FREE PREVIEW!! Echo of Terror, Chapter 01

Here is the free preview of chapter 01 of Echo of Terror!

Echo of Terror, Chapter 01 Preview!

Chapter 1 of Echo of Innocence!

Echo of Innocence is coming out March 23rd! Woot woot! And as a teaser, I am putting the first chapter out for all you wonderful people to see. I hope you enjoy it!

Echo of Innocence: Chapter 1

The story behind the names…

Hi, everybody! I have been hard at work with my summer class (ironically enough, on stress management) while also busy finishing the outline for Echo of Innocence (novel #5!!!) and generating storylines for future novels. So far I have storylines up to #13! What?? I know, I know. Getting ahead of myself here. But it’s been great to get some vision and be able to know what’s coming up in the future, to better prepare each plot point for the characters.

Speaking of characters, that’s what this blog post is about. I decided to write a blog about where I came up with the names for the characters. Some have good stories, some have boring stories, and others have no stories at all. But I thought I would share with the characters in the book up to this point, and I will share another blog later after Echo of Innocence comes out and you get introduced to a couple new peeps. 🙂

Hope you enjoy the blog.

Robert “Rob” Jacob Karlton
I don’t honestly know where I came up with the name Robert Jacob. I started with Rob, which I decided to make short for Robert. I think it just popped into my head and I liked the way the name flowed together. As for Karlton being spelled unconventionally, it was two-fold. When I created Rob, it was back when the U.S. version of Queer as Folk as airing. I was a huge fan, and I wanted to make a character who was just like one of the main characters, Brian Kinney, only straight. I didn’t want to use the same last name, so I came up with Karlton, and kept the K rather than the typical C. The unconventional spelling also fits because Rob is a bit of an unconventional character. He’s a complete dickbag sometimes, but you still can’t help but love him.

Delilah “Lilah” Mae Matthews
On the TV show Angel, there was a character named Lilah Morgan. She was fierce and a bitch and hot as hell. I wanted to create a character who embodied her — the ability to walk into a room and effortlessly own it. I added my own unique touches to my Lilah, but that is where the name originated, and why her last name starts with an M — I supplemented Morgan for Matthews.

Stephanie “Stevie” Morgan Winters
Ah, Stevie…back in my childhood, there was a chapter book series called The Saddle Club. That WAS my childhood. I had nearly every book. One of the three main characters names was Stevie, short for Stephanie. She was the troublemaker; the one who thought outside the box. She was my favorite character. And I just loved the tomboy nature of taking such a girly name and making it sound like a boy’s.
Stevie is one of the original characters who has followed me from the horrid stories I used to write as a 12-year-old, to the slightly better stories as a teenager and young adult, to the novels that I write today. She gets her middle name from my friend Ashley Morgan, who used to give Stevie her original voice back when we wrote stories together in crap-ass java chatrooms and AIM. I’m not sure where Winters came from. But I did like the irony of a girl from California having the last name Winters.

Samantha Rae Winters
Samantha Rae is my sister’s name. Rae is also my mother’s middle name.

Sofia Amiliana Delgado
When I decided to create Sofia, the name just popped into my head. Sofia Amiliana just rolled right off my tongue and I was like, “yep, that’s it.”

Lucas “Luke” Albert Johnson
Quite honestly, I have no earthly clue where I got any part of this name. I made Luke short for Lucas because I could not think of any middle name that sounded good with Luke. But as for the rest of it, it remains a mystery to me where it came from.

Jason Alexander Pritchard
Again, no real clue. No, I was not a Seinfeld fan. But I do like the name Jason Alexander. It flows together quite nicely. The last name Pritchard probably stemmed from a TV show I watched many years ago who had a minor character on it named Pritchard.

Russell Andrew Karlton, Jeffrey Andrew Winters, Emily Marie Winters
I do not know where these names came from. I believe my friend Ashley may have came up with the name Jeff way back in the day. But as for Russ and Em, and the full names (and why Russ and Jeff have the same middle name…), I remain as clueless as you. Most of these names I came up with when I was much younger and at this point they are so stuck with me that I cannot bear to change them.

