The Fairn Boys' Motorcycles

Wynter's brothers each ride a different motorcycle. I know nothing about motorcycles, except what it feels like to ride on the back of Caleb's bike because my husband owned it, back in Arizona.

Caleb's bike is the 1985 Honda V65 Magna. It was manufactured for a few years during the mid 80s, and as the first power cruiser it really was called the "Beast", V4 engine, 1100cc, 116 horse power, with fast acceleration, low vibration, and high top speed. The bike below (1983 model) includes the "goofy" saddle bags that Caleb is so proud of. All photos from bikez.com. Click the images for more info.

Duet - Bits and Pieces

Now that book 7 Duet is up and running on Wattpad, here are some bits and pieces from the first few chapters. No spoilers here if you've read up to chapter 5.

These are two songs Rule212 plays at the Christmas party:

• Wham!'s Last Christmas (similar to this cover)
• A lively guitar-rock instrumental of We Wish You a Merry Christmas for the finale.

A Google Maps image of the house on which I based Dwayne Orion's ultra modern mansion on Lake Washington (note the Greek temple lap pool out the back):

Cover Reveal! Book 7 Duet

I've started posting Duet to Wattpad, and earlier I asked readers to vote on one of two covers (same model, different poses). This one won, so here is the finalized book 7 cover!

Wynter is now fully in the swing of playing live gigs around Seattle, and sometimes farther afield. She lives for that hour on stage, a bubble of music shared with her brothers while the audience clamors for more. Offstage, things aren't running quite as smootly.

I'm working on editing these chapters, uploading as I go, and also getting book 6 ready to publish as an ebook.

Naming Characters and a List of My Characters

Today I'm trawling baby naming sites to come with a new character name. I've accumulated quite a number of characters in my 10-book series, so any time I add in a new character (or decide to change an existing character's name) it becomes a bit of a drama to find something that isn't too similar to a name I've used before.

I keep a list of every named character, along with a brief description, if given (I tend not to over-describe them), and when they were first introduced. Currently the list has grown to over 300 names. Many of these are obviously minor characters or even off-hand references to people who never appear on-screen, but I've tried nevertheless to keep the names distinct.

When adding a new character, the first thing I do (unless I already have a name in mind) is work out the birth year and look up the most popular names for that year. There are many sites that give this information (using census data for the US). For example, here's babycenter's list for 2000, giving the top 200 girls' and boys' names. This is useful for walk-on characters when I don't want a particularly memorable name, or when the background of the character suggests the parents would've picked a popular or conventional name.

If the character has a non-Anglo background, there are plenty of lists giving name suggestions online. Other resources: