This week, as the first week of my summer vacation, has been fun. It has also been difficult to keep track of which day is which and I only recently realized it's actually Thursday.
So, I'm currently reading Touch the Dark by Karen Chance. It's an excellent example of why researching your genre is a wonderful thing. I've only just started reading the novel, but it's already making me sad. Chance has two characters within the first couple of chapters that bother me because of a couple of characters I have in Crossroads Promise.
Chance: Female protagonist named Cassandra whose parents were killed by a vampire. Me: Female protagonist named Cass whose parents were killed by a vampire. Chance: Vampire named Rafe. Me: Vampire named Rafe.
It's irksome. I've never read Karen Chance's work, so there's no way I'm subconsciously borrowing from her. Yet, there are the similarities. It's eerie. The Cass/Cassandra thing I get, it's hard not to go with the mythological reference. The orphan thing is even understandable. It's the overlap with the vampire bits that are a tad unsettling. I think I'm going to have to find a new name for my baddie. Dang.
3 comments:
It happens. And it IS frustrating.
Just as I was finishing the first draft of MMG, I read a post on Kristen Nelson's blog about the how many stories they were receiving with a protagonist named Kate or Katie or some variation thereof. My protagonist? Kitty.
I'm thinking Zack in Vesta's story may have to be changed because I'm noticing a lot of those recently. I've thought of changing Kitty, but it's been a couple years and I fear that whatever I change it to will be the new "Kate."
Have fun with the baby name programs. You can come up with some great ones that way.
Holy moly. I've heard of stuff like that happening, but not that closely. I'm glad you read Chance, though. It'd be worse if you'd finished the whole darn thing....
Deb: You don't need to change Kitty at all--it's a timely thing in your novel. Nicknames, especially for names like C/Katherine come and go out of style. Kate/Katie happens to be today...by calling her Kitty you've set the stage. And I haven't seen Zack popping up anywhere, so I think you're probably good.
Collective unconscious strikes again!
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