Here's a fun fact for those of you who have read, or are interested in reading Moonlit Shadows TAKEN--naming characters is not always easy. Sure it's easy coming up with names that fit the personalities of your characters. That part of naming is actually fun--well, for me it is anyway. But just because you want to give your beloved character that particular name, it doesn't mean it's the right name for him/her.

For instance, Billy's tough, mouthy older brother, Mike, was originally named Jeff Holden, Steve was originally named Jake Klein, and Rick Holden was originally named John. I was happy with those names because they had fit the personalities of each of the characters as individuals. But when my editor showed me the names of the characters in the story as a group, like Jason, Jeff, John and Jake, that would've been too many names that start with J, which can be very confusing for all of you reading the story, especially in the beginning when you are still trying to get to know each character. It wasn't easy renaming them, but I like what I came up with.

I also had trouble naming the female characters in the story. Not at first, but as with the males, when the females were clumped together in a group, there were too many similarities in their names, which again, would be confusing. Sally, Sami, Amy, and Abby, ugh, what's wrong with me? (haha). How did I fix this? Apparently with my favorite letter to name a character with--a J, (haha). Amy became Jessica and Sally became deputy Brenda Cruz.

Would I change their names back to their original names if I could? No, I like who they've become. Actually, I like them even better now. I hope you like them too!