How is this possible?

Lori over at Pure Imagination has a mission:

Candace of Candace's Book Blog has NEVER read Harry Potter.  This must change:






I'm still proofing the galleys of Legacy, but they're nearly ready to go to the printer--probably later today. Woo-hoo!

Character Names

"I KNOW What You're Thinking."

If my regulars are wondering why this is appearing in comments, it's because Miss Vicki over at Rambles & Randomness is dissing 'Jersey and sending folks over to win a copy of Minder. I can recommend her wonderful blog as well as her excellent taste in books. :)

And, BTW, it's always okay to mock New Jersey. Thanks for linking over, Vicki!

Welcome, all you new folks! Not to shamefully self-promote (it's like shamelessly self-promoting, but I apologize for it afterward), but here's some info for Minder:
The website Ganzfield.com has a book trailer, tons of info about the series, and a free PDF excerpt. Amazon has best price online (as far as I know), especially for the e-book ($2.99), and the sequel, Adversary, will be out next month.

I'm sorry for such blatant self-promotion. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Character Names

"Maddie Dunn"

She sounds plain, right? Like "matte" (not glossy) and "dun" (brown). I gave the extraordinary main character of Minder a simple name. It simply fit her--a girl who hides in plain sight, almost as though the name was a form of social camouflage.

And, as much as I loved reading Twilight, the name and the character are somewhat the opposites of "Bella Swann."

In many novels, character names have special meaning. The Harry Potter books are full of them. For instance...

*Spoiler Alert*

(but if you haven't gotten around to reading Harry Potter by now, you deserve a spoiler)

...I knew "Remus Lupin" had to be a werewolf as soon as I saw his name. "Remus" was one of the mythical twin founders of Rome and was raised by a wolf, and "Lupin" is from the Latin "lupine," meaning wolf.

Yes, I am a great source of obscure data. Few dare challenge me at Trivial Pursuit.

Ooh--wouldn't a Hogwarts version of Trivial Pursuit be incredible?

But I digress.

So, what makes a great character name? Which ones really stuck with you? Fellow writers, how did you come up with your MC's and/or other character's names?

She's a Witch!

I considered titling this post: "She Weighs the Same as a Duck (Because She's Made of Wood)." But that set the nerd coefficient of this post into the red zone.

However, I still wanted to share one of this weekend's epiphanies:

MARY POPPINS IS A WITCH.

It's obvious, once you look at it from a post-Rowling perspective.

- She flies with an enchanted umbrella.
- She makes the room clean itself.
- Hermione even had a bag like hers, one that held all of her oversized stuff.

And it's obvious that she learned all that at Hogwarts, right?

And Burt's a wizard. Don't tell me that all chimney-sweeps/one-man-bands/street artists can make chalk drawings that people can hang out in for a day.

Why didn't I see it before? I knew she was magical, but...
I think it's because Julie Andrews played her as such a Glinda in the movie. I heard that the author of the original book cried at the premiere--they'd ruined her character. So now I have to read the original P.L. Travers book, just to know for sure. If I were still in school, I'd consider writing a term paper comparing/contrasting the magical worlds of Harry Potter and Mary Poppins.

Geez, even the names look similar. I bet this idea haunts you for the rest of the day. I know it will haunt me.

Oh, and today starts the Great Library Challenge. As I wrote yesterday, from now until midnight Friday, I'll donate $1 to my local library for each comment you folks make (1 per person, per day), and double it for people listed as followers (sign up by clicking "follow" at the top or on the right).

Say whatever you want. "I love libraries" is fine.
If my four-year-old could type, he'd comment that "Mary Poppins is NOT a witch!" He's said it several times since my aforementioned epiphany. I accidentally may have ruined a childhood classic for him.

There are a bunch of bloggers participating in this; click here to see the list of sites. A few quick comments can help a lot of libraries.