My 2022 Writing Goals

Hi all,

As promised - here are my writing goals for 2022!

Write four books.

By the end of the year I want to have written the first drafts for the following books:

Original Elementals #2: Maelstrom

Original Elementals #3: Shadowhunter

One of the standalone books that I have planned

Original Elementals #4: Devouring

Publish two books.

I want to publish Years in April and Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana in October.

Get three covers designed.

Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana and Celestial Plague #2: Heaven will have covers by the end of the year. These have been booked through my usual cover designer, Deranged Doctor Design. I also want to get a cover done for the Years reader magnet to match the Elemental Dragons Short Story Collection and Famished.

Self-edit all of the Celestial Plague series.

I want all of the books in the trilogy to be self-edited by the end of the year. They will then go to my editor before coming back to me for the final edit. I'm planning on getting the first two edited by my editor this year and the third one in early 2023.

Write the Years reader magnet.

I've attempted to do this so many times before but found that none of my ideas were working well. I've scrapped this reader magnet so many times and I would like to get it done by about February.

Make two reader magnets available to my newsletter subscribers.

The Years reader magnet will be available first and then Celestial Plague: Seashine. Both of these will be free to download for my newsletter subscribers, as well as my other two reader magnets.

Submit more short stories.

Although I wrote a lot more short stories this year, I only submitted three of them. I would like to submit more to anthologies to expand my publishing portfolio.

The image that will be used for the Years book poster - illustration by chlmerrahh on Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/chimerahh?source=order_page_user_message_inner_link

Read 100 books.

I read 200 last year so I think 100 will be doable. I've got loads of books currently sitting around waiting to be read, so I don't think I'll struggle for reading material!

Grow my mailing list.

I would like to have at least 500 subscribers by the end of 2022. I'm already doing plenty of newsletter swaps and group promotions on StoryOrigin, and would like to grow this further.

Focus on Amazon ads more.

I've really struggled with this in the past as my automatic ads never seem to spit out many targets for me. I'd like to give this another try in 2022, especially since I have more books in my backlist now.

Get my books into more libraries.

My books are currently in a few libraries and I would like to get them into more. I would like to send out emails to libraries that are willing to stock indie books and see if they will take any copies of mine.

Make all of my books available in hardcover.

Now that Amazon are giving authors the choice to publish a hardcover book, I'm making sure that all of my future books will be in hardcover! It's my favourite kind of book, and they look gorgeous on my shelves.

Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo.

I like participating in these events as I like seeing my word count go up each day. I'll be participating in all three of these events this year!

I think that's everything that I have planned for 2022! Mentally I'm doing much better than I was last year, so I hope some of these goals will be more achievable! What are your plans for 2022? Let me know in the comments. See you next week!

PS; looking for some new books to start off the New Year? Check out the ones in these bundles:

New Year, New Monsters 2: From the Ashes

New Year, New Worlds SF/F Giveaway

2021 Year in Review

Hi all,

As with last year, I’m going to give you the run down of 2021! Some goals I hit, while others I didn’t get anywhere near. My mental health has suffered a lot this past year and I’m hoping that 2022 will be better for me.

Write three books.

If I manage to finish Street Rats by the end of the year, I would have written five! The ones that I have written are:

Curse of Anubis #2: Limbo.

Curse of Anubis #3: Middle.

Curse of Anubis #4: Dual.

Street Rats.

Original Elementals #1: Frostbite.

Plan nine more Elemental Dragons books.

I’ve managed to plot out all of the books in the series, and I’ve written the first book! In a few weeks time I will start writing Elemental Dragons #2: Marine and I’m hoping to get it finished before April 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo.

Publish two books.

As promised, Elemental Dragons #4: Cinder and Fire was published in April and Mute was published in October.

Create and publish the Elemental Dragons boxset.

This was published in July, and I didn’t realise how tricky it was going to be! Combining four books into one took a lot of work and formatting to make sure everything was in the right place.

