Sometimes, writing takes life on its own. With my first novel, Moonlit Valley, I felt as if the story wrote itself. The characters presented themselves, and I dare to say, named themselves. The writing process is different for everyone, and I have to say that I enjoyed the writing of that first novel; it was an adventure. After a while, I went back and looked at it with different eyes. I found symbolism in it, and a happy coincidence with some of the character’s names. When I looked at the common meaning of their names, what I found intrigued me and excited me. The meaning match the character in an almost eerie coincidence; it is how I imagined them. Here are a few of the names. If you read Moonlit Valley, you will understand what I mean.

• Jeremy = God will uplift
• Rose = Flower
• Cole Angelou = Victorious + Angel
• Lara = Cheerful
• Hael = Immense/living in hall
• Dinorah = Judgement
• Leah = Weary
• Olga = Holy
• Anne = Gracious
• Maurice = Dark skinned (I imagined this character tall and dark)
• Jake = Pale/supplanter
• Robert (town’s mayor) = Famous (of importance)

I found very amusing the coincidence of the meaning matching the characters and my idea of them. After all, writing is a very profound and spiritual endeavor, an act of letting go, of listening, and of invention and communion between writer and characters/story.