a gritty dust. Not a good place for asthmatics, the air was hard to breathe.

John Evelyn (1620-1706) loved London. He observed everything within and without the great city.

In 1661, he wrote Fumifugium: or, The Inconvenience of the AER, and SMOAKE of London Dissipate, a diatribe of the damages smoke can do to a person, city, and anything alive. In this pamphlet, he also proposed remedies for this damage. This, he gave to King Charles II in the year of his coronation (1661).

A visit to Whitehall provoked Evelyn to write this pamphlet. While he strolled through the palace, looking for a glimpse of His Royal Majesty, Evelyn said, “a presumptuous smoke issuing from one or two tunnels near Northumberland House, and not far from Scotland Yard, did so invade the Court that all the rooms, galleries, and places about it were filled and infested with it, and that to such a degree, as men could hardly discern one another for the cloud...”

Apparently, the smoke was so thick in the palace, people had to stretch their arms to make it from room to room. I can imagine with the uneven floors, bridges, and stairways that linked strange floor levels, this could be dangerous.

Alleged Whitehall Floor-plan

Evelyn continues, “...upon frequent observation, but it was this alone, and the trouble that it must needs procure to Your Sacred Majesty, as well as hazard to your health…” Yes, wandering a palace so filled with smoke, it would be difficult to breathe, to see without your eyes tearing.

In 1662 a strong storm hit London, and Whitehall was not spared. A few fires started but fortunately, they were doused without any real damage. After this, regulations were enforced to have at each hearth a leather bucket filled with water.

In 1691, Whitehall nearly burned down. By this time, it was a maze of complexity, and the largest palace in Europe. On April 10^th of this year, a fire broke out that damaged a great deal of the structure(s), but not the State Apartments. By this time, William III and Mary II lived most of the time in Kensington Palace.

Then, in 1698 what remained of Whitehall burned, along with many treasures garnered over the ages. Among other treasures, scholars believe Michelangelo’s Cupid, the Portrait of Henry VIII, and Bernini’s marble bust of King Charles I were all lost.

John Evelyn wrote: “Whitehall burnt! Nothing but walls and ruins left.”

Can you imagine the stories those old walls could have told, so rich, historical, and so often tragic?

Many thanks to the following sources:

Adrian Tinniswood. By Permission of Heaven, The true Story of the Great Fire of London. Riverhead Books, NY, 2003

John Evelyn. Fumifugium: Or, The Inconvenience of the AER, and SMOAKE of London Dissipated. Together With some Remedies humbly proposed by J.E. Esq; To His Sacred MAJESTIE, and To the Parliament now Assemble. Published by His Majesties Command. London 1661

http://www.hrp.org.uk/learninganddiscovery/Discoverthehistoricroyalpalaces/thebuildinghistories/BanquetingHouse/WhitehallPalace

CLICK TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON

 

Taking the Art of Writing Outdoors

Summer is here and the weather is great - for the most part!
Do you use those lazy days to do things you love to do or are you busy running kids from activity to activity to keep them busy the entire summer? Whatever your plans, be sure to bring a book.

Personally, I love summer. I love the lazy mornings (my "real" job doesn't start until afternoons) and try to spend that time either writing or reading. BWL has so many great authors with so many books I'm still working my way through the list! Both my reading and writing habits have changed over the years, and sometimes they change from season to season. Summer screams for lighter, fluffier books. Books that my brain doesn't have to work hard to read. Brain candy.

Writing in the summer has its advantages as well. It's much easier to grab a pen and pad of paper and go to the park, or the beach. Sometimes a change in venue can give you a fresh perspective and some new ideas.

Writing less in isolation and more around other people, can give you new character ideas and situations. I had the pleasure of hanging around a teenage girl yesterday I would love to use as a base for a new character. Spunky and outspoken, she started off a little abrasive, but we quickly connected and discovered commonality despite the age difference. I've had the same experience at a writing retreat near a river in a little house that resembles a lighthouse.

Writing in new settings can give you more detail into your own stories. The grit of the beach beneath your body, the hot sun on your skin, the irritating buzz of a mosquito, the squawk of a seagull who really wants your bag of potato chips... At your writing desk, you need to delve into your imagination for those minute details. Out in the real world, they attack you from all sides and you have a veritable buffet of stimuli to choose from.

An author's work takes on a different tone when they are relaxed and "in the flow." Words flow from the pen (or keyboard) at an amazing rate and seem to magically create scenes we normally couldn't write if we were forced. The mind tends to wander more and bring back many more "what if's" for us to use.

Writer or reader, take the time to bring a book outside.
Read in nature.
Write in nature.
Enjoy all the opportunities summer brings and find the time to enjoy a good book!

