I have a great post today!!!
Patricia is here to share with us some fun facts about choosing names for her characters.
I’ve always been curious about that. Is it a relative? Some name that just caught your attention? A loved one? Check out Patricia’s guest post and find out.
I also have an exciting excerpt so make sure to peek inside.
And don’t forget to enter the giveaway.
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Guest Post
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
When you meet someone for the first time, you exchange names; those names become a vital part of his or her identity, the way they’re viewed, and even how close you want to be with them. Though fictional characters are on paper, the same amount of care should go into naming them because they can attract or repel readers.
In The Tempest Murders, Irish Detective Ryan Kelly O’Clery was named after a distant relative who was greatly admired, Constable Rian Kelly. The Irish have always had a habit of naming their children after a family member or friend; I learned that firsthand with my own family, whose males seem to be entirely comprised of Johns, James and Williams.
So when I began the story with Rian Kelly in 1839 Ireland, I knew I would need a name to carry down through the generations. I combed through cemetery records of 19th century Irishmen, particularly near Dublin, which is where the main character originates. Rian later became Anglicized to Ryan, though in some parts of the Emerald Isle it is still pronounced as Ree-an.
Kelly is a common surname, but I didn’t want a character named Rian Kelly and another Ryan Kelly; I thought it would be too confusing. So I made Rian Kelly a great-uncle (five times removed) on his mother’s side, and gave Ryan the very Irish last name of O’Clery. Just the name conjures up the part of the world I tap into in The Tempest Murders.
When I choose a name, I give a lot of thought to whether I want the reader to be attracted or repelled. Uncommon names and very proper names hold a reader at arm’s length, where more common names or shorter nicknames will draw a reader in. When I introduced Ryan’s two precocious preschool nieces and his loving sister Claire, I gave him the nickname of “Re”, which instantly separates his no-nonsense, law enforcement persona from a gentler, more familiar family side.
Rian Kelly was madly in love with Caitlin O’Conor, a lover he lost to a serial killer at the height of a massive storm in 1839. Though she is introduced as Caitlin, she is always known as Cait, a shorter name that draws people in. And when Ryan O’Clery meets Cathleen Reilly, a television reporter who is covering the serial murders in 2011 North Carolina, he learns that she also is called Cait. The two women—one in Ryan’s dreams and one in reality—begin to fuse together when he realizes his dreams are actually the memories of his ancestor.
When he discovers the killer he hunts in North Carolina resembles the serial killer in Rian Kelly’s journal, he realizes history is poised to repeat itself. I chose the name Diallo Delport for the killer; Diallo because it is so similar to Diablo, which means “devil”. And Diallo means “bold” which definitely describes the killer. Both Diallo and Delport are African names, though the killer is an albino Caucasian. The choice of a name from a continent separate from Europe deepens the mystery of the two serial killers, nearly two hundred years apart.
Because Rian Kelly’s lover Cait O’Conor lost her life to the hands of a serial killer at the height of a storm, the question becomes: will history repeat itself as Hurricane Irene barrels toward the North Carolina coast with Rian’s namesake in its path and a modern-day Cait in another killer’s crosshairs?
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The Tempest Murders
by p.m. Terrell
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BLURB:
A provocative story of a love that spans centuries, of soul mates found, lost and reunited… and the lengths to which one man will go to change their destiny.
Irish Detective Ryan O’Clery is working a series of homicides in America when he discovers a journal written by an uncle, Constable Rian Kelly, five generations earlier. The journal detailed the same type of murders as the worst storm in Ireland’s history slammed into the island in 1839.
As Hurricane Irene barrels toward the North Carolina coastline, Ryan discovers even the killer’s description matches his cases exactly. And as he falls in love with television reporter Cathleen Reilly, he begins to wonder if she is the reincarnation of Caitlin O’Conor, Rian Kelly’s lover—the woman who was lost to the killer as the storm raged in Ireland—and if he is the reincarnation of Constable Rian Kelly.
Now he’s in a race to rescue Cathleen before the killer finds her—or is history destined to repeat itself?
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Excerpt
They were bites away from finishing their meal when the sky opened up. There might have been a warning, had he been by himself and able to observe his surroundings; but by the time he noticed the trees bending deeply and the gray clouds roiling, the rain had descended on them in a torrent. Within seconds, their food was floating.
A tiny shriek escaped Cathleen’s lips as she vainly tried to keep the rain off her head.
Ryan jumped up, grabbed her wrist and in one fluid movement, had her on her feet. They raced for the back door, managing to rush inside just as a wicked clap of thunder sounded, followed almost instantly by a white streak of lightning.
