I don't usually spend too much time agonizing over character names. Most of the time I go with a pair of names that I like and don't look back. But, believe it or not, as I begin developing a plot, naming the secondary characters is more difficult. Suddenly, you can't have names that look or sound too much like the main characters' names. With Internet technology being what it is, finding names is easy. Here are some sites for name generating:

The Character Name Generator - This one is the most straight forward. You type in the desired gender and a first and last name appear.

Baby Name List - This site allows you to choose the ethnic background and gender (African Girls or Egyptian Boys) then view an alphabetical list of names in that category.

The Random Name Generator - The fun thing about this generator is that it allows you to generate several names at a time based on an obscurity factor (1=Common, 50=Not so common, 99=Totally obscure)

While I was checking out my "43 Things" yesterday, I discovered that they've just started a new site called All Consuming.

This is a place where you can list all the books, movies, music, etc. that you're consuming, and see what everyone else is consuming as well. The most interesting feature of this site is the ability to ask the community what you should consume next. I haven't discovered a large number of romance novel consumers yet, but I'm hoping that's because it's still new. I also think people like to show off a bit and flaunt all the great literature they've read.

My work-in-progress is about a woman who finds the list of things she wanted to do before thirty and rushes to accomplish the remaining items in the two weeks before her thirtieth birthday. Now, I've never made one of these lists for myself, but while I was trying to figure out what kinds of things would be on such a list, I found 43 Things.

This site is cool because you can see all the things (more or less than 43) that people around the World Wide Web are trying to accomplish. You can make a list of your own and get cheers and advice from others. And, you can also give others advice on how you acomplished various things you've done.

My list only has four things. The two most important things on that list are write and stop procrastinating. It's very powerful to put something in writing and see how many other people are working toward the same goals you are. It's meaniful to get encouragement, even from strangers. And most importantly, it's great to check off all the things you've done and help others do the same.

The recent demise of yet another Harlequin line, this time the kick-butt heroine line Bombshell, got me to thinking, which, as anyone who knows me will tell you is always a dangerous thing. I heard from a number of readers who were surprised by the closing, because they had friends who just "loved that line!"

I've also heard things like this: "I can't believe they closed that line. I loved that line. I read those books every month at my library."

Before I go any farther with this discussion, I have to offer up a disclaimer. I love libraries. Especially as a child with a voracious appetite for story, I borrowed armloads of books from my local library. I love bargains, too. I shop like men hunt or play sports. It's a victory when I score a bargain. (New black cocktail dress, originally $79, marked down to only $16. SCORE!) Used books are great bargains. Swapping books, another great bargain. The new websites on-line, where you can "rent" a book, in a system similar to NetFlix, are also an interesting bargain. Good grief, even the airports these days have a program where you can buy a book, read it, then sell it back to them. What a bargain!

But did you realize that those bargains could be putting your favorite line or your favorite author out of business?

It's a difficult, touchy subject for authors to discuss. We don't want to appear anti-used books ('cause we're not -- not entirely, anyway), or make readers think we're money-grubbers, always harping on them to buy our books. We all know (believe me, we KNOW - most writers don't make anywhere close to as much money as people think we do) how tight money can be sometimes, especially with the rising costs of gas and heating fuel, and food, and taxes, and…well, you know. Everything.

We’ve been known ourselves to sometimes borrow and trade books, or buy used. Or go to the library.

But publishing these days is a strictly-by-the-numbers business, which means if the numbers don't live up to the publisher's expectations, a writer can kiss her slot/line/future contracts good-bye.

"Where's SoAndSo's latest book? How come she hasn't published another story in that series that I love so much?" If you find yourself asking that question, it could be that your favorite, SoAndSo, got cut loose because the numbers of that last book in the series didn't do as well as the one before that. How did you get your hands on that last book? Did you buy it new, contributing to the continuation of the series, or did you bargain read it? Bargain reads don’t count towards our numbers.

Writers, especially those of us at the "lower echelons" of the publishing world, need our readers more than ever. Without you, there would be no point in what we do. (Well, okay, there's a certain satisfaction in telling yourself a story, but it's the audience that makes it truly special. It's a shared dream.) But now, because of the numbers, we need your support even more.

Our careers, our lines, even our publishers, live and die by the numbers.

So please, where and when you can, save a writer. Buy a new book. We'll all thank you for it. And that way, you'll have more choices of books in the future.

*****

Susan Gable thanks her fans for buying her books. Her latest book, The Pregnancy Test, sold well, thanks to them. It was also awarded the National Readers' Choice Award for Best Long Contemporary. Visit her at www.susangable.com for excerpts, contests, and more.

Earlier this week, Harlequin announced the following:

As a company, Harlequin is committed to the success of our series publishing business. We believe it is our responsibility to develop, evolve and enrich our various programs in order to bring new opportunities to our authors and fresh and relevant reading experiences to our readers. The complex side of keeping our publishing programs healthy is that every so often, we must evaluate a series that has not consistently been a strong performer and make difficult decisions about its future. Unfortunately, Silhouette Bombshell has not been able find a broad-based readership, and after reviewing the past, present and projected performance of the series, we're sorry to announce that January 2007 will be the final publication month for Bombshell.

This is terrible news for me because my critique partner Judy Fitzwater writes for this line. She normally writes mysteries and this was my first opportunity to tease her about writing for a romance publisher. Her first book for this line was published last May, but her new book would not have come out until August. Well past the cut off for the line. The only upside is that Judy may have the chance to get paid for one book twice.

