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10:20am on Thursday, 28th December, 2006:

Smoke and Mirrors

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Last night, we watched the TV adaptation of Philip Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke. It was quite good, although we never did figure out who sent the message that set everything in motion.

The story concerned Sally Lockhart, a feisty Victorian teenaged girl. I hadn't come across these books before, which is annoying; if I'd done so, I wouldn't have given the feisty Victorian teenaged girl in my own yet-to-be-published novel the surname Locke.

What's particularly annoying is that I chose the name Locke from my own family tree, so as to avoid accusations of having ripped anyone off. Locke was the surname of my paternal grandmother's paternal great-grandmother, although it was passed down as the middle name of my grandmother's father and grandfather. With the surname Locke decided, I gave my heroine the first name Lizzie (after running some tests with my daughters to decide which of several possibilities they liked the most). If I change the surname, I'll probably need to change the first name, which won't be at all fun.

Other surnames from the yorkshire side of my family tree that have some appeal are: Summerskill, Limbert, Durance, Whincup, Bravener, Langstaffe, Grafton, Wreet, Mountain, Malbar and Awcook. Of these, my favourite is Bravener; unfortunately, it's only my favourite if it's pronounced to rhyme with taverner, which it won't be.

Hmm, Lizzie Limbert works. It's not as solid as Lizzie Locke, but it's got the same alliteration. Lambert and Limbord are in the family tree too, but Limbert is quirkier.

One large search/replace coming up...

Referenced by The Case for Backing Up.


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Copyright © 2006 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).