Amanda B. asked: How do you find/invent or/and decide on all the different names of your characters?”

Marcia answers:

Amanda! You’ve hit the “FAQs” on the head! I do get asked that a lot! And to be honest, I always wonder if someone is asking that because the LIKE the names or choose, or do NOT like the names I choose! The rambling answer is this: I LOVE unusual names for main characters! I just think they’re dreamy and
interesting and paint a better picture of a certain character! For some reason, I just love unique names for them. After all, they are unique, right? As for where I find/invent and decide on them…I used to leaf through baby name books a lot. That’s how I found a few of the ones I used in my earlier books. I’d flip through the pages, perusing names and then highlighting the ones I liked, or dog-earring the pages they were on. Then I found myself just keeping my ears open, so to speak. If I heard a name I liked, I’d jot it down on a scrap of paper (usually an old store receipt hidden in the depths of my abyss of a purse) and then add it to my master list when I got home. That’s actually what I do most these days…that and a little imagination or Internet research. A funny side story is that one day a friend asked me, “You like nature, huh?” I responded, “Sure! But how can you tell?” She then pointed out to me all the different ‘nature’ type names I use for my characters…i.e. Aspen, Sage, Cherry, Cedar, Poppy, Rivers…Lobo, Stoney, etc. I was astounded! I truly had never even noticed that before! (I’m kind of an idiot sometimes that way!) It was hilarious to me when I thought about it! I even do it with the titles of my books…Saphyre Snow, A Crimson Frost, The Tide of the Mermaid Tears. Hilarious!

So now that I’ve rambled on about how I FIND the names, here’s a little rambling about how I DECIDE on them: Let’s take Lobo McCoy for instance…he’s so cool and wolfish (right Stacey, Danielle and Weezy?)…kind of brooding and serious…with a predatory countenance a lot of the time. He’s strong and quick on the draw….so I immediately knew his name was Lobo…like the wolves I grew up knowing here in New Mexico.

Ember Taffy from The Tide of the Mermaid Tears…she’s warm and inviting…like a comforting fire in the hearth…so at once the name Ember popped into my weird little brain! I liked to think of her as if she were an inviting little fire on the shore when Ridge washed up. You know?

In the end…I think I’m just weird! But my character names do mean a lot to me AND their etymology usually reflects the character themselves…even though most of the time it’s accidental on my part. Lobo and Ember were intentional, but many of them are a subconscious thing for me! Does that make sense?

I hope that answered your question, Amanda. I’m SURE it was more information that you actually needed…sorry!

Sherylin P. asked: “After writing so many plots and characters, how do you come up with fresh ideas and not copy other books-either by a different author, or one of yours?”

Marcia answers:

Sherylin…I have to tell you honestly that other than children’s books, or an occasional YA book, I don’t read novels anymore. The first reason is I just don’t time to read AND to write, and I’d rather write. The second reason is, I don’t want to take the risk that my mind will absorb something someone else wrote and subconsciously duplicate it. It happened to me twice…someone reading a manuscript of mine and then writing a book that was nearly my book’s twin…literally! We were so glad they were discovered before they were published! Whew! Anyway, that experience unsettled me so badly, that I just don’t read much…especially if I’m writing. I also get very nervous when I hear someone say, “Oh I read the book this-and-so by author so-and-so and I swear it sounded so much like you I thought you might have helped to write it!” I steer clear of reading those books, too…I guess because ‘ignorance is bliss’ and I don’t want know if what happened to me before to happened again. I am VERY aware of what I have read, so that I don’t mimic, but I still worry, so I just don’t read . I do have a stack of books by my bed…my “to read someday when I have time” stack…and I know I’ll LOVE it when I finally do have some time to read!

As for copying myself, I actually keep a list of plot lines, scenes and scenarios to help myself not to do that. When I used to write just short books for my friends, I did incorporate similar things from them in my first novels…which made sense to me. However, now that I’m no longer a novice, I keep lists and things, or ask well-read friends (like someone I know who has an awesome collection of trivia on my books…wink wink!) whether or not a books is sounding redundant.

As far as ideas…I usually dream them, think of them while I’m driving by myself in the car, or wake up in the wee hours of morning with them running through my head! I keep a pen and notepads on my night table for just such moments…and Kevin knows never to throw a store receipt away that might have my scribbling on it! You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve jotted notes on!