Once inside, he closed the door, plunging them both into relative silence. He turned around, an offer to get her a towel on his lips. But when he laid eyes on her, the words froze. She was completely drenched. Her hair was hanging in folds from which water streamed until it formed a puddle on the hardwood floor. Her thin blouse was plastered to her body and seemed to highlight the black lace bra beneath. It further accentuated a slender waist before giving way to jeans that she now appeared to have been poured into. Her feet were soaked and as he took in the petite toes peeking out, he found himself staring at the pink polish and a Celtic toe ring before his eyes moved back up her body.
By the time they reached her eyes, he felt as if he was on automatic pilot. His mind was completely blank, his emotions swept away. He stepped toward her at the exact moment he reached out and pulled her to him, the wet blouse teasing his chest. He didn’t look in her eyes but closed his as his lips locked onto hers.
They were everything he’d dreamed about; full and moist and soft. But she wasn’t kissing him.
He stopped and took a step backward, separating them. She stood perfectly still and stared at him with eyes that had grown round and huge. Her face had lost its color and as she continued staring at him, he realized she was in shock.
Horrified with his own boorish behavior, he stumbled over his words. “I am so sorry. I’ve never done anything like that in my life—”
She rushed at him and for the briefest of moments, he didn’t know if she planned to slap him or pummel him or push him to the side to rush out the door. He staggered backward to get out of her way but when she descended on him her arms encircled his neck, pulling his head down to hers. When their lips met again, hers were slightly open and she met his mouth with a passion he had only dreamed about but had never fully experienced.
Ryan’s arms wrapped around her; pulling her to him so tightly he had to contain himself to keep from bruising her. She tasted sweet and fresh, the raindrops mingling with perspiration and a fragrance that was both soothing and wild and which seemed to envelop them both in a sensual cocoon.
His large hand found her face, the palm cupping her chin while his fingers stroked her jaw. Her skin was as soft as silk and moist from the rain; and as her lips parted further to allow him in, he thought he could never get enough of her. As one hand wandered to her hair, weaving his fingers through the long tresses, a mingled scent of citrus and florals wafted upward, growing in intensity as he fondled her locks.
He pressed his body against her, tightening his hold on her as his other hand explored her back, kneading her skin through the thin, wet blouse. Her breath was coming in short shallow bursts now and he could feel her heart quickening as he pressed ever closer. When she sighed softly, he opened his eyes and when she moaned, he reluctantly drew back from her, his muscled chest rising and falling and yearning.
Her face was flushed, the heat rising in her cheeks in a way that tantalized him. Her plump lips remained slightly parted and as he gazed at them, he realized he might have bruised them despite his efforts to control his passion. As his eyes found hers, he discovered them staring at him in a way that disarmed him. The gold flecks he had seen earlier appeared to have grown and now they nearly glowed as she looked at him. They were tumultuous, the colors dancing under her long, curved black lashes. But it was the raw emotion in them that gripped his soul; he’d seen desire before and had witnessed passion but there was something more—something deeper. It was trust, he realized with a start. As if she was standing before him, naked to the soul and she was entrusting herself to his care.
In his peripheral vision, he could see her chest rising and falling with her jagged breath and each rise threatened to take him closer to the peak of desire.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
p.m.terrell is the pen name for Patricia McClelland Terrell, the award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than eighteen books in four genres: contemporary suspense, historical suspense, computer how-to and non-fiction.
Prior to writing full-time, she founded two computer companies in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area: McClelland Enterprises, Inc. and Continental Software Development Corporation. Among her clients were the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Secret Service, U.S. Information Agency, and Department of Defense. Her specialties were in white collar computer crimes and computer intelligence.
Vicki’s Key was a top five finalist in the 2012 International Book Awards and 2012 USA Book Awards nominee and her historical suspense, River Passage, was a 2010 Best Fiction and Drama Winner. It was determined to be so historically accurate that a copy of the book resides at the Nashville Government Metropolitan Archives in Nashville, Tennessee.
She is also the co-founder of The Book ‘Em Foundation, an organization committed to raising public awareness of the correlation between high crime rates and high illiteracy rates. She is the organizer of Book ‘Em North Carolina, an annual event held in Lumberton, North Carolina, to raise funds to increase literacy and reduce crime. For more information on this event and the literacy campaigns funded by it, visit www.bookemnc.org.
She sits on the boards of the Friends of the Robeson County Public Library and the Robeson County Arts Council. She has also served on the boards of Crime Stoppers and Crime Solvers and became the first female president of the Chesterfield County-Colonial Heights Crime Solvers in Virginia.
For more information visit the author’s website at www.pmterrell.com, follow her on Twitter at @pmterrell, her blog at www.pmterrell.blogspot.com, and on Facebook under author.p.m.terrell.
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p.m. will be awarding a Celtic bracelet (US only) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
Remember to comment! The more you comment, the more chances to win!
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