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I'm pleased today to welcome author Serena Chase to the blog as part of the promotional tour for her romantic young adult fantasy series, Eyes of E'veria. Serena is going to give us a bit of insight into the naming of her characters–something that always interests me–and is offering up a generous giveaway so be sure and check the bottom of the post for full details!
BEHIND THE SCENES: NAMING CHARACTERS IN FANTASY
Authors have many different processes for naming their characters and my own methods vary from book to book, but I have found that naming characters in a fantasy novel (versus a contemporary work) is so much easier. If you regularly read fantasy, you might find that surprising. After all, many fantasy novels have characters with really weird names. If we look at some throughout the last twenty or so years, it’s quite an interesting list.
Think of Angharad Crewe (aka: Harry Crewe & Hari-mad Sol) from Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword. David Eddings provided us with Polgara, Belgarath, Garion, and Ce’Nedra in his Belgariad series and C.S. Lewis gave us Ramandu and Reepicheep in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. More recently, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series gave us Dobby, Bellatrix LeStrange, and Voldemort, and in Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass we met an assassin-Cinderella named Celaena Sardothien. You have to wonder . . . what made those names seem the “right fit” for the characters? And yet . . . once you’ve read the books, you can’t imagine them being named anything else!
For The Ryn and The Remedy, I employed several different methods of naming characters. For a few, a name simply popped into my head and seemed to fit (this was the case for the hero, Julien, as well as the knights, Gladiel, Drinius, and Gerrias) The name “Rose’ was a bit of a no-brainer for the beginning of The Ryn, since I found my inspiration for the books in the Grimm fairy tale, Snow White & Rose Red, but I couldn’t name a character “Snow White” and not feel like a total hack, so I kept with the flower theme and named that minor character “Lily”. Another minor character, who is turning out to be a reader favorite, is my pirate, Cazien. His name was derived from the name “Caz” meaning “vain”—and I discovered it via my very favorite naming source, Yvonne Navarro’s insanely comprehensive reference book, First Name Reverse Dictionary: Given Names Listed by Meaning, 2nd Edition.
But there are a few characters in these first two books of the Eyes of E’veria series whose names have a little more meaning—and most of those characters are from the province of Veetri: land of the Storytellers. Lord Whittier was so named because in the original draft he had a few more lines and I found him to be quite the clever one (aka: witty), whereas his Capricia, his wife, is a musician and, thus, her name was derived from a musical term that fit her personality. But when it came to the couple’s three sons, who each play such an important role in the lead character’s life, I had to approach naming with especial care. Therefore, though only one of them is a Storyteller (the other two are knights), I named Kinley, Lewys, and Rowlen after a few of my favorite storytellers. I’ll give you a moment to consider which authors I might be referring to . . . (hint: see the second paragraph of this post!)
So what did you come up with?
If you said: Robin McKinley, C.S. Lewis, and J.K. Rowling… congratulations! You’re almost as big a nerd as I am! Indeed, those three authors are among those I hold in highest esteem and, thus, named my boys from Veetri in their honor.
Over the seven years it took to refine books 1 and 2, some of the characters’ names changed, even if just to make the spelling a little easier to digest (a frequent complaint of fantasy readers is: “How do I pronounce this name?” I wanted to avoid that issue for my readers as much as possible.) Imagine my surprise, then, each time my mother pronounces the title of book 1 as “The Rhine”—for it was meant to be pronounced with a short “i” sound, as in ryn=tin! I’ve also come across many different pronunciations for Rynnaia’s name—but to me… that’s okay—because as long as she’s alive in your head, I’m cool with whatever her name is supposed to sound like to you.
What are some of the most memorable or unusual names from books you’ve read? I’d love to know!
Thanks so much for stopping by Serena! More information on Serena and her books can be found here:
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SERENA CHASE
A life-long lover of fairy tales, Serena Chase is the author of THE RYN (3/26/13) and THE REMEDY (April 2013) Together, these two novels comprise an expanded re-imagining of the classic Grimm fairy tale, Snow White & Rose Red and are the first two books in the Eyes of E’veria series.
A frequent contributor to USA Today’s Happy Ever After blog and Edgy Inspirational Romance, Serena lives in Iowa with her husband, two daughters, and a white goldendoodle named Albus. She has been known to live vicariously through her hair, however, so don’t be too surprised if she looks a tad different from one day to the next. We all have our vices.
A frequent contributor to USA Today’s Happy Ever After blog and Edgy Inspirational Romance, Serena lives in Iowa with her husband, two daughters, and a white goldendoodle named Albus. She has been known to live vicariously through her hair, however, so don’t be too surprised if she looks a tad different from one day to the next. We all have our vices.
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THE REMEDY
PURPOSED by birth. DESTINED by prophecy. REVEALED by Truth.
Now, her time has come.
Having come to terms with her long-hidden identity, Princess Rynnaia E’veri is ready to take her rightful place. But before she can join her father at Castle Rynwyk, she must endeavor to fulfill a 200-year-old prophecy and defeat the Kingdom’s ancient enemy, the Cobelds. Joined by her faithful knight, Sir Julien de Gladiel, and a gifted group of friends, Rynnaia must trek a dangerous path through canyons, forests, and into the very depths of a mountain where, if the prophetic scrolls prove correct, she will face an unknown foe, alone. Treacheries will be discovered, sacrifices will be made, friends will be lost, and love will be tested, but if even one line of the riddled prophecy is misinterpreted, Rynnaia will fail . . . and the Kingdom will fall.
Beginning at the point THE RYN ended, THE REMEDY concludes an epic re-imagining of the classic Grimm fairy tale, SNOW WHITE & ROSE RED, but the Eyes of E’veria series is only beginning . . .
Having come to terms with her long-hidden identity, Princess Rynnaia E’veri is ready to take her rightful place. But before she can join her father at Castle Rynwyk, she must endeavor to fulfill a 200-year-old prophecy and defeat the Kingdom’s ancient enemy, the Cobelds. Joined by her faithful knight, Sir Julien de Gladiel, and a gifted group of friends, Rynnaia must trek a dangerous path through canyons, forests, and into the very depths of a mountain where, if the prophetic scrolls prove correct, she will face an unknown foe, alone. Treacheries will be discovered, sacrifices will be made, friends will be lost, and love will be tested, but if even one line of the riddled prophecy is misinterpreted, Rynnaia will fail . . . and the Kingdom will fall.
Beginning at the point THE RYN ended, THE REMEDY concludes an epic re-imagining of the classic Grimm fairy tale, SNOW WHITE & ROSE RED, but the Eyes of E’veria series is only beginning . . .
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