Yesterday I wrote like a mad woman on my sequel to Mayhem at the Happy Valley Motor Inn and Resort, chewing up words and spitting them out onto the blank page like so many tiny sunflower seeds. Days like that are hard to come by, so I buckled up and enjoyed the ride. Too many mixed metaphors already? Sorry, sort of.
But in the middle of the night I woke up with a word, actually a name, on my mind—Gary. My subconscious sent me a message: Sweetie, (I often call myself ‘Sweetie’ just because I can) you have two characters named Gary.
Well, hell. Thank goodness for the ability to quickly locate every mention of Gary and decide just which character gets to keep the name. Should I flip a coin? Meditate on it? Draw a number from a hat? Maybe I’ll just ask Alexa.

And with what name should I replace it? Accepting suggestions that don’t begin with a ‘G’.
Peace, people!
Reblogged this on Disablities & Mental Health Issues.
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Thank you!
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Riotous Reggie, Peace Out Paul…or Calvin Chillcoat from Chicago…and of course there is Sveyn Substack, a danish independent author and publisher who promotes his books by having a listserv
where he shares his adventures in publishing with many an interested reader and potential book purchasers. He’s also checked out the now Twitter owned listserv named REVUE. And you should too. That’s it. I promise not to to mention this again.
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Sveyn Substack, eh? I will have to check him out. If I can figure out how…
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SubStack.com
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Old character or on the young side? Floyd, Ralph, Tommy, Skip, Colton, Billy Bob, Austin, Jeff, Ronny, Dean, Logan, Mateo, Regis, DeShaun, Liam…
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He’s young. A teenager.
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Great suggestions!
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Well if he’s young you might want to scratch out a few of those names!! I haven’t seen any teenage Floyd’s or Ralph’s lately 😉
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I’m thinking Rodney—even if it is an older sounding name. But I haven’t settled on it yet.
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Ben
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Ben is good. Nice and simple.
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To me Ben is solid. Confident without cocky. Doesn’t take long to type.
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The typing length is critical!
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😉
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Would this Rodney fit your character? https://youtu.be/BiunYNdNe5A
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He just might!
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Banger, or sliver
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When you asked for suggestions, my first instinct was to yell “No G names!!” but you already got there. That is such a peeve of mine in books, when characters have too similar names, it sometimes makes it difficult to keep track of them.
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I have to say I have way too many M names in the Happy Valley books. I think they’re all very distinct personalities, though. My editor at first wondered if I should change them, but ultimately said they were fine.
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Trust your intuition when you think of Gary. Eugene or Rex are my second male suggestions, although I’d have to get to know them a little to make a final choice.
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I already have a Eugene in the sequel! He’s a deputy sheriff. Rex might work, though.
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You could take a page out of “Parks & Rec” and switch his name from Gary to Larry to Jerry to Terry to Barry.
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Ha!!! I love that idea!
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this is funny stuff. i have two cats and a husband and am mostly insane. we have so much in common. i love it when the dream guides speak so clearly. isn’t that amazing? My husband actually spoke by phone with a pool service guy in Miami today whose name was,,,,,Egor. Yep. And he didn’t even say “are you kidding me?” He just said, “nice to meet you, Egor.” So. there’s a name for you…;) Thanks for stopping by formidablewoman today. Ciao Bella!
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