One of my new year traditions is to take a look at the list of books I read in the past year. How many books did I read? In what genre? And most importantly, how did I like them? I immediately noticed that the majority of the books I added to my reading list were rated 4 or 5 stars, with the odd 3-star book here and there. There were no 1 or 2-star books. Does that mean I like all the books I read? Well, yes and no. It really just means that I don’t finish the books I’m not enjoying. You know those people who always finish a book they’ve started reading, no matter what? I’m not one of them. Sometimes, if I don’t like the author’s writing style, I will stop reading within the first 10 pages (Kindle samples are great!). If it’s a book I really want to like, then I might read as much as 100 pages before giving up. Either way, if it’s something I probably won’t rate more than 1 or 2 stars, then I don’t finish. There are just too many books out there that I haven’t read, and I have too…

Names in fiction, as in life, are important. While they may not tell you what sort of person someone is, they can tell a lot about where/when they were born. Tarquin and Fred may have been born at the same time, but I suspect into very different families. Diminutives maybe hint a little at the person – someone who insists on being called Anthony is probably a very different Anthony who tells everyone to ‘Call me Tone.’ So in fiction, what your character is called is a reflection of when and where he’s born. Sometimes the characters tell me their names – in my first book, Ilfayne just turned up with the name. Sometimes I give the character a placeholder name, and it sticks – in my second book (and the first where he was a secondary character) Hunter was named that as a placeholder, mainly at my husband’s insistence he be ‘Like Triple H, Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Only more badass’. It stuck. Only, Hunter’s a duke and it didn’t really fit his background or culture, so I had to come up with a reason he was given the nickname, because he refused to be called by his given name….