I'm not in a critique group so my wife was the first to read
my latest book. She found a lot of missing words, misused words, wrong words
(installation instead of insulation), and she made comments about everything
that didn't make sense. I made the changes and sent the manuscript to my friend
Rollo. He's been a close friend since high school and he reads many books. With
co-authors he published an anthology of mysteries set in Texas. I'm also
sending a copy to three friends from church who have read the prequel and all
three are readers, one an editor.
But, getting back to my wife's comments. She didn't care for
the name of one of the characters because it was difficult to pronounce. Let me
say first that I select character names carefully and have blogged about it in
the past. See the following posts:
The name that bothered my wife was David Bownpole. She said
Brownpole was easier to say. However, I don't like Brownpole because it is
brown pole. This character's name was originally Kerwin Bownpole, but I changed
Kerwin to David because Kerwin sounded too much like the main character Karen.
If you looked over the articles referenced above, you'll
find reference to an online source for names. It is called Fictional Character
Name Generator (http://www.jimwegryn.com/Names/FictionNames.htm).
Well this is where I got the name Kerwin and Bownpole. I can't remember if the
first and last name came together or not since there is a family of Bownpoles
in my book.
So, now I'm going the process of finding the perfect name. I
even posting a request on Facebook for help. Doing all this reminded me of the
blogs on the subject I've already written and thought you might find them
interesting and useful.
If you think of a good name, let me know.
