ALTER EGO

Though I love all my novel protagonists the same, I do have favorites. Among the boys, this is Jaden Hartright, the protagonist in my Mermaid Mirror novel. Jaden is Eliza's super sexy, super good looking but long-suffering boyfriend. Sometimes I found Eliza so annoying that I thought, "if I were Jaden I would just dump her".

I am writing this post tonight though to say how I got my boy's name. I always think carefully before I name my characters. Most authors are likethat - just look at Ellis Peters's account for how she got to name Brother Cadfael, her monk detective hero.

For Jaden, I first looked at US most popular names for boys. I picked Jaden from the list (it's in the top 10) because I think it's just lovely, plus it reminded me of the Native American boy name Jaybird - the name of the Native American protagonist in the novel Witch Child, who is one of my very favorite characters ever. As for the surname, it's from the Victorian novel The Woman in White. "Hartright" also refers to the essence of my protagonist, because his heart is in the right place, he has a good, strong and open heart.

Jaden is a gentleman; he is both the son I would like to have, and my ideal man. He is also like a male alter ego for me. I just love to write about him 😀

Thus, I wrote a sequel/ prequel to Mermaid Mirror. And I will write more books. The story is far from finished!
Xxx
P.S. The post originally appears in The Romance Diaries, my author page in FB!
#books #writing #EllisPeters #WitchChild #NativeAmerican #boynames#CeliaRees #TheWomaninWhite