Get two covers designed.

Both Mute and Years got their covers designed. The cover for Years will be revealed in a few weeks. I also got a cover designed for Mute’s prequel, Famished.

Edit three books.

I only edited one book, Years. As I said before my mental health has been pretty low, especially towards the end of the year. And getting Years back from my editor took several blows out of my self-esteem, to the point where I still haven’t gone back through all of the edits now. It will be ready by April, but for a few weeks I wondered if continuing to publish books was the right thing.

Hire a sensitivity reader.

As I have only just started editing Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana myself, I haven’t had the chance to look through sensitivity readers. I’m hoping to get this done next year.

Write more short stories.

I have written a lot more short stories this year, one of which has been accepted into an anthology! This should be released next year, and I’ll keep you posted.

Write Curse of Anubis short story/novella.

I tried writing a few ideas I had but none of them seemed right so I’ve scrapped them. For now I’m focusing on the reader magnet for Years.

Read 30 books.

I’m not entirely sure how I did it, but I read 200 books! Due to the way I was feeling I dove into books to escape a lot more than I have in previous years. Hopefully I can continue to read more next year!

Participate in both Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo.

I joined both the April and July Camp NaNoWriMos and NaNoWriMo. I managed to get the first drafts finished for:

Curse of Anubis #3: Middle.

Curse of Anubis #4: Dual.

Original Elementals #1: Frostbite.

That’s it for this week! Next week I’ll talk about my goals for 2022! See you then.

PS; looking for some new books to read in the new year? Check out the ones in these bundles:

New Year, New Monsters 2: From the Ashes

New Year, New Worlds SF/F Giveaway

How I Named the Dragon Characters in Original Elementals

Hi all,

This will be my last blog post of 2021 before my 'year in review' post! Last year I talked about gifts for writers, but I thought I would do something different this time. I made a post in the past about naming the dragon characters in Elemental Dragons. So, I'm doing the same for the main dragon characters in Original Elementals! Without further ado, let's get started!

Frostbite.

Frostbite's name was revealed in my 2020 Christmas calendar on the final day. I wanted to give her a name that was similar to that of her companion, Frost. At the time, Frostfall was the one I wanted to go for, but I thought that sounded too much like a Warrior Cats name than a dragon name. So I went with Frostbite instead.

Maelstrom.

Maelstrom was a bit harder to come up with than the others, just because there are several names that could fit her. Whirlpool was one, along with Reef. Eventually I settled on Maelstrom after reading an article about severe whirlpools in the ocean. I thought it fit her personality.

Shadowhunter.

This name came to me pretty easily. I didn't just want the dragon to be called Shadow as that seems like such a generic name, especially for a Dark Elemental. My boyfriend and I were discussing how Mishka likes to hunt down spiders in our flat and the name clicked!

Devouring.

This name was a really fun one to come up with. In the books, Devouring is a bouncy, excitable dragon who constantly gets under everyone's feet and just wants to play. I wanted to give them a tough name that completely contradicts their personality. This is also a sore point for their companion, Benjamin, who wants them to live up to their name rather than play with everything they come across.

Tempest.

Tempest had several names before I decided on hers. Hurricane, Storm and Sirocco to name a few. But I couldn't find one that fit her until I Googled 'names for wind' and came across it. Even after looking through a bunch of words associated with wind, I couldn't get Tempest out of my head.

Sunrise.

I picked this one as it fit the element of light perfectly. The sun rises and spreads light to the land. While I did think of Sunset, I thought that it would fit better for a Dark Elemental than a Light one.

Stormburst.

While I was looking for names for Tempest I thought of Stormburst. I thought it would suit an electric dragon better so I gave it to Logan's companion, Stormburst.

Turf.

This one was actually the easiest and one of the first I came up with! Other words that I Googled associated with Earth didn't seem to fit so I struck with Turf, it's simple and easy to remember.

Arcturus.

