In Search of Names

I’m in the process of writing Truth Awakens, the third book in my Owl Wrangler trilogy and I would like to tap your imagination. I have created a new teenage character that appears in Chapter 1 and she and her parents need names. Of course, I have already chosen place-holder names but I think it would be fun if my readers got to choose the names for these new characters.

Based on a few requests for more details, I have included a short description of the character's predicament to set the scene. In Truth Awakens, we open the story at the simple camp of a clan of itinerant Seldith elves. Traditionally, the Seldith despise and shun any faeries that they encounter; treating them like insects and often attacking them on sight. Feesa, her older sister and her parents, are faeries, but they have hidden their wings and not long ago were able to blend in with a Seldith clan. So far, they’ve live quietly, pretending to be elves. After all, they look like elves (except for their dragonfly-like wings), so they’ve been able to pull this off—until now. A few days ago, Feesa’s 16-year-old sister was attacked and brutally killed. Feesa, only about 14, witnessed the attack. She hasn’t been able to tell anyone what happened—wanting to spare her parents and afraid of revealing their identity. Her sister was as close to Feesa as anyone could be. They shared their happy times, their worries and their aspirations. But Feesa’s sister was restless. She enjoyed being a faerie—especially flying, and looked forward to accepting the crown of Queen of the Faeries one day. Feesa knew that she felt trapped among the Seldith—and so did Feesa. Both Feesa and her sister hated having to put up with the jokes and bigotry about faeries, and having to laugh along with the rest. While Feesa wasn’t sure how it happened, somehow her sister’s real identity had been discovered and she paid for it with her life. She has spent every day and night since then unable to forget and blaming herself for what happened. But Feesa’s and her parent’s troubles had just begun.

I need names for Feesa’s parents and her sister. Can you suggest some? 

When I develop names, I often go to Google Translate and translate English words and phrases into Dutch, Flemish, German, Spanish or other languages that (more or less) share our alphabet. These give me ideas about how to come up with unique but meaningful character names.

I will be posting the suggestions to my website and to Facebook where I will permit anyone to vote on them. If your students would care to participate, just let me know. It would be best if they provided names with a short description of what the name means to them.

Bill

Discounts When They’re Not

I just had a long talk with an exceedingly helpful person at CreateSpace. They’re the arm of Amazon that prints my books. I spoke to another helpful person at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association (PNWA) conference last week, who suggested I email my questions to her and she would get them answered ASAP—I sent the mail on Monday. This is Wednesday. That’s pretty fast turnaround for a large company. Well done.

So, their answers to my questions will bore you for the most part, but a few might enlighten others who deal with CreateSpace or buy my print books.

1) The discount codes that I’ve been passing around to everyone who shows even a passing interest in my book (like the poor guy trapped in the elevator with me the other day) aren’t of much use. It seems they only work if you buy from the CreateSpace site directly. This means if you go to Amazon to buy my book (in print), you can’t use the code. It also means that Kindle purchases won’t accept the code. Sigh. The kind lady on the phone did indicate that this is a common concern for authors/publishers and might be addressed in the future. So if you want to use the discount code, you’ll have to click on the link shown above. Sorry. De’ms da rules.

2) The pricing for my book with color illustrations is far too high at $62.68. Apparently, because I asked for “Expanded Distribution” (which includes bookstores and libraries), the price jumps considerably due to the increased cost of distribution. As it is, I get no (as in zero) royalties at this level. I expect that will have to change now that I understand that the retail price is out of my control. And no, I don’t expect to sell many at this price—not even to my mother-in-law in Leavenworth, Kansas. Perhaps I should buy these in bulk and sell them myself. After all, that’s how I got started back in the early ‘90s with Hitchhiker’s Guide to VBSQL.

All in all, I was very pleased with the extra effort taken by the CreateSpace team. They seem to be very open to suggestions to make my and my reader’s experience better. 

Who is William Vaughn?

I’m not a new author—far from it. I’ve written over a dozen books and contributed chapters to a handful of others. I’ve written more magazine and Internet articles than Justin Bieber’s hair stylists, and I’m not counting the documentation I pumped out for Microsoft. Except for my two novels, these were all ‘technical fiction’. You know, books written about Microsoft software for developers. One has to be pretty imaginative to write an easy-to-read book on the data access interfaces SQL Server and still keep the reader awake.

Apparently, none of this experience helps get one recognized as a competent writer in the young adult world. That’s understandable—very few teens read Hitchhiker’s Guide to Visual Studio and SQL Server (7th Edition), and they wouldn’t get the jokes anyway. That’s fine. I know how to restart my career on a new path. I’ve had to do it many, many times over the last forty years. Anyone who’s worked in the personal computer industry also knows how to file for unemployment.

So I had an idea for a novel that would to weave a story about our turbulent times. And, of course, I wanted to wade into taboo topics of politics, religion and bigotry.  I saw (and still see) political corruption, corporations buying their own laws and media spigots dumping their propaganda on the naive public. I saw many social problems ignored or glossed over by the popular books impressionable teens were reading. I was convinced that our future leaders needed another 1984, Animal Farm or Alice In Wonderland. Ambitious? Of course. I expect that Don Quixote and I are cut from the same cloth.

I spent about three years and a bunch of money on classes, books, editors and illustrators to create The Owl Wrangler. On the surface, it’s a young adult story about tiny forest elves no taller than a pinecone. The Seldith live in the forests around the Northwest, perhaps behind that blackberry bush behind your fence line. They have parents, teachers and village elders that expect and demand quite a bit from them. Seldith teens are faced with most of the same hormonal and social pressures that my own kids faced when they were in their teens. But these elven teens are special. Many of them have fledgling magical powers that they’re just learning to wield. Check out http://theowlwrangler.com for a précis.

I published The Owl Wrangler April 1, 2011 on Kindle, Nook (1 sale) and through CreateSpace. 90% of the print copies were sold by hand to people that came to my book signings and through consignment placements. These have sold very well, but only in the local area. I’m a good salesman.  

The result? Despite tepid sales, the book got 99% 5-star reviews—but too few of them. I thought it was time to start marketing in earnest. While I found a publisher that was “very interested”, communicating with them is like standing in the back of a busy bar trying to get a drink on a Friday night. I’m still looking for a sincerely interested publisher. Sure, I’ve been racking up rejection letters, but my ego can only take so much rejection. I’m not as frail as George McFly; no experienced author is, but given the state of the publishing industry, does it make sense to keep prodding publishers that only want best sellers? One of the blog articles that clog up my browser like malware pop-ups, suggested that the only key to success for a new author was to write—and keep writing. So I did.

The story continued with Guardians of the Sacred Seven. This took another fifteen months, more classes, editors, copyeditors, conference fees and thousands of hours on Facebook, Twitter and countless blogs and reading similar fantasies. July 1st (2012), volume two of The Owl Wrangler trilogy was done. I’m happy with it. Taking my own advice, I started writing the third immediately. Frankly, the characters are calling me now to come back and listen to their stories.

Sure, I keep getting the occasional request to consult on SQL Server or Reporting Services projects, but I’m having too much fun listening to the Seldith tell me their stories.

Follow me on @vaughnwilliam or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/OwlWrangler.

A Revised Website

I spent the day (between writing sprints) revising my book’s website. I created a new header, incorporating the Ink’s Eyes cover. Take a look and let me know what you think. Look for http://theowlwrangler.com.