What’s in a Name? by Annette Dashofy

This month, I’ve been deeply focused on the novel I’m working on. I’ve burst out of the muddle in the middle and am feeling the draw of the crescendo pulling me toward the final chapters. As a result, when I realized I needed to write this post, I was drained of ideas. All creative thoughts had gone into the book. So, I went to my Facebook group and asked them what they would like to know. What should I write about in today’s blog? 

And wow. I got a lot of suggestions and questions. If you happen to be a member there, I promise I will answer all of them, but the one I chose for today is a topic I’ve shared in the past. Still, it’s a fun one. 

Donna Alber asked: What’s your inspiration for places and character names? 

For starters, let me say names drive me crazy. It’s a writing “rule” that two characters should not share the same first initial. And I understand. Readers devour pages at such a pace that their brain only registers part of the letters. So having a Susan and a Sharon on the same page can be confusing. I don’t want the reader to have to stop and ask, “What? Who?” But it happens. For one thing, even when I keep track of first initials, there are also last names and town names. Somehow, I managed to miss the fact that I have Wayne Baronick who works in Brunswick. 

I was determined to keep this from happening in the Detective Honeywell series. Well, that determination went down the tubes when Eric, a character from the first book who wasn’t supposed to ever show up again, decided to come to town in the second book and now we have Emma and Eric in Erie. 

Basically, I give up. I mean, I try, but there are only so many letters in the alphabet. When you see a character with the name Quinn or Ulysses, you know I’m desperate. 

But none of this really answers the question. 

Inspiration. Let’s start with my Zoe Chambers series. Pete Adams is named Pete after the man who was our local police chief and a good friend of my dad’s when I was a kid. Adams is the last name of friends of my family. Zoe (don’t tell her) was the name of a cute little dog I once knew, and Chambers is the family name of one of my nieces. Monongahela County doesn’t exist, but the Monongahela River does. It’s also the name of a nearby town. A lot of the fictional locations have some obscure meaning to me, if to no one else. 

In the Detective Honeywell series, I’m more blatant with my character names. Ancestry.com is a rabbit hole I get sucked into from time to time. At one point, I was tracing my maternal grandmother’s lineage and came across my five-times great grandfather, Matthias Honeywell. He fought in the Revolutionary War in New York. All well and good, but all I could think was what a fabulous name! 

In the same series, we have Emma Anderson, who was my maternal grandmother. Emma Nelena Anderson Miller, to be exact. My grandfather lovingly called her Nellie, and most of her friends called her Nell. So, I got two character names from one family member. Emma and her sister, Nell. 

The locations in the Honeywell series are largely real, so inspiration comes from taking a trip to Erie, PA, and driving around the area. A lot of the businesses, especially those where crimes take place, are figments of my imagination. But many are real. Emma lives at Sara’s Campground (real--click the link for a virtual driving tour of the grounds--and I must thank the owners for allowing me to use it) but her campsite is fictional. 

The whole portion of the campground where she lives is made up, so don’t trespass and try to find it. It’s not there. Presque Isle State Park is real. So is the Bicentennial Tower and all of the street names. The Blue Pike Restaurant is fictional (although I wish it was real…in my mind, the food there is amazing). The warehouses mentioned and any businesses I placed in them are fictional. The area used to have warehouses there, but they’ve been razed. 

I’m passing the question on to you writers. Where do you get your inspiration for character names and locations? And to you readers, do locations in the books you read make you want to go there? 

And the big one, how much are you really bothered by names that have the same initials?

  

The Villain Speaks by Annette Dashofy

After many months of non-stop writing to meet back-to-back-to-back deadlines, I turned in my latest manuscript to my editor on March first. My next book isn’t due until December, which, for me, is a luxury. Nine months between deadlines! 

It’s a good thing, too, because I’ve pushed so much non-writing “stuff” to the proverbial back burner for so long, I need some time to catch up on those little things like tax prep, annual doctor’s exams, yearly medical tests, and researching the wonderful world of Medicare since I’m fast approaching that age. March, I decided, would be a sabbatical from writing to focus on these matters. 

I’ve done quite well, even managing to slip a home improvement project into the mix. I still have some straggler tasks for this final week, but I think I’ll have that back burner cleared off by April Fool’s Day. 

Or maybe I’m kidding myself and I will be the April Fool. 

Either way, that December deadline is one month closer than it was on March first, so I need to call my muse home from vacation and get back to writing. 