For Stellar's companion, I wanted to give them a star name. I looked up a lot of names until I came across Arcturus; and I knew that it would fit the powerful dragon that I wanted to write about. This one probably took the longest to come across, just because I was looking through so many stars to find the perfect name!

That's it for this week! I hope to see you next when I discuss my year in review. See you next week!

PS; looking for something to read before Christmas? Check out the books in this bundle, all free to download with Kindle Unlimited!

Magical Winter - Fantasy in Kindle Unlimited

My Favourite Author Resources

Hi all!

This week I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite resources for writing, marketing and publishing books. I've used all of the below and they've all worked out really well for me! Some are free, while others have subscription plans or a fee for lifetime access. You can click on each of the names to be taken to their website, so be sure to check them out!

Reedsy BookEditor.

I use this tool to format all of my books. I find their tool clean, easy to use and it formats the book beautifully. They have templates for the front and back matter for copyright, dedications and about pages. It's completely free to use and I was so ecstatic to find it after hearing about how hard formatting can be. All my books and reader magnets have been formatted through Reedsy, so if you want to have a look at the end result just take a look at my books!

Book Brush.

I use Book Brush to design Facebook ads and graphics for Twitter. My favourite use for them however is making advent calendar facts! Once I found a template I liked it was super easy for me to just use that template and change the text and graphics. They have loads of images to choose from and plenty of book templates. I especially like their cover reveal templates, which I really want to use in the future. Another thing I want to try out is their Amazon A+ templates, as I would like to add them to my book pages!

StoryOrigin.

The thought of swapping newsletters with other authors terrified me before I signed up with StoryOrigin. I signed up while it was still free and had no hesitation in paying for it. I find it invaluable to swap with other authors and join promotions. My mailing list has grown a lot and I've found new fans of my work. I also really like creating promotions, and creating the headers using Book Brush. It's easy to use and you don't have to contact other authors directly if you don't want to. You can also see how many clicks authors get from each campaign they do, so you can reject anyone if they are joining campaigns and swaps without holding up their end of the bargain.

A header I made in Book Brush for a future promotion on Story Origin

Infostack.

I purchased Write Publish Profit 3.0 in June and absolutely love it. Everything they use in their deals has a massive discount. From courses, to books, to writing tools and marketing opportunities. I've only used half of the stuff that was in the deal, and I've found it all great! I found out about it through a Facebook group and quickly snapped it up. Their deals are only available for a limited time, so if you want it you need to get it quick!

AppSumo.

This is another website where you can pick up courses, ebooks or apps for a reduced price. I've bought quite a few of their deals and I'm really impressed with them. The first one I bought was the Depositphotos deal, 100 credits to download 100 photos that will not run out. So I bought another one when that deal popped up again! I'd recommend them if there are any apps or plug-ins you want added to your website or just to keep track of various things.

Depositphotos.

I've currently got 168 images left to download from my AppSumo deals and I love it! They have a wide variety of photos, vectors and illustrations for various subjects. If I'm ever struggling to find photos for a book cover, this will be the first place that I'll look.

Author Shout.

Not only did I enter Blood and Water in their Reader Ready Awards in 2020, but I participate in Cover Wars will all of my books if I can. Entering Cover Wars is completely free and it's free advertising. None of my books have won unfortunately, though I'm hoping one will one day!

That's it for this week! I hope you found this blog post helpful and will check out some of the great resources above. See you next week!

PS; looking for something new to read this week? Check out the books in this bundle:

Magical Winter - Fantasy in Kindle Unlimited

The Warriors Short Story Competition

Hi all!

If you're not a fan of the Warriors, or Warriors Cats, series, you may not have any idea of what I'm going to talk about today. Warriors is a book series written by Erin Hunter, a penname for multiple authors. The Warriors series focuses on groups of cats, called Clans, that live around a forest and later on a lake. There are hundreds of characters from the series and the authors have written 60+ books. If you haven't seen my other blog posts on Warriors, you can check them out here and here.

