What's In A Name?

Names, names, names. I don't think I can stress enough the importance of names. Whether I'm writing or reading, names are such a big deal. First and last names. The character's name alone tells a story of its own.

When I make up a new character, I don't know how long I spend looking for the perfect name for that character. It could be ten minutes (how I wish those lucky days could occur more often) or weeks. The name has to fit the character, it has to sound good, the meaning has to fit the character, and the spelling has to both appeal to me and fit the character.

What I sometimes find tricky is having the name be both original while at the same time fitting the character. And sometimes, I have to be careful for it not to be too original. For Bad Apple, I was told that the names were really original, but then for Joon's cousin, two people pointed out that it was too much. So I changed his name from Bryce to Ryan and in the end, I realized that Ryan fit his character better.

Why am I posting about names today? Because I've met so many people on campus with names that I just loved over the last few days. For example my roommate's name is Jeana (Jean- na) and I just love that name. I don't hear it a lot, it's simple, but it stands out. I also met a girl named Mira and I just fell in love with that name. Funny thing is that my first thought when she told me her name was, 'I have got to use that name for one of my characters.' When I told my sister that, she rolled her eyes and told me that I think too much like a writer.
The other reason I'm posting about names is also because I love name-hunting on Google. I can do that for hours, looking up names and then searching for all the different meanings of that name. (Before you ask, yes, I've looked up my mine. It means gracious ^_^ Whether that describes me is yet to be debated.)

Out of all the names from my stories, I would have to say that my favorites are Jaeger (Jeh-ger) Williams from Destined (although not many people have read much of this), Joon Elizabeth Scarlet (from Bad Apple) and I like the way Aeryn's name is spelled.

And a question for you lovely followers because I love hearing your opinion: do names really matter to you when you read and/or write? For the writers, do you waste endless hours Google searching names or do you use the ones you've heard around you?

And I Rise From the Dead

I do promise that I didn't forget about this blog. This week has just been extremely busy and not only did I not have time to blog, but I didn't exactly have a computer to blog. And no phone. But somehow, I survived.

I'm now in New Jersey and I have to say that I absolutely love it. I've got so many blogging ideas going around in my mind from all that I've done, but today will be a post about yours truly and her first trip to Barnes&Noble xD

On said trip, guess what book I bought? Richelle Mead's Bloodlines. I actually squealed when I bought it  because you see, Vampire Academy is my favorite paranormal series, and I've been following all the Bloodlines teasers on Facebook and just couldn't wait to buy it. I was also going to by The Power of Six, the sequel to I Am Number Four, but I was short two dollars and didn't have my debit with me. But on my next trip, I'll be getting a B&N membership and buying the sequel. Anyone planning on reading those two books? Anyone's already read them?

Farewell, Canada :D

I'm moving countries tomorrow :D

Nothing big, though - I'm just heading over to the states for school, but I highly doubt I'll be coming back. I'll be in Jersey, only half an hour away from NYC. I can already imagine the shopping I'll be doing to stock up on my shoe collection xD

Anyway, let's just hope the plane will get there safely and I'll arrive there in one piece :P

Kiss Me Baby One More Time

I'm sorry for the title. I've just been listening to some Britney Spears today. Not by choice, really. The radio was on and they were having this Britney streak for an hour. Not pleasant, although I do still enjoy her old songs.
But, I digress. Today I shall give you all an excerpt. This excerpt is a bit special for me because I was having some trouble with the chemistry between these two characters for a while. But then I got to this scene and everything just clicked. So then I went back to past scenes and fixed a bunch of things that needed to get fixed. So if it weren't for this scene, TS might have just fallen apart.

The scene is a little steamy (I guess it all depends on our interpretations of 'little'). So you're all warned.

I don't mention any names in it because it happens quite later on in the book and I'd like to keep it a surprise for those reading the book. And also because that's how this part of the scene was written in the first place - without any names :P

Ok. So I'll shut up and let you read the excerpt xD

Excerpt:

“Kiss me,” I whispered, ignoring the dangerously fast speed of my heartbeat. The alcohol created a light buzz in my head but I knew that even sober, I would have  still stood there in the middle of my living room with him.

I took a small step forward and felt his jeans brush the back of my hand. Even that small touch sent a wave of excitement through my body.

My gaze moved from his eyes to his lips, which continued to get closer as each second ticked by.

And then, without any warning, they crushed mine in one of those kisses you could only dream of.

Soft. Dangerous. Sweet. Hungry.

His hand slid down to my hip and pulled me closer, and I let my list fall to the ground. Both of my hands now free, I slipped them under his shirt, my palms resting on his chest. My entire body was hot, tingling, and so was his against my touch. His tongue teased my lips, but I knew better than to give in.

Instead I pulled away, out of breath and lightheaded. Whoever knew anyone could kiss this well. 


The corner of my lips lifted in a small and quite unstable smile. “I thought you stayed away from crazy people?”

He chuckled, brought his lips close to mine and, in my mouth, whispered, “Good thing I changed my mind.”

Lucas Everett and...Aeryn Taylor :O

What am I talking about? Well, I've been dying to try writing a book where the characters (at least the main characters) from my other books interact, become friends, enemies, and form friendships. Or even become an item, as my title suggests. It would be pretty interesting to write about Aeryn from TS lusting after Lucas from STA. I wonder what our poor Avery would do. And what would the best friends do? I can totally imagine Jane and Aeryn going at it like the two crazy people they are :P

And it would be so interesting to see what the characters think of each other. If I ever wrote something like this, I'm thinking I'd pick one character and write the story from her point of view (writing from a guy's point of view is a challenge I'm still afraid to take on. He'd probably end up so feminine that people would accuse him of being secretly gay).

I've only read one series of books like that and did like it. Anyone ever thought of writing a series like that? Anyone ever read a series like that? Was it good or bad?

Rejections

I haven't posted in a while because I've been moving, and my Internet was accidentally cut earlier than it should have.

But let's talk about rejections today. I think we've all received some kind of rejection in our lives? Not very pleasant, is it? (You'd have to be a bit weird to disagree with me on this but hey, we're all entitled to our own opinions.)


Now, has anyone ever been given The Rejection Hotline? I heard about it four years ago and laughed my ass off when my friend told me about it. It's a number that you give people who are hitting on you and will NOT give up until they have your number. The message you get when you dial the number is hilarious but not very pleasant.
It works in Canada, the U.S. and Australia, and most cities have a number so that when you give out the number, it's got your area code and the other person isn't suspicious.

I was working on TS the other day and realized that Aeryn has to get rejected by a few guys while she's on those dating websites. It's only fair, since she gets to reject a lot of them. So I thought about The Rejection Hotline xD A bit mean. but Aeryn's a tough girl - she can handle it.

For those who want a good laugh, here's a list of all the Rejection Hotline numbers so you can listen to the message. If you don't wanna pay long distance charges, find your area code.
http://www.canadianfreestuff.com/forum/f56/rejection-hotline-8009/

Some of the numbers don't work anymore, so here's part of the message:

So, why were you given a rejection hotline number? Maybe you were just not this person’s type. Note, this could mean you are boring, dumb, annoying, arrogant or just a general weirdo. Maybe you suffer from bad breath, body odor, or a nasty combination of the two.
 
Maybe you just give off that creepy overbearing, psycho stalker vibe and the idea of going out with you just seems as appealing as playing leap frog with unicorns. Regardless of the reason, please take the hint. Accept the fact that you were rejected and then get over it. And please, do your best to forget about the person who gave you this number because trust us, they’ve already forgotten about you.

What do you think of The Rejection Hotline? Would you ever use it?