And my writer’s brain is already working on it. 

A week ago, I dug out the proposal I’d sent to my publisher for the next contracted book. This consists of one very generic paragraph. It’s a starting point. I let that paragraph be a seed planted in my brain as I worked on financial reports. Usually, when I do that, my characters begin to discuss the plot amongst themselves and whisper their intentions into the ear of my subconscious. 

Mostly, that’s what’s happening now with one surprising exception. 

While this will be the fourth Detective Honeywell Mystery, Matthias Honeywell is keeping quiet. So is Emma Anderson. The characters who are growing progressively louder are my secondary characters, one of whom has never appeared on the page. Apparently, Detective Sergeant Cassie Malone’s veterinarian husband, Dr. Shawn, is going to be a major player if he has his way. Not what I had planned, but okay, I’ll run with it. 

The character who’s speaking the loudest though is The Villain. Or maybe he’s the one I’m listening to the most. I don’t know his name or even if he’s a man or a woman. All I know is he has a grudge and plans to exact revenge. 

Okay, to be honest, I know a bit more than that, but I’m not telling. The Villain will only share his secrets if I promise to keep them for now. 

One of my favorite mystery-writing tricks comes from Erle Stanley Gardner of Perry Mason fame. I can’t find the exact wording, so I’m paraphrasing, but he advised writers to plot from the viewpoint of the villain and write from the perspective of the protagonist. It’s a great tool. The villain is behind the scenes, driving the plot, from planning and carrying out the murder to covering it up and possibly helping misdirect the sleuth. 

Right now, I’m carrying my notepad with me wherever I go so that when The Villain starts to share his plans, I can jot them down. Hopefully, once I hear all he has to say, I’ll know exactly what Matthias and Emma will encounter once I type “Chapter One” on the page. 

In Search of Inspiration by Annette Dashofy

For the last couple of years, I’ve been frantically racing deadlines. Two series. Two publishers on two different continents. Publisher A doesn’t care what my deadline is with Publisher B and vice versa. Therefore, at one point, I had three months to finish a manuscript and have it ready to turn in. At least, that’s how it looked on paper. Publisher A deadline in November. Publisher B deadline in February. 

(Note: I’m not complaining. I know how many writers out there would give their left arm to have such problems. I know because I used to be one.) 

I acknowledge there are authors who write multiple books a year and for whom three months is a piece of cake. I salute thee. I am not one of those authors. Given my druthers, I’d be in the one-book-per-year category. But my druthers don’t pay the bills. Hence two series, two publishers. 

Anyway, it takes more than three months for me to complete a manuscript. I know that. So I was writing like a fiend for a while, drafting two books at the same time. 

I may have lost my mind a little during that overlap. 

But I digress. 

I met the deadlines. All is well. But after those frantic couple of years, I’m now at a point where I’m writing the last book under contract to Publisher A. And I’ve completed my final edits on the last book under contract to Publisher B. 

The last time this happened, I was even more freaked out than I was while writing two books at the same time. Now what? 

I’m not so freaked out this time. I hope to continue both series. To do that, I need to prepare proposals for the next book in each. I have some time left with Publisher A since I’m only writing the first draft. But I really need to come up with something for Publisher B. “Something” being a detailed synopsis. Emphasis on detailed. 

Certain words strike fear in the hearts of writers everywhere. “Synopsis” is high on that list. 

While I have some good ideas (at least I think they’re good) for secondary threads, I really have no clue what the main plot will be. Hence, I’ve been in search of inspiration. 

And sometimes, inspiration comes in search of me. 

Friday, a week ago, I had one of those days. I had been in my office in the rear of my house, oblivious to the outside world, but when I came up for air and wandered to the kitchen for a snack, I noticed the traffic out front was at a standstill. Plus, there was a fire/rescue truck and a police officer at the end of my driveway. It seems a large tree across the road from us had come down and was completely blocking both lanes. 

I spent the next hour observing as the department of transportation sent a small crew out to cut up and remove the tree, which was leaning over our utility wires (communications, not electric). Finally, traffic was moving again, and I went back to my office. 

When I came back out at suppertime, there it was again! The remainder of the tree, no longer supported by the part that fell earlier, came down and was once more blocking the road. 

Side note: I live on a main route to a concert venue, and there was a big concert that night. 

Concertgoers, not eager to be late, bypassed the tree by driving through my yard. A guy in a pickup got out with a chainsaw and cut what can only be described as a tunnel through the branches to allow one lane of traffic to drive through the downed tree. 

