July 2020 edition of the Peschel Press Newsletter
What we think about when we think about names
Hi folks. I’m back again, filling your inbox with charming and witty discussions of what we do here at Peschel Press. Last month, I discussed titles of books and said I’d talk about character names in the July issue.
But first, some book news:
The Cases of Blue Ploermell
What happened to the Blue Ploermell? We are waiting on one last story that didn’t get sent to us. Bill made the tragic discovery that the interlibrary loan sent a duplicate copy of story number 11 at about the same time that Covid-19 struck. Now that things are opening up again, we hope to get the last story so we can press [publish]. The essays are written, the footnotes done, the art selected, the cover designed. But we need the last story to do James Thurber full justice with his Sherlock Holmes parodies.
(Bill here: it’s a real shame I had to delay publication, but it’s going to be a fascinating look at the young James Thurber. He wrote these stories when he was a reporter working at the Columbus Evening Dispatch for his “Credos and Curios” page. We’ll be looking at a young, ambitious writer who had to opportunity over the course of a year to try his hand at parodies, humorous Seinfeld-like observations, poetry, literary commentary, and anything else he had a mind to. The book will have essays on Thurber, journalism in the 1920s, and — because the Ploermell stories featured a Chinese servant — a look at the Yellow Peril and racial stereotyping.
This is going to be a book with about 11,000-words of stories, and about three times as much essays, footnotes, and a chronology of Thurber’s life. All this, plus a look at Thurber material which hasn’t been seen since 1924! (apart from a story published in the 223B Casebook series).
The Trouble with Names
So here we are in mid-July and I’ve got a deadline to meet. I have to say something witty, intelligent, and trenchant about naming characters.
This is more important than it looks because a character’s name can — if properly chosen — express volumes about who that character is even before you start describing them and learning how they think. A good name helps you picture the character, how they act and how other characters treat them.
Names are a way of passing down ethnicity, culture, religious values, and family memories. Names tell the hearer if the name giver was deeply influenced by trends of the day, wanted something melodic or unique, watched too many soap operas, or knew how to spell. A romantic name says damsel or hero. Something with plenty of z’s or x’s says science-fiction, maybe even alien if it looks particularly unpronounceable. Names go in and out of fashion and using a name that is period-appropriate sends a subtle signal that you did your research. Likewise, a name that is genuinely period-appropriate but doesn’t sound like it is, sounds wrong to a reader.
For example, take “Jennifer.”
You probably know a few Jennifers. It was the most popular girl’s name in the United States from 1970 until 1984 when its usage fell off a cliff. If your heroine’s story takes place in 1990 and afterwards, “Jennifer” would be correct for the time period. If you wrote the identical story and used the name “Iphigenia” for your heroine, you would send a very different signal about who Iphigenia’s parents were, the depths of their classical education, their hippy-dippy ways, and maybe even that she was a time-traveler from the Victorian era.
For whatever mysterious reason, “Cassandra” — which is from the Iliad as is “Iphigenia” — doesn’t send the same signal. “Cassandra” was accepted into the mainstream as a normal name despite her tragic life-story. “Clytemnestra” — also from the Iliad — is just as offbeat sounding as “Iphigenia.” There are plenty of others.
My point is that if you select a character name like “Iolanthe” or “Dimitri” as opposed to “Jane” or “William,” you, writer, send certain signals. You have to be careful, though. “Ajax” was a mighty-thewed Greek warrior in the Iliad but today, it means a scrubbing compound you apply with plenty of elbow grease to the skid marks on your floor. Always consider what else a name means in current culture, even when it’s appropriate for what you are writing.
But back to “Jennifer.” Because Jennifer is so ubiquitous, it can mean anything or nothing. If you don’t want your reader to have preconceived notions about your heroine, “Jennifer” (unlike “Hecuba”) is a blank slate. “Kate” is another blank slate of a name. It is so common that it has no meaning at all. “Katherine” sounds like something, as does “Catherine” with a “C” or “Kathrynne.” Kate? Nothing. This may be what you want, but I’d think twice about such an over-used name.
Sometimes, you want a name that doesn’t sound like much. I used “Debbie” in The Bride from Dairapaska because it didn’t sound romantic, unearthly, strange, or foreign. I wanted a name that sounded down-to-earth, suitable for a peasant. Peasants generally don’t name their daughters “Iolanthe.” She, by the way, is one of the heroines of The Vanished Pearls of Orlov. I wanted Iolanthe to have a beautiful, romantic name since she is not herself beautiful. The contrast is appealing, as is Charlton DelFino’s name. Sounds good, doesn’t it, with the upper-crusty sound of mellifluous syllables. Charlton DelFino does not look like his name: he looks like a thug you’d avoid in that back-alley. Again, I liked the contrast.
