Hello Vitty!

The name of Beaudry is a story all to itself! It is a name I literally pulled out of the air because I liked the sound of it. By the way, it is pronounced "BOH-dree". At some point I must have thought his nickname would be "Beau", but it never seemed to fit him, somehow. :) He was and will always be "Jared" do me.

It was only after the book was published that I discovered there was a real Union cavalry soldier whose last name was Beaudry. This is only the beginning of the coincidences!

Imagine my shock when I opened my email one day and found a message from a Jared Beaudry! I almost fell out of my chair! His mother had bought him my book for his birthday. :)

Then, a couple years ago, I was at a booksigning with a hundred other authors in a large room. Across the aisle and a few chairs down I saw another author periodically staring at me. Finally he came over to introduce himself. His name was David Beaudry, and the heroine in his book was named Ivey! Of course we had to exchange books!

When I choose a character's name, especially the first name, I look for names that have a meaning that relates to the character. For example, "Michael Craig" in Wildish Things was named for the sword-weilding archangel Michael, and his last name means "stone", which is important to the story.

"Carey" in A Ghost of a Chance, means "dark one". Her hair is dark and she as a woman experiences a sort of awakening from darkness through the course of the book.

I'm always keeping an eye out for unusual names, however I don't like to get too outlandish with my characters' names. I like for my readers to be able to pronounce what they read!

Carolan