The latest Warriors book to be published

So, when it was announced that Warriors would be holding their first ever short story collection, I could feel the younger version of me getting excited. Despite all of the fanfiction that has been written on the series, the website has never held a competition for all the authors out there. This competition has been split to under 13s and over 13s. 500 words have to be written, following on from the prompt that they have provided.

Although I wish they would have given us a higher word count and more freedom to write what we wanted, I still think it's an interesting prompt. We are introduced to a few cats from ThunderClan and also given a few hints as to what we can write about. I have decided that I will continue to write from Brightpaw's perspective, and pick the story up from when they leave camp. I'm not sure about what characters to include yet, as the word count is so low that you can't introduce that many. But I do have an idea of where I want the story to go.

Some tips for if you do want to enter:

Don’t include too many characters - you’ll run out of words more quickly.

Don’t focus too much on description - you don’t have enough words.

You don’t need to follow the prompt to the letter - if you want Brightpaw to head to RiverClan or twolegplace, go with that instead! Don’t feel pressured to make her interact with her siblings or Swiftpaw.

StarClan does not need to appear - you can just write an ordinary day if you want to.

Want to switch POV? - Don’t be afraid to do this if you don’t want to write about Brightpaw or ThunderClan.

Foreshadow if you want to - You can foreshadow any future event you want.

If this competition is successful, I hope they do more. Perhaps they could give us the freedom to write about any events from the books, or even for people to use their own characters. I'm hoping that they will expand on this in the future, as it could lead to some amazing stories from fans. I would also love to write more about my original character, Russetheart, as it's been years since I've revisited her story.

The competition entry page

I still read every Warriors book that comes out now, and I can't wait to start writing my entry. The deadline is the 10th December, so I'm hoping to finish NaNoWriMo and then start working on my entry. Perhaps after the winners have been announced I'll share what I wrote about in a separate blog post!

If you're a fan of the series and want to enter, I'd advise you do it. After all, you haven't got anything to lose! If you want to check it out, you can here: Competition Page.

And the entry page is here, with the prompt and rules: Prompt and Rules.

Good luck to anyone who enters!

That's it for this week, see you next week!

The Machines in Years

Hi all,

With Years coming out in April I thought I would discuss the world of the book. This book is set thousands of years in the future, where humans have almost completely destroyed the Earth with climate change. The humans that are left have built machines that can keep the Earth alive for a period of time. These are named after various Earth goddesses in different cultures. There are children who have been genetically altered to be born with the Gaia Gene, which keeps them alive and unable to age if they are put into one of the Machines. Many or few Gaia children can be born in each machine cycle, so the government keeps tabs on every one that is born. The government uses Gaia children to extend the Earth's lifespan instead of changing their polluting ways. Companies and people can continue to live comfortably, without having to change their lifestyle to save the Earth. No interruptions of comfort to them, and they don't have to take responsibility for their own actions. Now, onto the Machines themselves:

Sif Machine.

The first machine to be built, and revolutionary for its time. It was built at a time where the Earth was near collapse, and society saw this machine as their saviour. However, when a Gaia child was placed in this machine, they would die immediately and only heal the Earth for a few days at a time. They were getting through Gaia children faster than they could be born, so they started building another machine.

Pachamama Machine.

This machine was built alongside Sif's, but once scientists started seeing how Sif was getting through Gaia children, they modified Pachamama. The last Gaia child to be born that cycle was put into the machine. And, to everyone's relief, powered the machine for 386 days. The Gaia child died towards the end of the machine cycle, but their sacrifice gave scientists more time to genetically alter children for the machine. With technology starting to advance once more, the next machine was commissioned.

Terra Machine.