By Diane Bator

http://bookswelove.net/authors/bator-diane/

TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF AN AUTHOR - MARGARET TANNER

THE PATH TO PUBLICATION - MARGARET TANNER

 

So you want to get published?

You have written a fabulous novel, your mother loved it and your girlfriend said it was the best story she had ever read.

Now, who is the lucky publisher? You know everyone will want it. The dollar sign lights up in your eyes. Six figure advance, well maybe you would take five for starters. You are already debating what you will wear to your first book launch. Who will play the lead role when your masterpiece is made into a movie? Be honest, haven’t we all thought like this? 

I have sent manuscripts to the large category romance publishers. The bigger the better I thought and received rejection letters, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. I could paper the side wall of my house with them.  Along the way I entered and won, or was commended in, unpublished manuscript awards so I was reassured that I had some talent.

In desperation, after a few rejections, I once sent a manuscript off and pretended to be my husband. I wrote a little introductory note saying I was a male nightshift worker at an international airport, (which he was.  Of course, he couldn’t write a romance novel to save his life).

A couple of months later the manuscript was returned from the junior editor saying she quite liked the storyline, I really did write like a woman, but they had read something similar only a few weeks previously. Devastating news.

A few weeks before Christmas, a friend of ours proposed a daring plan that would get me out of the ‘slush’ pile. He said. “Wrap the manuscript up in Christmas paper, put a fancy ribbon on it and send it off addressed to the senior editor. No junior editor would dare open the boss’ Christmas present.” What a master stroke I thought, the man was an absolute genius.

Well, a couple of months later, said present winged its way back to me, my pretty ribbons intact, sticky tape untouched by human hand. The note was brief and to the point. Thank you for the gift, but we don’t accept presents, wishing you Merry Christmas etc. etc. The rejection was killing. I felt like the world had ended.

Then I got smart, and started researching publishers who published the kind of novels I wrote and whose business structures were sound.

It has taken me years and a lot of perseverance to get this far, but I am now multi-published with Books We Love and I couldn't be happier.

Margaret Tanner

http://www.margarettanner.com/ 

http://bookswelove.net/authors/tanner-margaret/

 My latest release from Books We Love is Dangerous Birthright.

 

Georgina O'Rourke has been living a lie because of a deadly secret from her past.

 

http://amzn.com/B00SQBUGSQ

 

 

 

 

 

 

OH, SAY CAN YOU SEE AFTER THE FOURTH? by Shirley Martin

CLICK THE COVER TO PURCHASE

The Fourth of July is the most dangerous holiday of the year.  Every 4th, there are car accidents, drownings, and fireworks accidents.  The majority of deaths are from car accidents.

A lot of drivers hit the road on this holiday, and this increases the likelihood of serious crashes.  Often people attend barbecues and other activities that involve drinking.  And of course, alcohol increases the chances of deadly accidents.  Also, alcohol leads to drowsiness.

Fireworks mishaps raise the chances of accidents and many injuries affecting the head, face, ears, and eyes.  Fireworks displays can go awry and injure spectators, often seriously. A fire at a Seattle marina caused a million dollars in damages and sent clouds of black smoke into the sky before the actual fireworks display.  Someone had set off an illegal fireworks that hit the storage facility. It took 65 firefighters to quell the flames. A fireworks accident in a town north of Los Angeles left 28 people injured after an 'unintentional' detonation of fireworks into a crowd on this holiday.

Besides car accidents and firework mishaps, there are also bicycle crashes and swimming accidents.  Sadly, even parades can lead to fatal accidents.

Gun-toting macho men love to shoot off their guns, apparently not realizing that what goes up must come down.

It might take a psychiatrist to explain why celebrations and merriment so often bring out the worst in people. Yet it's true; parties and celebrations often lead to shootings, including on the Fourth.

Boating accidents may occur, and here again, the culprit is often alcohol.

All those who celebrate the Fourth of July, enjoy the day but stay safe.


On a happier note, I'd love for you to read my romance novels.  You can find them here:  http://amzn.to/1zN7YAq  and here:  http://bookswelove.net/authors/martin-shirley
I'm published in historical, fantasy and paranormal
Follow me on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/mshirley1496
And Facebook:  https://facebook.com/shirley.martin716970

I'm from Pittsburgh but I live in Birmingham, AL now. I enjoy writing and reading, both fiction and non-fiction. Do you like to read about time travel? Then you might like "Dream Weaver."  My Avador series, starting with "Night Secrets" is fantasy. If you like historical romance, try "Forbidden Love."
Happy reading to all!