As always, I hope that was a good enough answer for you, Sherilyn! Thanks!

Heather Hilmer asked, “I always wonder how you get in the mood for writing your passionate romantic scenes and/or how you think up your dreamy men!! Is there certain music you listen to when writing to get in a certain mood, or certain movies or shows that have inspired your writing?”

Marcia answers:

I’ll start out by confessing something…when I’m writing romantic scenes (especially kissing parts) I have to close my office door…because I sit there at my computer and blush my guts out the entire time! I’m not kidding! I get all flustered and blushy and grinning and nervous…so I have to make sure no one’s going to wander past my office door, glance in and see me all goofy and blushing!

As far as how I “get in the mood” for writing my “passionate romantic scenes”…well, usually I start by literally announcing to my husband and son that I’m going to be working on a ‘difficult’ scene, so I’m closing my door. I also put my cell phone in another room so that I don’t have anything close that might distract me. Next I pull up my iTunes playlist that I have previously created for whichever book I’m currently working on. My iTunes playlist for any given book always includes one, two or three songs that ‘put me in the mood’ so to speak for that particular hero and heroine’s romance. For instance, I wrote the entire text to Saphyre Snow with only one musical track set on repeat. It played any time I was working on that book and nearly drove my family nuts! For Saphyre Snow, I listened to Track #15 (Your Hands are Cold) from the 2006 movie version of Pride and Prejudice. Seriously! I had that one piece of music on repeat the entire time!

But writing to only one song isn’t my normal habit. As I said, I do make a playlist…but most of them include far more than one song. Still, there is usually only one or two songs I listen to while writing the romance scenes. During The Tide of the Mermaid Tears, I listened to recordings of Ocean Waves from some Sounds of Life CD most of the time. But whenever I was writing the scenes between Ridge and Ember I had one song on repeat…Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron & Wine. I’m not sure why that particular song was in my heart for Ember and Ridge (it really doesn’t fit the time period or anything), but it was. To me it was there theme. Does that make sense? For The Trove of the Passion Room, I chose three songs for Maxim and Sharlamagne…I Remember You for certain scenes, as well as I Can Dream, Can’t I. During the most romantic/passionate scenes, I listened to a song entitled Insatiable…but on a low volume because some of the lyrics are…um…well, the push the envelope if you know what I mean. There are other songs on that “soundtrack,” too…All the Cats Join in by Benny Goodman, Casper’s Lullaby from the movie Casper, and The Gypsy by the Ink Spots. The Look of Love by Diana Krall was Jagger and Tabby’s theme in A Better Reason to Fall in Love, The Lights of Albuquerque was one I listened to while writing The Time of Aspen Falls, and for hottie with a naughty body Sir Broderick Dougray (i.e. A Crimson Frost) I had a playlist packed with selections from Brian Crain! FABULOUS soundtrack! (Obviously, since he’s one of the people I dedicated the book to!) Let’s see…to give you more info than you want or need…I’m Yours by The Script was Jesse and Cozy’s kissing theme and Hey There, Li’l Red Riding Hood by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs was Jesse’s ‘flirting/prowling’ song for me! Ha ha! I’m so weird!

Heather also asked how I think up my dreamy men. Well, I hope it doesn’t disappoint anyway, but I draw from real life…my husband, sons, uncles, grandfather, my dad (I get a lot of smart aleck one-liners from my dad…though I have to change some of the…um…colorful metaphors here and there) and other wonderful husbands, fathers, boyfriends…good men I’ve known who are truly admirable, etc. But admittedly…Kevin is my main inspiration. So so so many of the romantic one-liners in my books, the humor, the flirtations and physical attributes of every hero come from a base of Kevin-ness. It’s true! It may seem corny, and you may wonder if I’ll ever run out of inspiration because Kevin is only one man…but I promise…the inspiration he gives me is boundless!

Now as far as “movies or shows” that influence me…well we cannot overlook her majesty, Jane Austen! Or the Queen of Gothic Romance, Victoria Holt as far as authors and books-to-movies go. I’m sure that Jane Austen BBC movies, etc. inspire me…more along the lines of just helping be to see the life-styles etc. I like period pieces like that…westerns, etc. They do assist me in capturing a ‘feeling’ of the era I’m writing in. Even Anne of Green Gables and the spin off series Road to Avonlea have helped me to write some visual descriptions such as cloths, buildings, etc.

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