Terra was built using parts from Pachamama. The government took a risk in taking one machine offline to be used for another. This one was twice the size of Pachamama and Sif, and was more technologically advanced. The first time a Gaia child went inside however, they immediately died without giving life to the Earth. This happened a few more times before the scientists sorted the glitch out. The next Gaia child to go inside after it was fixed replenished the Earth for eighteen years. And, when the doors opened, they stepped out alive and barely aged a day. This is when the government came up with the idea of putting the same person in the machine over and over, which reduces the amount of lives ruined by the machine. By now the public had started referring to Gaia children as 'sacrifices' and harassed them whenever they left the machine. With the Gaia child out of the machine, the Earth would slowly start to die once more. People hated the fact that their lives would be inconvenienced every time a Gaia child was given a few days respite.

Privthi Machine.

The last machine to be built before Gaia. This machine was the one that changed everyone's lives. It could hold a Gaia child for fifty years before needing repairs. Fifty years of the Earth being replenished with lush green forests, clean water and little to no natural disasters. Each fifty year cycle was bliss for those who didn't have to go in it. The Gaia child however, never came out the same way they went in. Hallucinations and paranoia became rife, and they never felt like they could rest. So, the government decided to extend their stay in the outside world from a few days to a year with each cycle. Still, it did not improve their mental state much. This machine was burned by vandals in between a fifty-year cycle. Luckily, the Gaia machine was half-built.

Gaia Machine.

The machine that is currently in use in Years. It has been made using parts from Sif and what could be recovered from Prithvi. Gaia has been in use for four centuries. However, it has started to fail. Despite a Gaia child giving years of their life to the Earth, it's no longer enough. Natural disasters occur during each cycle and the ozone is developing holes. The Earth is dying once more, no matter how many Gaia children give their lives to it. So, it's successor is being made, and everyone hopes that it will save them indefinitely without any changes on their part.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week!

My Favourite Horror Tropes

Hi all!

As it's Halloween today I thought I'd write a horror related blog post! I read and watch a lot of horror, so I thought it would be fun to share some of my favourite horror media tropes.

Ancient Tombs/Pyramids

I love horror that is set in a cramped space such as a tomb. In most cases the villain are undead or angry gods. I love seeing characters try to escape while trapped in such a small area and get picked off one by one. My favourite film with this trope is The Pyramid.

Events After an Apocalypse.

Seeing the world get destroyed by deadly viruses or nuclear weapons never gets old in my eyes. You get to see the characters adjust to their new world and the threats around them. I especially like the virus trope, as other characters see their loved ones deteriorate and develop symptoms.

Creatures That Can't Move.

The way that I've seen this done best is the Weeping Angels in Doctor Who. The monster can't move while it's being watched, but then it's up to the characters to continually keep their eyes on it. At some point, they eventually look away.

I don’t think Rocky would be much help in a horror film…

Cat Scares.

In films, you think there's going to be a massive jump scare but instead it's just a cat. If you've read my other blog posts you'll know why I like this one!

Long Limbs.

I don't know why disproportionally long arms freak me out so much. It always send a shiver down my spine. It's why I used a wendigo in Mute, as they can be known to grow larger the older they are.

Research Labs.

A group of people are working away on an experimental government project in a lab and it escapes! It then hunts everyone down one by one until it either escapes or is killed in a dramatic fashion. The experiment usually has only one weakness, which the characters take ages to figure out. I love this one as you never know exactly when the monster is going to pop up.

Aliens.

An alien creature is accidentally brought onto a ship and wreaks havoc while killing everyone. The Alien franchise is great for this, especially in the second film when there was hundreds of Xenomorphs!

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week!

PS; looking for some last minute horror books? Check out the ones in these bundles!

October Tricks and Treats

Halloween Frights

The Pros and Cons of Authors Using Patreon

Hi all,

On Twitter I asked people to vote on what I should blog about next. So, I'm going to be writing about the pros and cons of authors using Patreon!

If you don't know what Patreon is, it's a subscription based platform. The creator posts content specifically for Patreon that can't be found anywhere else. People then subscribe by picking a membership level to see that content and become Patrons. I've heard of a few authors using it before, and have even checked out their Patreon accounts. A lot of them post:

Writing excerpts.

