Writer Wednesday: Naming Names

14 Oct 2015 8 Comments

by Kay Hudson in Writing Tags: , , , , , , ,

Our Writer Wednesday topic this month is “tell us you favorite character name,” but I couldn’t think of one, WW Octobereither as a reader or as a writer. But names are important, and for a writer they require quite a bit of thought, and sometimes just as much planning.

Many of my favorite keeper books are science fiction, because I enjoy the world building. And names are often part of that world building. Character names in books like Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern, or Marion Zimmer Bradley’s tales of Darkover often tell the reader quite a bit about family, social position, or occupation.

I find I can’t write about a character until I know his or her “true name.” From time to time I have realized that I simply can’t remember a supporting character’s name, a sure sign that whatever name I stuck the poor soul with is the wrong one. I like to play with names, and sometimes they take on an extra layer of meaning. In one of my manuscripts, the heroine is called Liz, short for Elizabeth, and the fact that the Spanish version of her name is Isabel becomes an important plot point. In another story, the heroine calls herself Charlie, but the hero, a European with a formal streak, always addresses her by her proper name, Charlotte.

Sometimes a character’s true name never shows up, suggesting that there’s something else about the Columbo & Dogcharacter that isn’t working. That thought reminded me of Lieutenant Columbo, who never had a first name, and his dog, who never had a name at all. Columbo tried out several names for the dog during the series, but none of them seemed to work, and the dog remained Dog. Come to think of it, Mrs. Columbo didn’t have a first name, either.

On the other hand, I’ve recently been reading a series of old-fashioned Regency romances, originally published in the 1990s, in which nearly all the male characters have at least three names, first, last, and title(s). How other people address these men speaks to relationships and social position. People in contemporary stories are generally casual about names, but in historical tales, arriving at a first name relationship may be a major romantic milestone.

Do you have a favorite character name? Or are there names that push your buttons and make you put a book down? For more thoughts on names, visit Wednesday Writers Sharon Wray, Lauren Christopher, Natalie Meg Evans, and Wendy La Capra (and be sure to check out Wendy’s upcoming release, Duchess Decadence).

Science Fiction for Romance Lovers

07 Feb 2014 5 Comments

by Kay Hudson in Books, Reading Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Romance lovers, I think, tend to be more interested in reading about people than about technology, which may lead some of us to shy away from science fiction.  Not me–I’ve been a science fiction fan far longer than I’ve been reading romance.  Many science fiction authors write as much about people and their relationships as they do about spaceships, computers, and laser cannon.

I’m not talking about Science Fiction Romance, which deserves another post to itself, but about writers who identify solidly with science fiction.  It won’t surprise you to hear that the five authors I’d like to recommend are women.  I readily confess that I don’t have nearly as much time to read as I did years ago, so I’m undoubtedly missing some newer writers.

DragonflightI fell in love with Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern series when the first novel, Dragonflight, came out in 1968.  In fact, I wore my paperback copies of the first novels out and splurged to replace them with hardbacks (still on my shelf) when they were reprinted.  Pern is a Lost Colony, and the books cover centuries of its history, including the romantic entanglements of its inhabitants, both human and dragon.  Yes, of course, dragons–not shapeshifters, but telepathically bonded to their human riders (causing interesting complications when the dragons mate) and the essential factor in the survival of civilization.  The novels were not written in internal chronological order–I’d suggest starting with Dragonflight.

McCaffrey also wrote several other series, some with collaborators.  The Freedom’s Landing series is my favorite of the others, but they all tend to feature romantic subplots.  McCaffrey’s son Todd inherited Pern at her death and has continued the series.

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover is another Lost Colony, although in the later installments in this long series the Rediscovery by the Terran Empire adds new layers of conflict.  The paranormal element in this series is the telepathic power with which the ruling class maintains its position, and the many novels follow the relationships and fortunes of several families.  The series ranges from short novels written as paperback originals in the late 1950s to complex trilogies written in the 1990s.  After Bradley’s death in 1999, her collaborator Deborah Ross has continued the chronicles of Darkover.  (Jo Walton has written an interesting assessment of the Darkover series, “‘Culture clash on the borders of genres.”)

Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series often does involve space ships, scattered as it is over a wide-spread human civilization, but it centers on the adventures, romantic and other wise, of Miles Vorkosigan and his family.  Shards of Honor and Barrayar include the courtship of Miles’ parents, who meet as officers on opposite sides of an interplanetary war, while in A Civil Campaign we find Miles himself finally ready to settle down and court a charming young widow.  There’s plenty of action, both military and interpersonal, in the rest of the series.  Bujold also writes award-winning fantasy.

