Multi-tasking Muses

I love it when worlds collide. Just this weekend I was chatting with author Gem Sivad, when she posted an excerpt from a book she's working on, River's Edge, whose hero is (appropriately enough) named Edge. It's not exactly earth shattering, but I have to admit it surprised the hell out of me since my July release, Edge of Heaven, also features a hero named Edge (to download an adult rated excerpt, click HERE).

What makes it even more intriguing from my perspective is that this isn't the first time Gem and I have had similarly named characters. Grady Hawks from Breed True is sometimes known by his Kiowa name, Cetan, which means Hawk. The hero of my book, Visions Before Midnight has an Anglicized version of the same name, Chayton.

Of course, Kelly and I have found quite a few such similarities in our books as well. We even blogged about about a few of them HERE. But we really only scratched the surface. Meg's second book, Wedding Bell Blues and my second book, A Sight to Dream Of both revolve (at least in part) around weddings...the wedding of the heroine's best friend, in both cases, each complete with fairly formidable Mothers of the Grooms. Oh, and barbecues, both of which have to be tweaked to accommodate those annoying vegetarians! ;)

It really never ends. One of my best writing buds, Kiera Ramsay wrote her story Sea of Dreams at the same time I was working on my novella Sea Change...which made conversation a little challenging for awhile as we both insisted on referring to our book as simply "Sea"....and we won't even get into the lovely little serendipity of her Irish Fae, Rhiannon (Breath of Heaven) and my Irish blacksmith, Gavin (Iron) having the same last name. One day, I'll really have to look into their genealogy. 

I guess none of this should surprise me, obviously we all share muses and those muses certainly like their shortcuts. But, all the same, none of it prepared me for picking up Cleo Coyle's book On What Grounds a few years ago. Set in New York City (where I lived for nearly ten years) the book features a heroine named Clare and a hero name Mike...no relation to my h/h of the same names in Let Me Count the Ways. And the fact that Ms. Coyle's Mike has the last name of Quinn, which is the last name of one of the more prominent families in my Oberon series, as well as my mother in law's maiden name...yeah, that's not freaky at all.

Really, it's not. It actually pales by comparison to what comes next. Clare has a daughter named Joy, which is the name of one of my sisters in law. Joy is dating a man named Mario Forte...which just happens to be my father in law's actual name. Now that weirded me out, I must admit. It was just a little too fictionally incestuous. But it wasn't until Clare went to see George Gee and his band (the Make-Believe Ballroom Orchestra) that I really had to pinch myself. 

You see, its name to the contrary, the Make-Believe Ballroom Orchestra is a real band. And George Gee is an actual person...who just happens to be an old friend of my brother's.