"I don't want her to have a cat because she'll end up talking baby talk to the cat. That's the way it is, and how can a P.I. do that? (Sue Grafton talking about her character in her alphabet mystery series)
I can understand Sue Grafton's point of view. Every character is different and some need a pet and some don't. As much as I love dogs, I don't always let my characters have one.
The Dogs in my Books
But then, when I think back I do have dogs sprinkled through my stories. Trouble, Lorena's dog in Small Town Girl. He did get his name changed eventually. Poe, Graham's dog in both Angel Sister and Small Town Girl added to the story and then Chaucer in Love Comes Home. Aristotle made an important appearance in The Believer. And of course, Jocie had the dog hunger in Scent of Lilacs, the first book in the Heart of Hollyhill series, and talked her father into letting her keep a dog she found in the woods. She named him Zebedee, shortened usually to Zeb.
My new Shaker book, The Innocent, has a dog named Asher who plays a big part in the story. He's a great four-footed character. When I was trying to come up with the perfect name for Asher, I asked my internet friends for suggestions. I got so many great dog names, but Asher, the eighth son of Jacob in the Bible, seemed to work best even though only one person suggested that name. Thanks, Amy.
My Cozy Mystery Cats
My work in progress is a series of cozy mysteries that have cats. The first three cat characters already have names. There's Two Bits in the first book, Murder at the Courthouse. I also have a gray and white cat named Grimalkin who makes another appearance in the second book which has yet to have an official title. There's an attitude cat named Sandy too who makes a cameo appearance.
Now I'm working on book three and have invited a new cat character into the story. This is a calico cat, so a female since most calico cats are female cats. She is an independent cat who lives by her own rules. She simply showed up on the doorstep of an elderly character one day and that character gave the cat a name and told her she could stay if she wanted to.
So What Would You Name Cat Character Four?
I've already tried out three or four names but nothing seems quite right. So what would you name a calico female cat named by a woman around eighty. It makes a difference - the person doing the naming. That's why Poe was the perfect name for Graham's coon dog in my Rosey Corner books. That's why Two Bits is the perfect name for a barber's cat.
So what do you think? What's my independent calico cat's name?
And come back Wednesday. I'm going to do some kind of flower game to let some of you win a book or two. Just got to figure out how to make it work. Until then, I'm ready for your cat names.
Dogs, Dogs, and More Dogs
Last week on my Facebook author page, I asked for suggestions for a dog's name. I posted the first picture above as a look alike of the dog in my current work in progress. But he's not exactly right. My dog may be a little more like picture two. And of course Oscar in picture three is wondering why I had to write about a dog that wasn't him. Actually, my fictional dog is a mix of all three. He's not quite as big as dog two, but the look on that dog's face captures some of the personality of my fictional dog. And yet he also has some of the eagerness to please that seems to be in the expression of dog one. And he has a dollop of Oscar's calm confidence.
That's the way it is with coming up with characters whether they are the four-pawed kind or the human kind. A writer takes a little of this and a little of that and invents the character or in this case, dog, that fits her story.
Some Stories have to have a Dog
I have been a dog lover all my life, but I've not written very many books with dogs that played a major role in the story. There was Jocie with her "dog prayer" and then she finds Zeb in the woods or Zeb finds her. A couple of my young adult novels had dogs and in For Sheila, the dogs were major characters and central to the plot. In Chance Hero there was a dog named Maybe. And in my Rosey Corner books, Graham has a dog named Poe and one named Chaucer in Love Comes Home, the book due out in July. I like writing dogs into the story whether they figure strongly in the plot or not.
A Name that Fits
This dog, the one I'm trying to name, is more central to what's happening in the book. So he needs a really good name. A name that fits. Of course, all characters need a name that fits. Have you ever read a book where you thought the names were all wrong? I have. I've even named some characters of my own and then realized deep in the story that the name just wasn't right. That's how it is with my dog character. I named him Ash. Not bad, but not exactly right either. So I threw open the question of what to name him to my friends on my Facebook page. And boy, did the names start coming in! Around 90 of them. And very few repeat names. Now I have so many choices I'll be able to name every dog in my stories from now on.
The Naming Begins
A few names got more than one vote: Chance, Amos, Sky, Jack, Dash, Shep, Duke and Rocky. But there were many other great suggestions. Some Bible names like Ezra, Bartholomew, Jericho, Joshua, Asher, Joash, Isaac, Jeremiah, and Job. Some of the dog names echoed names I've used for dogs in my life or that I have known like Buster, Max, Tate, Pete, Beau, Roscoe, Charcoal (Coal), Casey and of course, Oscar. A few suggested Civil War names: Yank, Yankey, Jeb, Lincoln (Link), Shiloh, Rebel, Trooper and Sarge. I had suggestions that made me think dogs like Prince, Ace, Rags, Dutch, Ruff, Kip, Rusty, Shadow, Champ, Patch, Pepper, Bingo, Smokey, Smiley, Spark, Lucky, Duke and King. Or Muffin that for some reason made think more of a cat. Some of the names echoed names I've given to my human characters in books, Victor, Love, Sammy, Jake, Stan, Jasper, Buck, Isaac, and Asa. There were a few names that were a little too fancy for my dog in this story: Rembrandt, Ashford, Comfort, Bentley, Odin, Hauser and Dante. Other names suggested included Murphy, Duncan, Jesse, Nash, Mickey, Boone, Jeb, Sally, Riley, Chester, Simon, Toby and Harve. A couple of names suggested that seemed unusual to me were Trot and Drift or Drifter. Turns out the person who suggested Trot had a dog named Trot.
Decisions, Decisions
So now I have all these great names and I'm still undecided on the name that best fits my fictional dog. I've been playing around with Asher, one of Jacob's sons in the Bible. So what do you think? When you read through the names, did one of them seem to fit the composite dog above?
Giveaway News
Remember, I've got a giveaway going to celebrate Summer of Joy getting dressed up in a new cover and about to be available in print again. The prizes are fun things Jocie, my young character in the Heart of Hollyhill stories, might have picked out. You can see the details on my website news & events page. I'll also be picking two winners of winner's choice of one of my books in an extra drawing from those of you who comment here. Each comment on a new post gets you another entry in that drawing. Winners in the USA or Canada will have the choice of a paper book or an e-book. International readers can win the e-book. Jocie's also giving a book away on her blog, Heart of Hollyhill blog. And if that's not enough chances to win, you can sign up on Goodreads to maybe win one of five copies being given away.
Thanks for reading. And remember what Groucho Marx once said. "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a do, it's too dark to read."
