Thursday, June 23, 2011

Names Are My Game

As an Author names are important. So I am adding a few unique and lovely names below.

Ranna or Rana (True Image, Beautiful, Eye-Catching, Attractive, Elegant, Means "an eye-catching object" from Arabic رنا (rana) "to gaze". Bearer of Victory) (English, Latin, and Arabic) (Rana: RAH-nah)

This name Ranna or Rana is very lovely and has an exotic flare to it. I quite like it. I heard it on a T.V show and I looked it up.

Praxis (Practical, Another name for the goddess Aphrodite.) (Ancient Greek, Greek Mythology)

I like Praxis I don't really know why. I have gotten positive and negative views on it. I think if used right it will be a good name for a character in my view.

Scotlyn (Proper) (Scottish)

This is actually the first name of my Pen Name and I love it. I think it sounds cool to say and it is just an all around nice name. It is pronounced like Scotland the country but it is a made up combo between Scott and Lynn.

Eliana (God has Answered, May also be related to the Greek "elios" meaning "god of the sun", and the name may thus mean "daughter of the sun". My God has Answered Me, The Lord has Responded, Sun, My God is Yahweh) (Hebrew, Latin) (El-ee-AH-nah, eh lee AN ah)

I read about a character named Eliana. I love the name and the meaning is really nice.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Novel Recomendations

I have read some good books lately so I have decided I will blog about them. Book Details off of Fantastic Fiction Site & Book Covers.

Rainsong- Phyllis A. Whitney Book Details: Hollis Sands has never gotten over her husband Ricky's death. She cannot believe he took his own life and wonders if it wasn't really murder. Trying to escape her memories, she seeks peace at Windtop in Cold Spring Harbor. But strange and frightening things keep happening-voices sing the song she wrote for Ricky and guitars play from nowhere. Windtop has become a trap, but Hollis Sands will not leave, until she discovers the truth, no matter how close to death that takes her....

Rainsong was really good. Even though it was from 1984 it kept me hooked and it was well written. I have recently started reading Phyllis A. Whitney and I like her work. I loved the suspenseful atmosphere of the book as well. It is on my recommends list.

Daughter of the Stars- Phyllis A. Whitney Book Details: For 30 years, Lacey Elliot's mother has refused to talk about her past. When Lacey intercepts a desperate letter from an aunt in West Virginia, she sees a chance to confront the past that has terrified her mother and to fill in the gaps of her own life.

Daughter of the Stars was another good book by Phyllis A. Whitney. I liked the history about West Virginia and the town the woman in the book went. I liked that these places really existed and weren't fictitious and the author made them real to the reader.

The Last Promise- Richard Paul Evans Book Details: They meet by chance in Tuscany, Eliana is an American painter trapped in a loveless marriage. Ross is a man seeking renewal after a terrible tragedy. Their hearts bring them together. Will their lives keep them apart?

The Last Promise was one of the best books I have read to date. It made me cry at parts and that is saying a lot. I hardly cry and this books it made me feel for the character Eliana. I actually wound up loving the name too. I am a writer and so it's another name for my list. It was a touching story and I was glad it ended well.

Danger Zone- Shirley Palmer Book Details: Maggie Cady is living the perfect life . . . It's also the perfect lie. Her husband, Sam, is her soul mate and a loving father to their child. Her four-year-old son, Jimmy, fulfills in her a lifelong desire to be a mother. And the life they have built together in New Orleans has made her happier than she ever imagined. When Jimmy is kidnapped in a violent attack on their home, Maggie realizes her past has caught up with her -- a past she has kept secret from her husband. And the only way to save her son's life is to step straight back into a world of violence and deceit, a world she once barely escaped with her life. A world her protectors called the danger zone. In an instant, everything Sam has believed is shattered. His home is attacked, his son is taken and his wife disappears, leaving behind only clues she is not who he thought she was. As he follows her tracks, barely managing to stay one step ahead of the FBI, Sam begins to understand that the woman he is chasing is a stranger. And that his son may have to pay the ultimate price for his mother's secrets.

Danger Zone was a thriller all right. It had me on the edge of my seat waiting in anticipation of what would happen next.

Not A Sparrow Falls- Linda Nichols Book Details: In this powerful story of redemption and love, a prodigal young woman from the hills of Virginia flees the men who have lured her away from a godly upbringing into a life of desperation. Taking on a new identity, Mary Bridget Washburn escapes to the bustling city of Alexandria. There her path crosses that of Alasdair MacPherson, a widowed pastor with three young children and daunting problems of his own. Mary Bridget longs to bring happiness to the deeply troubled family, but she seems an unlikely candidate to help. Has she fallen too far from grace to be able to pass it on? A heart-tugging tale about the extraordinary struggles that turn ordinary people into heroes.

Not A Sparrow Falls was a good book about how we all need a second chance. I was glad Mary Bridget got hers. It was a good books and I was glad that it had a satisfying ending.

Street Boys- Lorenzo Carcaterra Book Details: A gang of street urchins and an American soldier fight to liberate the city of Naples from the German army Naples, late September, 1943. The war in Europe is almost won. Italy is leaderless; Mussolini already arrested by anti-fascists. The city has been evacuated, but the German army is moving towards Naples to finish the job. Their chilling instructions are: if the city can't belong to Hitler, it will belong to no one. No one but the children. Orphaned or hidden by parents, abandoned or lost, some as young as ten years old, the children of Naples resist. Aided by a lone Allied soldier, cut off from his regiment, and armed with just a handful of guns, unexploded bombs and their own ingenuity, the street boys are determined to take on the advancing enemy and save the city - or die trying.

Street Boys had me rooting for the underdog. The ending was one you realized happened a lot during the war. During a war there is no real happy ending.