~~ "She has so many aliases, you'd think she was a spy!" ~~

Friday, July 22, 2011

Let the voting commence!


Thank you to all the people who participated in my naming contest! Dudes, this was a hard one! I think next time I’m going to have to restrict it to one name per entrant.

Because it amuses me, I’m going to share with you my thought processes in narrowing down the field. If you just want to see the top three, skip to the end. But you’ll be missing all the fun.

First I had to take off the people I actually knew in high school, since this story is set at my high school (it came out of a writing exercise at the Short Story Workshop in June): Dwayne, Thaddius/Tad, Vernon, Joel (really? Teri, what’s wrong with Joel?), Maurice/Maury (well, I knew him when I was younger, but close enough).

Jeffery had to go because I have a relative named Jeffery, plus I think Jeffery/Jeff is a perfectly fine name. I also think that Joel and Drew are great names. I waffled a little on Spencer; I like it but I could see where it might be borderline. Theodore was close, but I think Ted isn’t bad. This whole process made me realize another criteria: If the bad name has a decent nickname, it doesn’t count. I know a lot of Bruces, and while they’re geeks in a good sense (SCA folks, etc.), I don’t think it’s a name kids would point and laugh at.

Then there’s Clancy. Are you kidding? What about Clancy Motherf*cking Brown?! Now I’m scared that Clancy Motherf*cking Brown will read this blog and come after me. (Morgana, of course, hopes she’s in the vicinity so she can tell him he’s her pagan lust god. Maybe that will keep Clancy Motherf*cking Brown from killing me.)

I voted against Sheldon and Howard simply because of The Big Bang Theory. Too obviously and currently nerdy!

Also, I’d said “not unrealistic names like Mortimer or Englebert.” Now, both of those are actual names, but in my mind it’s unrealistic that someone would saddle their child with that name nowadays. Not impossible, but pretty damn unlikely. So despite them being real names, I dropped Zephyr, Ignotz, Egbert, and Robespierre.

Besides, Zephyr is clearly homeschooled by his hippie parents (or is the long-lost son of Frank Zappa. Zephyr Zappa is such a freaking awesome name that I’m going to use it someday, I swear), and Ignotz is the weird kid everybody secretly likes because he has access to drugs and knows how to blow up the school in a way nobody would ever be able to trace back to him. Ignotz grows up to be Jackie Earl Haley’s character in Human Target, basically. Robespierre is an exchange student. Egbert…I just don’t know about poor Egbert. Which is why nobody names their child Egbert unless they live in the 9th century.

I was leaning towards Eugene, but then pondered that it could be shortened to Gene, which isn’t as bad.

So that left me with the following:
  • Alvin
  • Clarence
  • Claude
  • Erin (for Aaron)
  • Ernie/Ernest
  • Francis
  • Gilbert
  • Godfrey
  • Herbert
  • Herman
  • Lewis
  • Norton
  • Oswald
  • Rupert
  • Seymour
  • Stuart/Stewart
I’m favoring Ernest, because I think Ernie’s just as bad (::waves hi to our friend Ernie::), but Ken doesn’t think Ernie’s that bad. Ken’s favorite is Clarence. But I confess there’s something about Herman that fits the bill pretty well, too.

So I’m going to toss it back out to the masses: Vote for your favorite of those three. One vote per entrant. Vote here at Enchantments, not on Facebook/Twitter. Use the little voting thingie below instead of leaving a comment (but you are welcome to leave a comment to discuss the reason for your choice). Voting will close on Sunday at midnight Pacific time.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

New Andrea Dale story available from Soul's Road Press


"Now You See Her"

A city couple finds erotic inspiration in high-rise voyeurism by spying on the woman’s old college roommate dominating her latest naïve assistant. A short story of sex in the city, complete with cameras and a dollop of humiliation and kink, from a legendary erotica heavy-hitter.

“Now You See Her” is a companion story to “Come to my Window,” also available from Soul’s Road Press.

To read an interview with Andrea Dale about “Now You See Here,” click here!

“Now You See Her” originally appeared in Peep Show: Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists (Cleis Press, 2009).

Available in a variety of electronic formats
Amazon |  Barnes & Noble |  Smashwords

Monday, July 18, 2011

Naming help needed

Okay, I need a name. A somewhat nebbish male name. A not unrealistic name (e.g, Mortimer or Englebert), but a name that a geeky high school kid should never have been saddled with, that just cements his unpopularity.

The story is modern (literary mystery).
"Who are we playing against?" I asked X who, despite having lived here his whole life (and his father is one of the janitors, because name your kid "X" and then kick him while he's down), cares even less about the [football] game than I do.
Please leave suggestions here (on the blog) rather than FB/Twitter, so I have 'em all in one place. The person who suggests the name I use gets a free book.  :-)

Sunday, July 17, 2011

More Scary Kisses ebook

More Scary Kisses, an anthology of paranormal romances that includes my story "Matchmaker," is now available as an ebook! So if you've been waiting to read it on your Kindle, now's your chance!