Names

Writers often spend an ample amount of time figuring out which name suits a character best.

Research may include checking:

• name definitions, to see if the meaning matches the character’s traits, arc, etc.
• when the name was popular, to match it to a specific time period
• region, to make sure the name matches where the character lives

With all that goes into naming, and creating, characters, is it any wonder that sometimes people name their children after their favorite characters?

Would you ever name your child (or pet) after a favorite character, or perhaps a favorite author?

Better yet, are you named after one? Or do you know someone who is?

In case you might like to see some name suggestions, here’s a site that lists 50 names inspired by authors.
http://www.disneybaby.com/uncategorized/50-baby-names-inspired-by-writers/

Enjoy!

Eva Maria Hamilton is the author of Highland Hearts, a Love Inspired Historical novel published by Harlequin. Her novel, Highland Hearts, won 2^nd Place in the Historical Romance, as well as the Traditional/Inspirational Romance Categories in the Heart of Excellence Reader’s Choice Awards, and was an Inspirational Series Finalist in the 2013 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence.

Highland Hearts

Scotland 1748
The Battle of Culloden is over, but one Highlander’s fight has just begun…
Logan McAllister survived years of indentured servitude in the Americas to reach this moment. Now he’s returned to Scotland, ready to redeem the secret promise from Sheena Montgomery’s father – that his years as an indentured servant would earn him Sheena’s hand in marriage. But when he arrives home, he learns that Sheena’s father has died, his contract has been lost… and Sheena is engaged to another man.

To connect with Eva Maria Hamilton online, please visit her at www.evamariahamilton.com

DEVOTION: Significant Names ~ Shirley Corder

It's crazy the amount of time and effort we authors can spend trying to come up with a suitable name for our Work In Progress, especially when we know it will almost certainly undergo a name change if it is bought by a publisher. 

For example, my book with the working title of Rise and Soar above the Cancer Valley, has as its key Scripture, Isaiah 40:31: They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings as eagles. The beautiful cover portrays a woman with her arms outstretched, apparently preparing to rise and soar, and there are a number of meditations that refer to eagles. Yet the publishers changed its name to Strength Renewed, Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer, still based on the same Scripture, but emphasizing a different part of the verse. That’s how it works in the publishing world.

As parents, we agonize over names for our babies when they are still in the womb. In our case, this was before the days of scans where you could learn the baby’s sex (which of course gives away my age) and so we had to be prepared with a boy’s name as well as a girl’s. A number of the young women in my family have given their unborn babies cutsie names, knowing they would change them after the baby’s birth. So we have had a Rosebud, a Sweetie Pie, a Strawberry, and even a Frog. In these cases I was more than a little relieved when their names were changed after birth.

Have you ever gone on a road trip or studied a map, and wondered why towns are named as they are? Here in South Africa, we have a small town in the Northern Cape called Pofadder, the Afrikaans translation of Puff Adder, which is one of our most venomous snakes. Did someone get bitten by a Puff Adder there? Who knows?

Klein Mier Nommer Een is a tiny town, also in the Northern Cape, which translated from Afrikaans means Little Ant Number One. Now where did that come from? It’s hard to believe there were so few little ants in that dusty little town, they started to number them!

On the West Coast, we find Tietiesbaai, which literally translated would be something like Boobies Bay, probably named after the many round smooth boulders dotted on its beautiful beach.

75 km from Cape Town we have a quaint farming town fittingly called Darling. Then in the North West province, some 200 km west of Pretoria, we have a dot on the map with the incredible name of Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein. Translated into English this means Two- buffalo-shot-dead-in-one-shot Spring. Really? 

Traveling through the Small Karoo Desert, you may stop at the little town which is a popular pit-stop for heavy trucks and holiday makers, called Leeu-Gamka. This is obviously so named because this is where the Leeu (Lion) River joins the Gamka River.

Then we have Ogies, which translates into Little Eyes, an old coal mining town in Mpumalanga, This apparently derived its name from a nearby farm, Oogiesfontein, or a fountain with many eyes (or springs).

If we turn to Scripture we see a similar pattern, where places were named after actual events, such as Jehovah-Jirah, meaning Jehovah will provide, the place where God provided Abraham with a ram for sacrifice in the place of his son, Isaac. Then there’s Beth-El, meaning House of God, at the place where Jacob dreamed of angels ascending and descending a ladder to Heaven. There are also places named after emotions such as Esek (meaning contention) and Sitnah (Enmity) where the Philistines fought with Isaac for the use of watering holes.

Dene Ward, in her devotional guide, Flight Paths, asks what we would call our homes. 

It's a good question. Would we name them after an emotion? Or after an event? What would be a good name for your home? Could you call it Beth-El, House of God? Or would it be more aptly called, Esek, because of the emotions that fly throughout the day?

If you were to give the place you live a new name today, what would it be? What title could you hang on the door that would give visitors an idea of what to expect when they entered into your home, whether it is a beautiful mansion or a one-roomed apartment? I dare you to share it as a comment below. Maybe your home already has a name. Please share it with us, and tell us how it got its name.

SHIRLEY CORDER lives on the coast in South Africa with her husband, Rob. Her book, Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer contains 90 meditations based on her time in the cancer valley.