Chapters from a novel.

Polls.

Character profiles.

Book Trivia.

Merchandise.

So, without further ado, let's talk about the pros and cons!

Pros.

It's another way to connect with readers.

Those that subscribe to your Patreon have done it because they want more content from you. They want to see behind the scenes stuff, or help you decide which book to write next. You can see which content of yours does well, and then you know that's what your readers want to see.

Another revenue stream.

A Patron signs up for a monthly subscription, so even if you're only charging £1 a month, that's £12 per person every year! This won't help you pay for cover designs or editing costs, but you can use this money for marketing or advertising.

You get feedback.

If you post a chapter of a story you're working on, you can get feedback from your Patrons. They can tell you what they like, and what parts they want to see more of.

You can post entire books.

Say you want to post a self-edited chapter of a book you're working on once a week. Your Patrons will love that, as they get exclusive content until you decide to publish that book. Even after you've had a cover designed and got it professionally edited, your Patrons may want a physical copy too!

Cons.

It's another thing to manage.

On top of writing, editing, publishing and marketing this will be another thing that you will need to keep up with. Even if you have other social media, you can't neglect one to benefit the others. If Patrons are paying monthly, they will want new content on a regular basis.

Revenue is small.

The money you get from Patreon won't pay your rent or bills. It's just a small revenue stream that you can put into something small. Yes, you can charge Patrons more, but then they can always cancel their subscription. Patreon also get a small cut of whatever you earn as well.

You have to post regularly.

You can't just post once a month and be done until the next month. Your Patrons want regular content, and if you don't give it to them they will leave,

You may feel like you're talking to yourself sometimes.

Readers might not reply to your writing, or polls. So, some of the posts you make on there may feel like you're just screaming into the void. There will be posts that get no feedback as well.

It's not a crowdfunding platform.

You will not be able to crowdfund in order to publish a book. The fee that your Patron pays monthly is all you will get. Don't try to squeeze them for more.

I have considered creating a Patreon, though I'm not sure whether I'll do it or not. I'm not sure if at this stage of my author career if I have enough time to actually put into it.

That's it for this week, next week I have a special announcement to make, so keep an eye out! See you next week!

PS; looking for some new ebooks to download? Check out the ones in these bundles:

September Urban Fantasy Sale

Terrifying Adventures - Horror Giveaway

Why I Went to the Zoo to see the Big Cats

Hi all!

If you’ve been following my social media, then you’ve probably seen that I went to a zoo earlier this week. I was mostly interested in the big cats, though my boyfriend and I did see other animals as well.

At one point, we came across two housecats that were just wandering around the zoo. (My boyfriend was more excited to see them than any of the other animals…). I did remind him that we see a cat every day as we have Mishka, but he said that these cats were different. Thanks to Mishka and Rocky, I think I’ve almost maxed out my research on cats!

I wanted to see the big cats the most as I wanted to see the way they acted and moved, to make sure I had it right for all of the books that contain big cats. I’ve watched a lot of videos and studied pictures of them, but I wanted to know whether seeing them in person would be any different.

The cheetahs were sunbathing and rolling around, just chilling out. It reminded me of Mafdet, and how playful she is with Bastet and Sekhmet in Curse of Anubis. The way they swished their tails also reminded me of her!

We briefly saw a lion as well, who was also sunbathing before he got up to patrol the other side of his enclosure. I wasn’t aware of how often lions flick their ears to keep flies away, so I’m going to make sure that I add that into Curse of Anubis. I imagine Sekhmet to have a proud strut than a tired lumber that the lion had. I didn’t see any lionesses, just the one male lion. As Sekhmet and Mother Earth are both lionesses, I’m going to do some more research into them.

The tigers were out of sight so we didn’t see them unfortunately. I’m planning on writing a tiger into a LitRPG book I want to write, but that it is in the very earlier stages right now!

