Character names

Choosing character names can be a lot of fun. The hero of Spy, Interrupted: The Waiting Wife was named while I was watching the fabulous Stephen Colbert. I wanted to do “first name as last name” so I went with the last name of Henry James and named the hero “Stephen James”. I wanted the heroine’s name to be cross-cultural and innocuous. “Nina” was perfect. And, I simply had to name the spymaster “George”–homage to George Smiley. For other characters, I borrowed freely from names of my friends and colleagues.

I came across “Caleb Prescott” recently. Isn’t that a perfect name for our hero’s childhood nemesis? What do you think? Talk to me!

 

3 Comments
  • KD

    December 13, 2014 at 4:01 PM Reply

    Go with “Caleb Prescott”! Make him an evil genius!

  • Chandru

    January 17, 2015 at 1:41 PM Reply

    “CP” being an evil genius is absolutely as it should be. However, we all go thru’ various nicknames in different age groups – from family, from sibling(s), from friends, from teachers, from neighbours, etc. So, tracing the evolution of each of the characters’ nicknames through various age groups they grow through will help better flesh them out and make them more real-life-like – would you agree ?
    Also, we tend to emotionally get more attached to these nicknames rather than the official/formal ones.
    Looking forward to the next set of characters in the following versions.

    • tamraparni dasu

      January 19, 2015 at 2:48 PM Reply

      That’s an excellent suggestion! You will definitely see more of that in the next book, “Spy, Interrupted: The Perfect Candidate”.

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