One of my favorite topics to ask other writers about is character naming. Do authors find it difficult to name their characters or do they just show up in their heads with their names intact? The late, great cozy writer Anne George once said that her family never, ever recognized themselves in her novels. Especially when they were the bad guys.
When I started writing Little Lamb Lost mumble-mumble years ago (it’s been a while), I knew I wanted to start with a character who would honor my parents. My parents read books every day, mostly mysteries, and shelves of them filled the home where I grew up and fostered in me an insatiable love of reading. I knew Claire would be a child welfare social worker, based on an amalgamation of social workers I worked with in real life when I was a Mental Health consultant for the Jefferson County Department of Human Resources in Birmingham, Alabama. Claire, of course, is younger than me, prettier than me, and much more dedicated to her career than I was. She is busy, and she stays that way. My mother’s middle name was Claire, and my father’s middle name is Conover. Bingo. I had a protagonist.
Other characters have been a bit more difficult. Claire has two men in her life. The first is her boyfriend, whom she meets in the first book. He’s tall, geeky, and terribly kind. I wanted a name for him that portrayed kindness, so he became Grant. His last name is Summerville, because summer is my favorite season and suggests fun times at the beach or on the water. The second man in her life is Kirk Mahoney. He’s not so kind, but he is terribly handsome and flirtatious. I’ve always loved the name Kirk, and there is a well-known restaurant in coastal Mississippi where my husband and I had our rehearsal dinner, and that’s where I got the name Mahoney. Both Grant and Kirk are based on my husband, who embodies nearly all of their characteristics.
In book two, Little Girl Gone, Claire meets a thirteen-year-old girl who is essentially on her own. Her name is LaReesa Jones, and she is one of the few characters who arrived in my mental space with name, physical features, and attitude all intact. She was supposed to be in one scene, in which Claire is searching for a young lady who has run away from her foster home. But LaReesa would not stay in one scene. She made it very clear she was going to be in the rest of that book, as well as the rest of them. She is outspoken and resilient, and honestly, my favorite character. We are working to improve her salty language.
I hope readers out there will join Claire and her cohorts as she is inevitably drawn into dangerous investigations. I love to hear from readers and you can reach me through my website at www.margaretfenton.com. Thanks for having me here!
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