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 

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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.

Connect with J.Q. Rose online at

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Books We LoveAuthor Page 

Old-Fashioned Thrills & Chills by Stuart R. West

Click here to find out about Stuart R. Wests books.

As a thriller writer in the 21^st century, several things gum me up. Like a bug caught in a fly-strip, though, I keep struggling, fluttering my wings over the keyboard.

Technology has stomped on good ol’-fashioned thrills and chills. Edge of the seat, run for your life suspense sequences have morphed into guys looking at computer screens. Bah. If I desired that as entertainment, I would’ve never left the corporate sector. (There is one minor plus, though: in books, you don’t smell the “cubicle odor.”)

I liked the old thrillers when finding a phone booth and a quarter qualified as a life-saver. Nowadays, characters stop at Starbucks, get their java on, plug in, and cybernetically—magically!—find whatever they want. Computers and the “geeks” who wizard over them pull off a seemingly endless stream of deus ex machina. There’s always a guy who can “hack” into any database.  Always. In nanoseconds! Like on all of those TV police procedurals where the stereotypical “goth” girl pulls up information on anybody with hi-tech equipment dreamed up in some writer’s head.

Having said that, I, too, have used “that guy” in my suspense series, Killers Incorporated. These days, it’s hard to ignore technology. But I generally strive to take the road less traveled, working hard to earn my thrills the old school route. Lots of chases, brawls, explosions, double-crosses, unsavory characters, etc. And yes, there’s still “that guy” when I get stumped on a plot point.

I try not to use “that guy” too much. As a writer, he makes me lazy. Predictable. Ultimately boring.

Sigh. But nowadays “that guy” is an unfortunate necessary evil.

Click here to purchase!

Another change I’ve noticed in thrillers is a heavy reliance on psychology. Back in the day, thriller writers never offered reasons why jerks threw wheelchair-bound old ladies downstairs. They just did it. Gleefully so. No reader really lost sleep over the reason behind it either. The villain just epitomized evil and that was good enough for an earlier, starkly good-or-evil (innocent in a way) era.

These days, readers want “motivation.” Background. Why are the villains evil? 

I dunno, ask my high school bullies. They never offered any reasons for their behavior. But it was always painfully clear who to run from.

Is it pure coincidence that the first four letters of “analysis” are “anal?” I think not. Freud, I’m looking at you. Regardless, nowadays more sophisticated thriller readers demand reasons behind villains’ psychotic behavior. Back stories involving horrible bed-wetting, whatever. Fine, I’ll cop to supplying background motivation to most of my serial killers in the Killers Incorporated trilogy. Except it takes out some of the mystique, the fun of their villainy. That’s why I never delve into “The Man with the Shoebox’s” past. Some things are better off left unstated and he’s one of my favorite characters for it (Just what is in his shoebox anyway?).

Today’s thriller readers like the world of high-tech espionage, populated with rooms full of spies punching buttons and breaking into covert databases. Me? I still prefer heroes who punch faces and physically break into evil corporations’ headquarters. That’s the Killers Incorporated trilogy, an ode to good ol’ fashioned thrills and chills, topped with a dose of sardonic black humor.

One click away from finding out how the action-packed saga concludes!

Better Late than Never by Nancy M Bell

His Brother's Bride is the second release in Books We Love Canadian Historical Brides series to celebrate Canada's 150th Birthday. YOu can click on the image to be taken to my author page at Books We Love to see more.

I apologize for posting late this month. I'm off to beautiful Banff Alberta with Victoria Chatham, author of Brides of Banff Springs, and publisher Jude Pittman to promote the series with a reading at Banff Library. So I apologize again for the lateness and shortness of this post. But I leave you with images of the lovely mountain town I'm about to leave for. It's supposed to snow this afternoon so the roads may be a bit tricky but the scenery is certainly worth it.

Til next month...be well...be happy...buy my new book...opps did I say that out loud? LOL