What’s in a name? Contrary to what William Shakespeare wrote in Romeo & Juliet, a name can say a lot about you. Certain names have certain associations or ideas linked to them. A character’s name can excite, terrify, or bore a reader (can you imagine Harry Potter or Sherlock Holmes sounding interesting if their names were Roger Wilkes or Hugh Liddell? I can’t). There’s a reason why parents obsess so much over a baby’s name. They know that, one way or another, the name they give their baby will have an effect on it. And as the parents of our characters, we authors go through a lot of work to decide on names for our characters.

Occasionally though, we end up stuck for a name. We can’t think of one, no matter how hard we try. And if it’s an important character, we can’t proceed until they have a…

Modern Model of Osiris
Photo from 3drivers.com

heavens who cut
the Palermo basalt
I beseech you to
seed me with strength
to wrest from Osiris
the atef and crook
rebuffing his escort
beneath dead hot sands
I would eat my own wheat
let it sprout from my flesh
without need of the Nile
or collusion with Set

I have heart and beard
finer than gods standing
pharaoh’s chief pantheon
given strong muscle and bone
I would shadow the sphinx
direct maat with high honor
fly farther than Horus
to organize omens of sky
so that future reveals
Amun-Ra in the form
of my incarnate mind

My Tumblr followers (now 1700 and counting!) have inspired me to start a writing forum that has a less tense atmosphere than some of them do. It is still a platform for writers helping other writers–and me trying to play a large role in helping writers–but I do not want tension in this forum. I want it to be a friendly place to be for writers to feel comfortable asking questions and posting things for critique. There are no stupid questions in my forum.

It is called Writing the Stars, and I hope many of you who read this post will consider joining it. Membership growth is slow, but I am hoping it will pick up the more people join. Here is a screenshot to give you an idea of what this forum looks like. There are far more boards than what is presented. There are boards where you can…