Drina: Defender of Mankind

Looks like it’ll be a rainy day here in Blossomland. Just before the kids got on the bus a black wall cloud rolled over us, and now it’s raining pretty hard. Doesn’t look like it’ll be severe, just dark, warm, windy and wet. My favorite kind of day. It will make it extra hard to concentrate, though, especially since I stayed up too late last night talking to my brother on the phone.

A couple more readers got back to me with notes on my synopsis, so that makes four, which is a good number to start my rewrite. The response has been mostly positive, but there are a few places that all four readers pegged, so that’s where I’ll start. I love how each reader brings his/her own personality to the critique–like, the mysterious M., language dude extraordinaire, told me the meanings of some of the names I’d chosen for my characters, and the meanings sort of fit the characters’ roles. To answer his question, the fit of the names is accidental–except for the name of the main character, Drina, which in Spanish is short for Alexandrina and means “defender of mankind,” I assume because of Alexander the Great. “Defender of Mankind” is a good title for Drina Ramirez.

I was right, it’s hard to concentrate. I think I’ll have to take my work in small sips today, and that work is: to continue where I left off editing yesterday; start rewriting the synopsis; housework; pay bills; other miscellaneous things I can fit in here and there. I have a feeling the housework will be the easiest of those tasks; I don’t have to think to load the dishwasher.

So here’s a question for you: Do you do anything special to pick names for your characters? Do the names come immediately, or do you have to study and research and pick just the right one?

Hear, hear!

Here’s an interesting tidbit for you. On my morning treadmill surfing, I had occasion to write, “hear, hear!” on another blog. I had a moment of doubt about the spelling. It could have been here instead of hear. Have never been sure. I’ve always thought the phrase meant, “I hear ya, dude!” But I thought it could have meant “Over here is someone who agrees!” So today I finally looked it up, and here is what I found:

hear Look up hear at Dictionary.com
O.E. heran (Anglian), (ge)hieran, hyran (W.Saxon), from P.Gmc. *khauzjianan (cf. O.N. hegra, O.Fris. hora, Du. horen, Ger. hören, Goth. hausjan), perhaps from PIE base *(s)keu– “to notice, observe.” Spelling difference between hear and here developed 1200–1550. Hearing “listening to evidence in a court of law” is from 1576; hearsay is 1532 from phrase to hear say. O.E. also had the excellent adj. hiersum “ready to hear, obedient,” lit. “hear-some” with suffix from handsome, etc. Hear, hear! (1689) was originally imperative, used as an exclamation to call attention to a speaker’s words; now a general cheer of approval. Originally it was hear him!

And now my indent is messed up. But anyway, now you don’t have to look it up, you lazy bastards.