Once we’d seen almost all of the animals in the zoo, I couldn’t help myself at the giftshop. I got two little stuffed animals that look exactly like Sekhmet (maned lioness) and Mafdet!

I think I’ve managed to get a few pointers from the big cats on how to write them better. Although, it was quite sad to see them in enclosures than out in the wild. In the future I will just stick to videos and pictures, and try to gauge their mannerisms that way.

Currently, I have the following big cats in my books:

Panther - Celestial Plague series.

Lion - Years.

Lion, Cheetah, Leopard - Curse of Anubis.

Panther - Street Rats.

Tiger, Snow Leopard - unnamed LitRPG.

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! For my blog post next week, I’m letting you decide! You can head over to my Twitter to vote on what I should blog about next.

PS; looking for some new books to read? Check out the ones in these bundles!

September Urban Fantasy Sale

Terrifying Adventures - Horror Giveaway

How I Name My Characters

Hi all!

This week I'm going to blog about character names, and the different ways I come up with them. Some have more mundane origins than others, but I thought this would be fun to talk about!

Baby Name Websites.

The vast majority of character names, usually side characters, I will look on baby name websites for. This is usually for side or background characters. Such as Naomi from Elemental Dragons and Eularia from Street Rats. Although this can be quite boring, I will trawl through hundreds of names until I come across the name that I immediately associate the character with. Some I find completely by accident, thinking the character wouldn't suit that name, but then they do.

Letter-Based Names.

Sometimes I'll think that I want a name to begin with a specific letter, such as 'S' and I'll Google those names. From there I'll search through websites until I find a name that suits the character. This tends to be more for main characters and side characters. Examples include: Raya from Celestial Plague and Melia from Elemental Dragons. I've done this for my series books as I think it can get confusing to have loads of characters with names beginning with the same letter. It keeps a variety in my books and also helps readers identify the characters more quickly.

Sound-Based Names.

When I was writing Curse of Anubis, I wanted Darrus to have 'Russ' in his name. So I Googled names that contained the letters 'Russ' and searched through what came up until one fit. This is a less common way that I look for names, and so far I've only used it for Curse of Anubis. I'm not sure if I'll use this method too often in the future, though.

Names with a Special Meaning.

This one I've used more frequently as of late for main characters. I wanted a name meaning 'pure' so I searched that and found Tahira, for Curse of Anubis. Or Genesis in Damaged Goods, which means 'origin' or 'the beginning'. This one I use if I want the character's name to be a homage to their personality or their trials through the book.

Anadromes.

These ones I've only used for Parasitic Aliens so far, which are: Anne, Nola and Alli. The aliens in the books are called: Enna, Alon and Illa respectively. I did this because the characters in the books are the first ones to come into contact with these aliens, so they are named after them. I'm not sure if I will ever use this method again though, as there aren't many anadrome names out there, and I struggled to find ones to fit the characters.

Names I Come Across in Media.

Names like Hazel and Marco in Elemental Dragons I heard while watching films, and fell in love with them. A lot of the characters in Elemental Dragons were named this way, and the rest were Googled. I used this method a lot when I was younger, as I was more influenced by the films and books I liked at the time. I hardly ever do this now.

Characters Named After People I Know.

I have never done this, as I just don't think it's fair to people that I know. Only Normie, Rocky and Mishka have characters named after them, but I don't think they care too much as they're cats! I'd hate to name a characters after someone only for them not to like that character, or get offended that their name was used.

Names by Culture or Time Period.

In Damaged Goods, the first book is set in ancient Greece. So, I had to look up names that would suit that time period. Pyrrah, the main character, is the name I liked most for her. It means 'red' or 'flame-coloured'. In the future I want to write a series about Norse mythology, so I will be looking up names from the Viking Age to name the characters.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week!

PS; looking for some new books for your bookshelf? Check out the ones in these bundles:

September Urban Fantasy Sale

Terrifying Adventures - Horror Giveaway