When I sent in the manuscript for Prince of Ice, it occurred to me that it might be nice to have notes on the names, cultures, that kind of thing. I don't know if that will be in the published version, but I thought I'd do something like that here for Strange Brews. Naming in fantasy writing can be tricky- and quite easily sound ridiculous. One of the things I love about Lord of the Rings is that the names usually mean something - they're real names from real cultures. 'Gandalf' is a Norse name meaning 'cane-elf,' which is neat. Eomer is a Saxon name, which I think means something like 'noble & famous,' though I'm not completely sure. Frode means 'wise' in Norse, which I assume is where Tolkien got Frodo, so I have a minor character in Prince of Ice named 'Frode,' kind of in homage to that. Tolkien took such explanations very seriously in the Appendices of ROTK, & though I read every word, over & over, my eyes were pretty much spinning backwards, I fainted, my brain collapsed, & I still didn't pronounce things right. So I thought I wouldn't go quite THAT far, but it still pleases me that the names mean something, so I wanted to do that, too. (but sometimes, they mean something only to me, like the 2 horses, Pip & Zima, who are, indeed, real horses - seen below.)

Vikings tended to be known as 'son of' for last names, but Saxons had more 'Eadwig the Baker' kinds of naming. There's also the 'of Eddenmark' names, which I've done rather loosely. In my books, that kind of name might indicate an unknown father, though in Damir's case, his full name, Damir ap Kora, is a Welsh idea, meaning 'son of Kora,' which references that is father was an exiled prince from the land of Kora, not his own father's name. But Aren generally introduces himself as Aren son of Arkyn, so theoretically he'd be Aren Arkenson in modern times. But another Norskman, Thorleif, never mentions a father, but instead says he's 'Thorleif of Eddenmark.' I never get into it, but as I envision him, he doesn't know his father.

The cultures in my books are based on real historical cultures - the Woodlanders of Amrodel are akin to the Welsh & Celtic people, and the Norsk are - rather obviously - Norse/Vikings, as are their names. Often, the names have meaning related to their character - 'Aren' means 'rule of the eagle,' (and should be pronounced 'AH-ren,' not 'Aaron') 'Daere,' which is more or less Eliana & Cahira's last name, is Welsh & actually means 'Fiend,' which is something I'd picked a long time ago & kept, even before Eliana was known as 'the Fiend.'

Correction! The minute I get my copies of my new books, I read them over to see what stayed in, if anything was changed, if there's a page missing - that sort of thing. After an author submits a manuscript, it goes through various editting stages, different editors, looking for errors, typos, things that make sense to the author but wouldn't be clear to a reader - etc - on the last vetting, I get the copy edits while someone else does, too, & so the finished product isn't the version I personally saw last. I especially appreciate the artistic changes: For instance, in Prince of Ice, someone used the word 'peril' where I had something more tedious... So I feel - 'I wish I'd thought of that!'  The things that bother me, though rare, are things I think are not in my own style or voice, or are outside the character. (Sometimes, they put in !'s or italicize words which I hadn't used myself - I don't like to use emphasis & I tend to see things as dry & under-stated - I think that's because I'm a New Englander.)   But in this book, I had written a line of dialogue (in Ch 13 - of course - on page 263) which I hadn't originally tagged by 'he said, she said' - so I guess the last copy editor didn't know who actually spoke the line, & thus inserted a tag for it. Unfortunately, they got the wrong person.  The vast portions of readers will never see this page, I'm sure, but just in case you do, please note this for my sake! It is AREN who says 'What kept you?' in the darksome catacombs of the Arch Mage, NOT Cahira - and he is speaking to his old friend, Bodvar, not to Cahira. (Indeed, I should have made this clear, & I could have avoided this confusion - I didn't use tags at all for awhile, because they feel intrusive to me & my agent, Joyce Flaherty, didn't consider them good writing, either - but it's hard to write a scene with many characters & use no tags - it got so that the lead in, pointer lines were more intrusive than a tag, so I went back to simple tags instead.)  The thing is, Cahira wouldn't say something so light at that point, because she fears for Aren & isn't feeling light. Aren, on the other hand, is being deliberately taunting, despite not feeling very well at that moment.

Thus far, that's the only confusing change I've found... 

I think this is the first time I've ever used Chapter Titles - and as befits my current vagueness, I can't remember if I did in Strange Brews or not. I think not. It felt right so I tried it. I think I will do it again. (I didn't.)

As another aside, there originally was another ending to Prince of Ice, where a very old Aren dies & Cahira's spirit joins him, but that was quite wisely deemed too sad - it WAS sad, but I kept it for myself because it represented the actual point & conclusion of what they really were all along. If anyone happens to want to read that, it's only a paragraph or so long - it was very important to me when I was ending the book to have that particular resolution - maybe it's important to others, too. I don't know - if it is, you're welcome to view it. Maybe later I'll put it in here - actually, why not?  Here it is, but read it only after reading the book!

I wonder if I have my email around this site much? Probably not. (it's reached through the bluebird on the front page - but if you'd like it, it's nidawi@mac.com)

Since I've been playing World of Warcraft, I've been able to make characters that sometimes resemble those in my books. (or books yet to come, in some cases)

And my little mage would probably look suitably like Eliana, or Cahira (who has blue eyes)

Actually, Garrett's elf could pass nicely as Damir:

In the World of Warcraft