Today I have a special treat for you. My guest is Anita Laydon Miller, author of two $.99 ebooks for kids ages 8-12. EARTHLING HERO is a science fiction/adventure about a boy who must save the world with the help of his alien clone and his clone’s purple sister. A SCARY GOOD BOOK is a mystery about a girl who finds clues in a library book, underlined words that help solve a scary good mystery. Anita is also the book columnist for the COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE and is working on her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction.
Children's author, Anita Laydon Miller
Here, Anita discusses character names and asks for your help in naming one of her characters. Okay, take it away, Anita:
When I was pregnant with my first child (we’ve got four), I bought a book with 100,000 baby names. I swear we looked at all of them (we didn’t know the gender, so we looked at the boy AND girl names). It’s an honor, really, to choose the name a person will carry around for THE REST OF HIS/HER LIFE. And while choosing character names isn’t quite THAT important, it’s still pretty cool.
I just finished reading what turned out to be my favorite book of the year, Ann Patchett’s STATE OF WONDER. The main character’s name is Marina, which I love, but what I love even more is the name of Marina’s boss/lover: Mr. Fox. Again, pretty cool, right?
The main character’s name in my middle grade mystery is Hannah Stone. I love that Hannah is spelled the same way front to back. She is who she is, my Hannah, no matter how you look at her. And her last name is Stone, because her heart has been hardened by the death of her father, the poor thing.
The character names in my middle grade science fiction are amalgamations of real-life heroes. People I never personally knew, but who still hold a special place in my heart. Sigh.
The villain in my sci fi is named Vatlof. I just liked the way those darn syllables sound together. Evil, don’t you think? Not quite as cool as Voldemort, but still. Anyway, in the sequel to the sci fi, readers will meet Vatlof’s son…he who is still not named. So, I ask of you, dear blog readers, do have any name suggestions for the son, suggestions you’re willing to give me for free that you will never try to sue over no matter how many books I sell this year and any succeeding years in the United States of America and in the other countries of this world and on any planets that may open up to readers in the next million years, both readers of traditionally published and independently published paper and electronic books?
Well, do you? Have suggestions, I mean.
Thank you in advance for your replies. And Happy Reading! P.S. Please buy my ebooks and/or send me good vibes.
Buy Page for Anita Laydon Miller's books - Click here.
Thank you, Anita, for being my guest. I love how you came up with the names for your characters, especially Hannah Stone, and I hope you get some cool suggestions for your new character's name.
I didn't know Anita when I read A SCARY GOOD BOOK, but I became an instant fan. I wrote a review and gave it 5 stars. I haven't read EARTHLING HERO yet, but it's on my Christmas list. She's an awesome children's author, so I would encourage you to buy her books. Only $.99, wow, you can't beat that!
Although the group promo is for today only, Curse of the Double Digits will also be FREE tomorrow, Friday, August 2nd.
