Thursday, December 1, 2011

Help Anita Name New Character

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!


17 comments:

Old Kitty said...

Simon Vatlof! :-)

Take care
x

Anita said...

OLD KITTY: I like it!

Anonymous said...

Awesome guest post and fun books!

Anonymous said...

How about an anagram? Faltov.

Anita said...

SUSIE: Glad to be here...thanks for stopping by!

JOSHUA: That's pretty cool, because it goes with the Hannah thing...different books, but still. Thank you!

CA Heaven said...

Stick to the same-forward-and-backward, call him Otto or Idi >:)

Inventing names was the funniest part og my previous job when I worked on oil exploration in the Arctic. The guys who identify new prospects, possible future oil fields, get to name them. Once we named a series of prospects after deseases (Morbilli and Rubella and so on), and once we proposed a series of names based on body liquids ... our suggestions were immediately turned down by management >:)

Cold As Heaven

Coleen Patrick said...

Great guest post!! Off to go take a look at Anita's books :)

LynNerdKelley said...

We have high winds here today and I couldn't get online. It's going to get worse and a storm coming in, so if I don't comment any more, that's why.

Anita - Getting lots of hits today and some of my tweeps are RTing! So I hope you get great results. There are some good ideas for names here so far!

Old Kitty - Good suggestion!

Susie - Thanks for stopping by!

Joshua - Oh, that's an excellent name!

Cold as Heaven - Very cool idea, sticking with the same forward and backward. Otto, Idi! Those names you guys suggested for future prospects or fields are a crackup! I guess you knew they wouldn't approve some of them. Ha-ha!

Coleen - Thanks for stopping by. Yes, take a look at Anita's books. Definitely quality stories at a price that can't be beat!

Anita said...

COLD: I bet you were very creative with your name choices! I used to name gift wrap for a company. They all had to be very froo-froo...do you know what I mean? Sort of artsy and pretty. It got difficult after about the hundreth wrap. Thanks for Otto. Have you ever seen A FISH CALLED WANDA?

COLEEN: Thanks for peeking at my books!


LYNN: Bundle up! And thank you so much for hosting me!

Otter said...

I think the villains sons name should be something innocent and normal sounding...like Kevin. Kevin always sounded like an evil name to me anyway. Sorry to any Kevin reading this, lol.

Anita said...

OTTER: I get what you're saying here...it's kind of like when little kids look really, really scary. Dolls, too. Uh-huh. Thinking, thinking.

Heather Kelly said...

Love this guest post. I'm going to have to think about it. :)

LynNerdKelley said...

Otter - I had to laugh about your apology to all the Kevins out there! Hmm, I wonder how Kevin spelled backwards sounds - nivek. Nah! Doesn't sound normal either!

Heather - Nice to see you!

Anita - Thanks for being my guest. I love your post, hope you find the perfect name for your character, and I hope you sell tons of books for the holidays and beyond!

Kelly Polark said...

I have such a hard time picking names in my books! Especially last names...

Vatlof's son: Zaltav, Bimlup, Bob.

I don't know! :)

Tina Laurel Lee said...

I like those kelly! Especially Bob. :)

What does Vatlof think of earthling names? Does he like any earthl;ing product? I don't remember how to think like Vatlof, but that's what we have to do: channel a bad guy with a baby, right?

Anita said...

HEATHER: Okay...let me know if you come up with any good ones!

LYNN: Hey...I actually like Kevin backward.

KELLY: These are good, but what's even better is picturing you saying Bimlup a few times, testing it out. :)

TINA: Good point! Will think on it. Thanks!

LynNerdKelley said...

Kelly - I have to agree with Anita about trying to say 'Bimlup' a few times. It's a good tongue twister! LOL!

Tina - You always come up with good ideas. So clever.

Anita - Thanks so much for being my guest. I learned a lot from you and really enjoyed having you. Great comments, too.