The evilness of continuity discrepancy…

Continuity discrepancies suck. They make me twitch, especially when they are glaringly obvious. The truth is, I’m pretty anal about my characters. I have large amounts of data about them written down that I may never use, but I have is stored away should I ever need to us it. I have a template that I follow, which includes:

Full name, including any nicknames (e.g. Robert “Rob” Jacob Karlton, Jr.)
Basics: age at time of most recent story – birthdate – astrological sign – hair – eye color – height – weight – physical description
Heritage (heritage on father and mother’s side of the family. For instance, Rob (and Russ) has Irish on both parents’ side, and German on his mother’s side)
Hometown
Other homes
Family (relevant family members. Typically good idea to mention parents names and what they do/did, if they are still alive and if not how they died. Same with any siblings or children)
Education
Relationships (any relevant relationships from the past. Making up some interesting tidbits here can lead to storylines later!)
Work history
Personality
Misc

Under misc, I may include things like sports they like and tams they support; whether or not they have a hobby or play an instrument (for instance, Rob knows how to play guitar but has not played in years); any religious beliefs; fears; what kind of car they drive; so on and so forth.

Here is an example of the “basics” for Stevie:
Thirty – birthdate August 1, 1980 – Leo – dark brown hair/naturally wavy/long/normally wears it straight – big dark brown eyes – 5’5″ – 125 lbs – medium complexion – tans easily – pretty but not extraordinary – average, semi-athletic body – has freckles

Here is an example of “hometown” and “other homes” for Jason:
Hometown: born in Tecumseh, Kansas
Other Homes: Wichita, Kansas – Topeka, Kansas – Quantico, Virginia (temporary) – Cleveland, Ohio

Here is an example of “education” for Luke:
Education: attended an all-male Catholic boarding school in Manchester his entire education (St. Christopher’s School for Boys (fictional)) – Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Princeton University – Master of Arts in Social and Personality Psychology from Cornell University – PhD in Social Psychology from Princeton University

Here is an example of “work history” for Lilah:
Work History: did odd jobs as a teenager to earn money – started working as a dominatrix in college and wound up doing it professionally as a side job while in law school and while in NYC – interned for the FBI between university and law school – joined the FBI during law school – first assignment/New Wilmington Resident Agency/part time – second assignment/Newark Field Office/Civil Rights – assisted in search and recovery during 9/11 – third assignment/New York City Field Office/Counterterrorism – latest assignment/Cleveland Field Office/Supervisory Special Agent over Violent Crimes

Here is an example of “personality” for Rob:
Personality: cocky – brash – reckless – blunt – brutally honest – no tact – charming – workaholic – commitment issues – smart ass – trust issues, especially with women – doesn’t admit when he’s wrong – doesn’t express his feelings – bottles up his emotions tightly – intelligent – just trying to survive life – drinks too much – sleeps around – often feels like the world is on his shoulders – guilt-plagued – problems with depression – has no filter between his brain and his mouth

Here are just some examples of randomness of different characters’ misc.

ROB
– football (Steelers) fan and basketball (76ers) fan
– drives a newer black Jeep Grand Cherokee
– afraid of flying and snakes
– his dad taught him how to use a gun when he was fourteen

LILAH
– lactose intolerant
– has a kitten named Marius
– drives a newer blue Volkswagen Passat
– lived in Germany, Italy, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, among other US states while growing up

LUKE
– drives a black BMW Z4 he says he got as a Christmas gift from his father’s family
– likes soccer (Manchester United)
– played polo in school
– fluent in Italian

STEVIE
– speaks Spanish semi-fluently
– 3rd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do
– took two years of ballet but hated it
– was a cheerleader in high school until she got pregnant with Sam

All of this information is obviously not necessary to write, but I think if one is going to write a series and particularly if you are like me and have a horrible memory, it’s a good idea to have a place to store all information so you can reference it easily and not have to worry about continuity issues. A lot of this information is also fluid — I’m constantly adding stuff to the misc. category if I write something about a character I think I may need to reference again in the future. This is particularly true if it is regarding a character’s proficiency or skill in something. I would hate to say in one story that Stevie can speak Spanish and then in another have her say she speaks French.

This is just my process, and it is a good idea to adapt yours to whatever works for you. But feel free to use my template if you would like. If it helps you, I’m all for it. 🙂