While McCaffrey, Bradley and Bujold are long-standing favorites of mine, Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series is a much more recent discovery, beginning with His Majesty’s Dragon (2006).  Yes, dragons again, telepathic, intelligent, and Temerairebonded with their partners.  But this is an alternate history series, in which His Majesty’s Aerial Corps fights the Napoleonic Wars on board enormous dragons, led by Temeraire, the rare black dragon, and his pilot Captain Will Laurence, who was perfectly happy as a Naval officer until the dragon’s egg he was transporting hatched unexpectedly.  Thanks to one species of dragon which will only bond with female pilots, there are a few women maintaining a low profile in the Aerial Corps, an interesting challenge given the early nineteenth century social structure.  I love these books.

I’m not sure how to categorize Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series, but since I got the omnibus edition (there are five novels) from the Science Fiction Book Club, I’m going with it.  These novels blend the paranormal Soulless(werewolves, vampires and ghosts), alternate history, steampunk (mechanical ladybugs!), and romance (ah, that alpha werewolf).  I’ve only read the first novel, Soulless, which is definitely a romance, but my friend who carefully avoids paranormal gobbled up all five in a row.  Carriger is also writing a Young Adult series in the same world, beginning with Etiquette & Espionage, and has another steampunk series in the planning stages.

I have novels from all of these series on my totally-out-of-control shelves of books To Be Read, and the ones I have read remain on my keeper shelves.  But I’m always up for something new, so if you have favorite science fiction titles or authors, please share!

The Influence of Books, Part 6

01 Dec 2012 2 Comments

by Kay Hudson in Books, Reading Tags: , , , , ,

When I listed favorite authors from my reading past on a scrap of notepaper a few weeks ago, the three names I wrote on the science fiction line were Anne McCaffrey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Lois McMaster Bujold.  Known for long series, detailed world building, and complex cultures (Bradley’s Darkover, McCaffrey’s Pern, and Bujold’s Barrayar and its neighbors and colonies), these women added human elements that were missing from much of earlier science fiction: strong female characters, romance, even sex.

They aren’t the only women on my SF keeper shelf.  (Another sheet of notepaper here.)  I have single titles by quite a few female writers, and multiple books by C.J. Cherryh, Suzanne Collins, Charlaine Harris (although the Sookie Stackhouse series could be shelved with the mysteries), Elizabeth Moon, Naomi Novik (I’ve been saving the newest Temeraire book as a special treat), Jo Walton, and Connie Willis.  And there are books on my shelves (and on my computer’s hard drive) with one foot in SF and one in romance.  It’s been a long time now, thankfully, since SF took the “No Girls Allowed” sign off the club house door.

I don’t remember if I discovered Bradley or McCaffrey first, but Bradley began writing for the pulp magazines as early as 1949.  She wrote a a good number of series and single title books over the years, but her best known (and by far my favorites) were the Darkover novels, set on a planet colonized and then long forgotten by Terrans.  The series began in 1968, with The Planet Savers, and has continued past Bradley’s death in 1999 with novels written by various authors she mentored.  I’m pretty sure I have them all, although I haven’t read some of the later ones.  (I will never run out of books to read.)  The earliest Darkover novels were short and relatively simple, but they grew longer and far more complex as Bradley developed the culture and mythology of the planet (several of the earliest novels were later revised to fit).  Bradley not only built a world, she populated it with a variety of societies, families, and governments–just like a real planet.

McCaffrey began writing in the 1950s, but didn’t begin publishing novels until 1967.  She wrote a  stand-alone novels and a number of series, but she’s best known for her Dragonriders of Pern stories, which began with a novella in 1967.  Over the years McCafrrey moved up and down the time line from the original trilogy (Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon) to fill in the long history of a planet (like Bradley’s Darkover) colonized by humans and then forgotten, providing a surprisingly scientific explanation for time-travelling, telepathic dragons in the process.  Between my shelves (Keeper and To Be Read), I have all the Pern books, the four-volume Freedom series, and a few more.  McCaffrey began collaborating with her son Todd well before her death last year, and he has continued the Pern series.

Bujold has written two fantasy series, but she is best known for her Vorkosigan Saga novels, beginning in 1986 and happily continuing through the most recent novel, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, published a few weeks ago (the only one I haven’t read).  Most of the novels center around the adventures of Miles Vorkosigan, a member of the ruling family of the planet Barrayar, and he’s had more than his share.  Bujold combines elements of military SF, a complex economic system and high technology paired with the almost medieval social structure of Barrayar, romance (that of Miles and his eventual wife Ekaterin, and that of his parents Aral and Cordelia), and mystery.

These three authors have entertained me as a reader and inspired me as a writer.  Writing this makes me want to go back and read all those stories again–if only I had the time.  If you haven’t read them, pick one up and jump in.  You will enjoy the adventure.