Reading the reviews

[darkemeralds]

While I hammer away at the last few chapters of Restraint, people reading have left me some absolutely wonderful comments--comments that are to my creative satisfaction what a big royalty check must be to a published author.

Every now and then, though, I go digging around to see what people are saying about the story who aren't addressing their comments directly to me, and then I find some fun things.

One advises other readers to use global search-and-replace on the ridiculous character names, and convert them to [specific other names preferred, apparently, by the recommender] to make the story readable.

Another, in a similar vein, cautions potential readers that so many real-person names are unrecognizable that they'll have trouble following the story, and warns that the same authorial arrogance has led me to change the very name of Christmas to Michaelmas.

I'm so tempted to take the Gutenberg text of Pride and Prejudice and change every instance of "Darcy" to "Benedict Cumberbatch" now. And swap every instance of "Christmas" with "National Day of the Cowboy!" (complete with exclamation mark), like this:

"I sincerely hope your National Day of the Cowboy! in Hertfordshire may abound in the gaieties which that season generally brings..." because how could it not?

and

Bingley was sure of being liked wherever he appeared, Benedict Cumberbatch was continually giving offense."

Then you could change the "Bingley"s to "Martin Freeman." There'd be no end to the fun!

Comments

[darkemeralds]

There's a set of expectations about CWRPS--that if there's a Chad, there must also be a Tom, and a Mike, and a Kristen--and maybe a Jeffrey Dean. Changing main character names significantly to fit the time and place of the story has made it a bit of a guessing game whether Miss Lareton or Lizzie Danforth are supposed to be Sandy or Genevieve or Daneel or Alona.

I probably should have included a guide: Mr Caine is Christian Kane, Charles Murray is Chad Michael Murray, and...that's really about it. The rest are original characters. Except Joss, and I only included him because in real life he actually attended Winchester College, and I couldn't resist.

I'd be the first to admit that it's confusing, and if someone wants to S&R for their reading ease, that's fine with me.

But the Christmas one! I love the idea that I might somehow actually need to change the name of a major international holiday to protect the innocent.

[alexseanchai]

Ah. Aren't Sandra and Genevieve and Danielle perfectly legitimate names for that time period? So if you wanted to include one of them, it wouldn't exactly be difficult to come up with a good name.

[darkemeralds]

Well, Miss Lareton's first name is Alexandra, and I'll admit to having chosen it with Sandra in mind, though she looks like Anne Hathaway in my mind.

Genevieve and Danielle would have been a bit Frenchified for the period (England and France had been at war for quite a while by that time). There really was a very small pool of acceptable given names to choose from. It's no wonder Mr and Miss and Mrs were used even among friends--they were all called John, Henry, Charles, Elizabeth, Jane and Charlotte, I swear. I was going out on a limb with Tristan, I really was.

[alexseanchai]

*nods*