By Josi
One of the fun things about being a fiction writer, and
creating characters, is that you get to name them. I have four kids, and I lost
every name-decision my husband and I had with them. Lost might be the wrong
word, since I like all their names, but they were names my husband and I agreed
on, not necessarily either of our favorites.
When I was expecting
my fourth child—also my last—I had two favorite names: Esther and Daisy. My husband made a face at both of
them. He thought Esther sounded old and Daisy sounded air-headed. I was, of
course, offended, then he said his name of choice was Charlemagne and I knew
he’d lost it (no offense to any Esthers, Daisys, or Charlemagnes out there.) My
next suggestion was Keeley, but Keeley Kilpack had a weird ring to it. We both
liked Kylee, however, and so that became our baby’s name. It’s a perfect name for her and
neither of us cringe when we say it, so it was a good choice.
When
Annette, Heather, Julie and I were discussing characters for this series, I
threw out the idea of Daisy and then braced myself for compaints—since my
husband hadn’t liked it—but to my surprise they were all good with it. So, her
name was Daisy and she's not an air-head. Originally Daisy's character was suffering from an eating disorder, but as I
further developed her that didn’t stick very well. I kept playing with ideas
and then came up with the idea of her being in her forties, excited for her
last daughter to leave home, feeling like everything was going as planned, and
then facing an unplanned pregnancy. THAT story idea took off for me and the
story unfolded rather quickly from that point forward.
AND, I got to use Daisy in a book. Maybe one day I'll use Esther too (though Heather Moore is beating me to that point right now as she writes the story of Esther). I will likely not use Charlemagne, however. :-)
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