Safe? I don’t think so. I called 911 and the cops and the department of transportation (no fire/rescue this time) came out. I heard several of them utter, “Again???” 

My neighbor came over. We sat on my porch swing and enjoyed our front row seats while the impatient concertgoers idled and fumed. Finally, the road department guys cut up the tree and the show out front was over. 

But my “inspirational” day was not. When I went inside, I thought it seemed unusually hot. That’s when I discovered our heat pump AKA air conditioner had died. When I called for service, they refused to come out because it was after hours on a Friday, and it wasn’t a life-or-death situation. Never mind that I have a service agreement with them. 

Motive for murder? Maybe…fictional, of course. 

The next day, I heard a news report about a police department that had found a bull and were looking for its owners. 

So, I have lots of material to work with here. The only problem is…the synopsis I’m supposed to be writing is for my Detective Honeywell series, which is set in the city of Erie. All of the above is perfect for the next Zoe Chambers Mystery though. I’ve taken notes. 

In the meantime, I’m still in search of inspiration for that next Honeywell book. 

P.S. My new heat pump will be installed this Tuesday. Until then, I’m getting by with a small window AC unit. 

Fellow authors, have you ever had inspiration for a story drop into your lap? Readers, how are you getting by in this summer’s heat?

Recycled Houses by Annette Dashofy

You might say, after making up a story full of characters, murder, and mayhem, I would run out of imagination when it comes to houses and cars. However, I prefer to think I simply use my writing to relive happy memories.

In the first three books of the Zoe Chambers series, Zoe lived in half of a big old farmhouse. In Death By Equine, Dr. Jessie Cameron lived in a big old farmhouse too. Both are, in fact, the same house, although Zoe lives in one half and Jessie lives in the other.

Confused?

My grandparents' farmhouse 

 Let me explain. The house is based on my grandparents’ farmhouse. Prior to its demolition, it perched on the hillside across the road from my current home. I spent a lot of my youth in that house. Divided by a center hallway with two rooms on each side downstairs and two more on each side upstairs, the house had at one time been used as a pseudo duplex. My grandparents let their nephew and family live in half. Hence the idea of Zoe renting half of the house. Her side was the side my cousins lived in. When I was writing Death By Equine, Jessie lived in the side my grandparents used and was renovating the other half. 

So while it’s the same house, it really isn’t. Both Jessie and Zoe live in Monongahela County, but they don’t live in the same area. 

Still confused? 

Basically, in my mind, I planted a duplicate house in two different spots. 

Now we have the Detective Honeywell series set in Erie. The farmhouse didn’t move north, but I still used a familiar home for Emma Anderson’s character. She currently lives in a seventeen-foot camper, based on one which my husband and I used to own. Once again, in my mind, I picked it up and placed it somewhere else. We had it set up in Confluence, Pennsylvania, on a permanent campsite near the Youghiogheny River where my husband likes to fish. Emma’s camper is on a permanent site at Sara’s Campground near Lake Erie.

Camper NOT at Sara's Campground

 

Camper kitchen

Emma doesn't have a cat, but we do! #KensiKitty

Let me clarify one point. Sara’s Campground is real. I am very grateful to the owners for giving me their blessing to use it and their restaurant. However, don’t go there and drive around looking for Emma’s site number. It doesn’t exist. I made up a fictional area in the campground to protect the real residents’ privacy. 

Houses aren’t the only thing I recycle for my fiction. I do it with vehicles too. Has anyone noticed that Zoe and Jessie both drive Chevy pickups? Until recently, I owned that pickup. 

Not our proudest moment but one 
of the most memorable

It’s gone now and I miss it as much as I miss the farmhouse and the camper. But pay attention. Zoe now drives a white Subaru Forester. So does Emma.

"Our" Subaru

Guess what. So do I! 

I really intended to change Emma’s vehicle to something else, but forgot to make the switch before the manuscript went to my editor. Oh, well. 

From here on, I promise there will be no more old Chevy pickups, Subaru Foresters, or seventeen-foot Terry camper trailers in any additional series. Nor will Grandpap’s farmhouse show up anywhere other than future Dr. Jessie Cameron stories. I think I’ve recycled all of those houses and cars as much as I reasonably can. 

Fellow Writers Who Kill, do you use actual houses or cars you’ve owned in your fiction?