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?