I spend a lot of time looking and thinking about names. I’ve got a number of baby name books. Get a great big basic baby name book for starters. Then look into more specialized names. An English or an Australian baby name book has a rather different selection of names than an American one does. A French or German or Italian baby book will be even more different and after that, you’ve got an entire world of names. A general book that says it contains baby names from around the world is a great addition to your writing references. Make sure the names are organized by country or cultural group as well as gender; otherwise, it’s just another alphabetical listing and if you need something Slavic, you won’t find it. Look for period baby name books and bible name listings too.
Names go in and out of fashion. The Social Security Administration keeps track of names so you can be accurate as to what was being used in a specific year.
Like Christmas ornaments, names get passed down. They can last long after a particular culture or era has vanished. We still use names that are several thousand years old: Mary, Joseph, Deborah, Adam, John, Luke, Michael, etc. Names are a way to remember what is lost.
I use this very feature in my Steppes of Mars books. My terraformed Mars was settled by the descendants of peoples who went through the meat-grinder of history several times over. Think of countless waves of people washing ashore and being forcibly resettled (conscript labor or exported prisoners or involuntary pioneers as well as brave voluntary immigrants). They mix and match, marrying and intermarrying, until names, both given and family, are the only indicator of where they might have originated on Olde Earthe. This is especially noticeable when the family name says one area of Olde Earthe (Woo) and you get a quite different given name from another area (Amos).
I love the juxtaposition of a name like “Amos Woo” or “Iolanthe Orlov” because it implies, right there on the page, a complex history of immigration, culture clash, and intermarrying.
Think hard about your character names. Change them until they feel right. Make sure they’re distinct from each other both in terms of how they sound when spoken and what they look like on the page. If you have “Maribel,” “Marilyn,” and “Marybeth” in the same book, expect reader confusion. If you do use similar names, then you need a darn good reason, spelled out in the text. Thus, Maribel, Marilyn, and Marybeth are sisters and they’re named that way in order to get a share of immensely wealthy great-grandpa Mordecai’s estates. No “M,” no money. That’s an acceptable reason.
The Vanished Pearls of Orlov
In other news, I wrote “the end” for The Vanished Pearls of Orlov. Yay! It’s still a long way from being finished, both in terms of being serialized on Wattpad and Archive of Our Own. The manuscript needs to sit a few weeks, get reread, edited again, sent to my beta-readers Anne and Angel, get edited again with all of Anne and Angel’s corrections and then Bill will work his magic.
Don’t expect the finished book until after January of 2021. Too many other books are in the pipeline ahead of it. No, we do not do what so many writers do: we don’t write “the end” and then press [publish]. We don’t recommend pressing [publish] without checking over the manuscript multiple times. Each set of eyes finds different mistakes (some major) and we here at Peschel Press much prefer finding our errors and correcting them before you, dear reader, read the book.
Escape to HighTower and Career Indie Author
In the meantime, I’ll be starting The Escape to HighTower. This continues Lannie and Fen’s story and what finally happens to the Pearls of Orlov. As with The Vanished Pearls of Orlov, I’ll serialize it, chapter by chapter on both Wattpad and Archive of Our Own. I need to get a few months ahead and I’ll let all of you know via the newsletter when Escape to HighTower will appear.
Bill is slaving away on Career Indie Author and we hope to have that published by the beginning of September of 2020. This book, all about the business of writing, has been in the works for years. It’s everything we’ve learned about writing, running a home-based business, self-publishing, and cash-flow, distilled down into a single, useful manual.
With Blue Ploermell temporarily shelved, Bill is slaving away on Career Indie Author and we hope to have that published by the beginning of September of 2020. This book, all about the business of writing, has been in the works for years. It’s everything we’ve learned about writing, running a home-based business, self-publishing, and cash-flow, distilled down into a single, useful manual. Writers who are just starting out in indie publishing will find this massively useful in setting up their business, and even experienced writers will learn tips and techniques that will make them more productive.
What’s Next at the Press
Then comes The Complete, Annotated Secret of Chimneys. We want to have this terrific thriller/mystery full of foreign intrigue and hidden identities ready on 1 January 2021, when the book enters the public domain. It’s a terrific addition to our collection of annotated Agatha Christie classics, with loads of footnotes, essays, and period artwork. If you liked The Complete, Annotated Murder on the Links, you’ll love Chimneys.
If we can squeeze in a few more books between now and January 2021, we will. Read about them here first.
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