Picking Names for your Novel Characters

I have a guest blog entry on Shadowhawk's Shade, a site dedicated to reading and enjoying fiction.

An excerpt:

The name Noddysnarg has no resonance with our past experience, while Jack does. Resonance is something that culture and your past reading give to specific names (as well as names that sound similar to other names or words we know). 

Thus I have to choose a character name with at least some resonance with my potential readers. Which is why Jack is better than Noddysnarg. (Or, if I were writing about goblins, everything I just said still applies, except Noddysnarg would be the better choice.)

When writing a fantasy or science fiction novel where real-world names aren’t used, it’s harder to come up with resonate names. When I face this problem, I deal with it by choosing names that at least sound similar to real names and words that have resonance. 

Take for instance Demascus [ . . .]

Read the whole thing here: http://bit.ly/12dY7RY

Author Affirmation and Sword of the Gods

The following wonderful email arrived today about someone who read my Sword of the Gods books:

"Hello, I just finished reading Sword of the Gods and Spinner of Lies. I usually read reference material, but I have an unexplored passion for the realm of fantasy, so, I decided to read Sword of the Gods; it was the first fiction book I've willingly read. I found myself completely absorbed by the world and the characters. I was so emotionally involved with the characters, Demascus, Chant, Riltana... I Just had to have more when I finished, so I immediately searched for the sequel and gobbled up that book. Now I'm so sad the journey is over!! Are you going to write a third book? I really hope so. I want to thank you for writing the story and letting me take that journey and for unlocking my desire to read fiction!!"

Wow. I am so pleased to hear about this kind of experience with my books! I also had a great time writing them. I think this is what George Costanaza meant by leaving the room on a high note :-).

But to answer the question of the reader, I don't really want to leave the room. I'd consider writing more Sword of the Gods books, but step one is up to the publisher. For the publisher to decide it wants more, I need to keep getting the word out about Sword of the Gods. Certainly this sort of thing helps.

And The Winners Are . . .

A few weeks ago I announced a contest to give away one of my novels performed by John Pruden available on Audible.com (three Abolethic books, and two Sword of Gods books). 

Well, that contest has run its course, and the three winners have been selected! The winners are as follows:

Ken Hart (@KenofGhastria on Twitter) gets an audio copy of Plague of Spells!

Doug Hopkins (@combatadvantage on Twitter) gets an audio copy of Sword of the Gods (Book 1)!

Randall Newnham (@coffeeswiller on Twitter) gets an audio copy of Plague of Spells!

I'd like to thank everyone who entered for your interest in these books. 

Necropolis of the Sword

Sword of the Gods includes a scene where the characters Demascus and Chant (and Riltana) discover a portal to a mysterious destination. Demascus knows his enemy Kalkan has recently fled through the portal.

When Chant and Demascus decide to follow Kalkan, they find a strange new place—the lost necropolis of Khalusk.

The backdrop article I've written provides an excerpt from the novel, some background history, context, and a bit of game mechanics for Khalusk. You can use the information to inspire a few D&D game encounters, or use it as the basis of a longer adventure set in one of the lost places of the Forgotten Realms® setting.

Article: http://bit.ly/khalusk

e-signing for Sword of the Gods

Taking a cue from Paul S. Kemp, I'm doing an e-signing for my novel Sword of the Gods.


So if you’re interested in a signed softcover first edition of Sword of the Gods, read on!


If you live in the United States, you have a couple options. You can send me $17USD to me via any of the following methods (see? I aim to please!):

1) Pay Pal (my paypal account is bruce at brucecordell dot com).

2) via Cashier's check. This requires that you email me here to get my address of course.

3) forget USD; send me bitcoins (email me here to get my bitcoin address and in this rapidly fluctuating bitcoin market, how many bit coins to send!)

The $17 covers the cost of the book, tax, and priority mail shipping via the USPS. Include your address and any personalization instructions (if you provide none, I’ll make something up). After that, I'll get it out to you as soon as I can, though please don't expect overnight!

I have several copies of the book on hand right now, so the first dozen or so participants should have their copies pretty quickly. After I get through those, I’ll have to order additional copies (so the process of getting signed copies out will take a few days longer at that point).

If you live outside the US and are interested in one or more copies, email me here and tell me your address. I’ll let you know what the total cost of the book and shipping will be and you can decide if you want to proceed (international shipping costs can be prohibitive, according to Paul's blog, from which I'm cribbing much of the format here--Thanks Paul!).