Best of wishes and luck to all of the authors who are looking for a new publishing house.

For a few minutes this morning, I considered writing two books at once. I thought to myself, I could work on one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Ha!

Trust me, that was just the Red Bull talking. I've written two books at once. I had a book for Arabesque and one for Harlequin due on the same day. I can't believe I agreed to do it, but that was back when I was afraid to say no to any opportunity that came my way. I turned both books in on time, but I was pretty much burned out after that experience. I struggled with deadlines ever since.

So why would I willing attempt to work on two stories at once when no one is forcing me to? Again, it was my caffeine-charged bloodstream working on me. I woke up this morning high on the fact that I finished my proposal two weeks before it's due. After being out of contract for the past year or so, it really went to my head.

I think my temporary insanity has passed. After all, I have three chapters of my new book done, but I have gaping plot holes to be filled. Not to mention no less than 12 more chapters that need to be written by February. That should be plenty of time, but I have procrastination issues.

So, back to work.

Am I in the right business? I'm pretty sure that I am, but I decided to take the Work Values Assessment on www.myplan.com mainly because it was free.

My highest scoring items were Acheivement and Independence. Sounds like I'm on the right track.

People who score high in the Achievement cluster should look for jobs that let them use their best abilities. It's also important that they look for work where they can see the results of their efforts directly. They should explore jobs where they can get a strong feeling of accomplishment.

People who score high in the Independence cluster should look for jobs where they are left to do things on own initiative. These people also value creativity and the freedom to work alone. They should explore work where they can make decisions on their own.

That sounds good, but how does that translate into the real world? The next level of analysis allowed me to compare my needs and values with real careers. Naturally, I selected Creative Writing and it gave me a graphical comparison of each category. It wasn't a line by line match up, but it was prety close.

Finally, it gives me a list of 900 jobs ranked by my best matches. I had a 74% match for the following jobs:

Operations Research Analysts
Public Relations Specialists
Creative Writers
Copy Writers

So, we've got a match. I should be a Creative Writer. And look at the income I have to look forward to:

U.S. National Averages
Writers and authors
Average Annual Salary $53,850
Average Hourly Wage $25.89
Total Employment 43,020

I've recently come to the realization that I've been writing for about twelve years now, and I've just about come full circle.

When I first began pursuing a career in writing, I was afraid to actually WRITE. So I did everything else that there was to do. I joined organizations and attended workshops. I joined TWO critique groups. I participated in online communities and I plotted. For my first book I wrote a huge chapter by chapter, scene by scene breakdown. Now, I couldn't even imagine expending that much energy on something that wasn't a finished product.

Years later after having written for several publishers, I've resigned myself to the process of writing. The formula is simple.

Sitting in the chair + typing words into the computer = finished manuscript.

But, I've lost my touch for all the other things that make up a writer's life. All those things that I was once so good at. I can't remember the last workshop I've attended, and I keep forgetting to renew my memberships to various organizations. Back when I was twenty-five, I didn't have a husband or a lot of outside responsibilities.

Nevertheless, I'm writing all this to say that there's so much more to a writer's life than writing. Of course, writing is the key. None of the rest matters without it. But, networking within the community yields great benefits.

So, I'm trying to remind myself to make appearances. Plan booksignings. Go to workshops. Participate in online communities. All of those aspects of a writer's life can generate new opportunities and friendships.

I've never been accused of not speaking proper English. Quite the contrary in fact, there were several occasions when I was teased in school for speaking too properly. So when I discovered this site that gives examples of "beastly mispronunciations" I was intrigued. Surely there weren't any words that I've been mispronouncing.

Well, according to this site, there are a few that I've been getting wrong. Balsamic for instance. I'll probably never get that right because the correct pronunciation just sounds wrong to me.

Balsamic bawl-SAM-ik. Don’t say bawl-SAHM-ik.

Despite the title of this entry, I do pronounce congratulations correctly on most occasions, but I realize when I'm lazy, I might break the "rules" a bit.

Congratulations kun-GRACH-uh-LAY-shinz, not kun-GRAJ-uh-LAY-shinz.

Finally, I take exception to the writer's claim that Porsche is pronounced porsh instead of porsh-uh. I watched a special on porsh-uhs and the German manufacturers explained exactly how they want it said. I want to get it right because I hope to own one before I die.

My life had been generally uneventful since I'd begun writing full-time in 2005. I finished my first uncontracted work this past February and did that inexplicable thing that unpublished authors do--I put it in a drawer and went on with my life. After nine published books, I can't imagine why I was so afraid to send it out. I convinced myself that now that I had a new book completed, I should get right to work on the next one. Once I had three chapters of the next book, only then would I send it out.

Well, that was dumb. And not just because it took me a while, and a few false starts, to pick a new project. Thanks to my wonderful critique partners who insisted I send my book out, I finally took the book out of the drawer and sent it to my agent in June.

Just a month later, I was offered a two-book contract from Harlequin's Kimani line. So, from what I've been told, my next book should be out in April 2007.

It's August, so it must be time for me to start up my blog again. Looking back through my archives, I've noticed that I always get back to blogging around this time of year. I usually trail off some time in the winter and get back to business in the summer. I can't explain this habit... but it's an interesting (to me anyway) trend.