An Author Needs A Name

I had two book titles.

Unfortunately, somebody had to write them.

So today I went looking for her.

Names matter to me.

Which is interesting coming from someone named Kristin Nicole who has been called Nikki since birth because my mother was watching The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful and liked the names Kristin, Nicole, and Nikki.

That's it. That's the origin story.

My siblings got family names. Biblical names. Names with history and meaning.

I got soap operas.

I still haven't decided whether that's insulting or incredibly fitting.

Maybe that's why I spend an unreasonable amount of time making sure a story is actually worth reading.

Or watching.

And an unreasonable amount of time naming the people in it.

If I'm making someone up, their name is going to mean something.

And this woman especially needed one.

The German titles made me want a German surname, preferably one that carried some meaning of its own.

And then I found:

Lassen.

To let. To leave. To allow.

Of course.

Then came the first names.

I wanted something connected to story. Something connected to return. Something that would mean more after you knew more.

I also needed her initials to be right.

I'm not explaining that sentence yet.

It might spoil something.

Or it might be a clue.

Moving on.

Eventually she became:

Lorelei Anastasia Lassen.

Lorelei.

Anastasia.

Lassen.

Every piece of it means something.

And then I shortened Lorelei.

Lore.

I accidentally named an author Lore Lassen.

At some point the universe should really start supervising me.

But now she exists.

Which presents an entirely new problem.

If Lore Lassen wrote Vorlass, I can't just write a Nikki Bodie novel and slap Lore's name on it.

I have to figure out how Lore writes.

And then I have to figure out how I'm going to get away with putting my name and my publishing company on her property.