“What's in a name? That which
we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet;”
You probably recognize that line
from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”.
As a writer, I’m always on the lookout for distinctive names. I like to
use memorable names for my characters, ones that stand out a bit from the
pack.
Often names may even give you a
clue as to how a character may behave. In my new short story “Stealing Haven”, Jamie
meets a guy named Randy. It doesn’t take long before the sparks begin to fly.
When it comes to Jamie, Randy is certainly…well, randy. Want more details? Check out Webster’s definition and you get
the idea. You’ll have to wait until June
19 to read the actual story.
So this week my path crossed
with many people. Two young ladies, at different times and places, caught my
attention. One was named Emerald, the
other was Treasure. Definitely not the
usual Susan or Mary. So I’ll add these to my list for characters and see where
they might come in handy.
You need a good description of
the character to go along with the name.
Here’s an excerpt from “Why 319?”.
In this scene, Chene is meeting with cyber squad, who are tasked with
reviewing the technology from the three homicides in the hopes of identifying
the killer.
Yekovich was waiting for me at the
doorway. He was about five six, with coarse black hair and a mustache that was
so thick it didn’t look real. He had a habit of smoothing it out with his thumb
when he talked.
“You’re working late.”
“This serial killer got my
interest. I was home watching a hockey game when my guy called, so I came back
in. If there’s anything my team can do to help nail him, we want a part of it.”
“Spoken like a real cop.”
Yekovich gave me a light jab on the
shoulder. “I am a real cop, asshole. See, they even let me carry a gun.” With
that, he pointed at the pistol clipped in a holster on his belt.
“Damn, they’ll give anyone a weapon
these days.”
He led me down a corridor into a
series of large workstations. There were two technicians working. Computer
components were spread across the counters, with large-screen monitors
streaming data bytes like a stock exchange ticker gone wild. Yekovich stopped
beside the last workstation.
“This here is Jeremy,” he said,
jerking a thumb at the gangly kid who was perched on a stool, staring intently
at a monitor. The kid raised his eyes momentarily to look at me. “Sergeant
Chene. He’s running that investigation.”
“Hey, Sarge.”
I nodded to the kid. He didn’t look
old enough to drive, but he seemed right at home behind the pile of computer
equipment. “So, what ya got?”
The kid was about to fill me in
when Yekovich cut him off. “Use plain English and get to the point, Jeremy.
Chene here chases real killers, not video game demons.”
He paused to consider the best way
to explain it. “I’ve been reviewing all the video from the external feed, the
cameras that were on the motion detectors.”
“What did you find?”
“The majority of the files were
pretty mundane. Mostly they were of this dude coming and going in his Jeep. A
couple of times he had a few other guys over.”
“How far back are we talking?”
Jeremy tapped at his keyboard. “Earliest
clips I’ve seen are date stamped around Thanksgiving.”
“Is there any video of women coming
into the house?” Yekovich asked.
Jeremy shook his head. “Nothing yet,
and I’ve been watching so I could compare anyone with the pictures you gave me
earlier.”
“So why did you call me?”
“You need to see this, boss,”
Jeremy said.
I was facing Yekovich. We worked
together a few times over the years, and it wasn’t like him to call me without
a reason. A sly grin crossed his face.
“The kid’s talking to you.”
Lately Chuck Berry has been popping up with frequency on my song list. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
1 comment:
Tip (from sad experience): never pick a name that can also be used as a verb. In my 2nd book I named the heroine Rose. Lovely, huh? Except she got out of bed or up from a chair. Get it? Rose rose...never again.
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