Sign up here to receive a short devotional message from Shirley in your inbox once a week.

Please visit Shirley through ShirleyCorder.com, where she encourages writers, or at  RiseAndSoar.com, where she encourages those in the cancer valley. You can also meet with her on Twitter or FaceBook.  

DEVOTION: What's In A Name? ~ by Judith Robl

Focus verses:

Ruth 1:6-18

The story is that Naomi and Elimelech went to Moab with their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, during a famine in Judah. And the sons took wives named Orpah and Ruth.

Translating the names into their respective meanings we get: “MyDelight and MyGodIsKing went to Moab with their two sons, Sickly and Pining, during a famine in Judah. And the sons took wives named Gazelle and Friendship.

During their stay in Moab, MyGodIsKing died. And later both Sickly and Pining died as well. So MyDelight and Gazelle and Friendship were left as widows.

MyDelight decided to return to Judah, the home of her God. Both Gazelle and Friendship started back with her, but MyDelight told them to return to their homes in Moab. Gazelle did go back home (to her old gods), but Friendship had tasted the world of MyDelight’s God and would not leave.

She loved MyDelight and the ways of MyDelight’s God. She would not leave MyDelight’s side.

When we cultivate a friendship with God, nothing can induce us to leave that friendship. We can leave all that we ever knew to be close to God. We cannot pine for what is behind us. We only go on with God.

Whatever is in our past that is not of God deserves to be left behind without regret, without remembrance.

Father, God,
Help us to go on with You, leaving all else behind. Let us not be pulled back into our old ways and old habits.
In Jesus most precious name.
Amen.

JUDITH ROBL is the founder of Reflected Light Ministries and speaks to women’s groups about prayer, forgiveness, and drawing closer to God. Trained as a secondary level English teacher, Judith has a heart for mentoring. She and her husband, Martin, have been married fifty years and have four children who have presented them with nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Her book, As Grandma Says, is a devotional gift book, incorporating her grandmother's adages with an appropriate scripture, a pertinent life lesson, and a word of prayer. Visit her at her website or on Facebook.

The CALEB Concept

by Anne Hamilton 

Have you ever had the experience where a particular verse of Scripture suddenly seemed to leap off the page and come alive? 

One day I was reading a book when a Hebrew word seemed to jump up, grab me around the throat and demand: ‘Where’ve you been? What has taken you so long?’ The word was nasa’ and it means ‘to lift up’.

It’s a name of God: Jehovah Nissi, ‘the lord my banner’ or ‘the lord who lifts me up’.

God was first revealed as Jehovah Nissi during the desert wanderings of the Israelites. In Exodus 17, the Amalekites attacked and Moses sent Joshua into battle. Moses then lifted up his hands to heaven and, as he prayed, the Israelites prevailed. But as his arms dropped, the tide of battle turned. Aaron and Hur had to lift up his arms until such time as the Amalekites were totally defeated.

The Lord my banner alludes to working together as one team: Joshua couldn’t do it alone. He needed Moses to keep calling on the name of the One who lifts up and carries His people in battle. However Moses couldn’t do it alone, either. He was dependent on Aaron. And even Aaron couldn’t do his bit alone: he needed help from Hur. 

The more I delved into incidences of nasa’ in Scripture, the more I understood God commands a blessing when His people work together and, well… leaves us pretty much to our own devices otherwise. 

When I became President of Omega Writers, the CALEB concept was born.

CALEB is an acronym: it stands for Christian Authors Lifting Each other’s Books. 

That’s why Omega Writers sponsor the CALEB Prize. It’s about giving all entrants a higher profile for their books, regardless of whether they win or not. Ensuring they receive at least two and sometimes as many as seven reviews. Promoting excellence, for the glory of God, so that the highest quality books are given that little bit of extra ‘oomph’ to penetrate Australia’s complex marketplace. 

CALEB is in its fourth year now and we have awards for Poetry, Fiction, Non-Fiction and also an Unpublished section, as well as the overall CALEB Prize.

Because of the spiritual impact we’re trying to make, and also because we’re trying to demonstrate the name and nature of Jehovah Nissi in what we do, it should be no surprise if I say it hasn’t been an easy road.

The CALEB Conference is a natural extension of this ideal of lifting each other up. It’s an intimate gathering of Aussie and Kiwi authors, passionate about working together to achieve the dreams God has given them. It’s about giving as many authors as possible a showcase, not just the keynote speakers. 

For aspiring authors, there’s an amazing opportunity: three publisher’s representatives (on behalf of ten different imprints) will be taking pitches – this is just pure gold! In fact, in the Australian scene, it’s unheard of. We hope locals will appreciate the unprecedented nature of this opening and take advantage of it while it’s available. We certainly can’t guarantee it will ever happen again. 

Another very special aspect of the CALEB conference is the possibility of personal prayer, specifically for writer’s spiritual dilemmas. CALEB recognises not only that we need to lift each other in practical ways but also in prayer. Nasa’ is a battle-related word but we’re not meant to go into single combat.

There are also some one-day mentorships available. These short courses can save you incalculable time and effort by putting you on the right track, especially when it comes to modern fiction. Of Omega Writers’ first three mentorships (in our now discontinued mentorship programme), every aspiring author who has continued on with their mentor has subsequently been published. 

If you’d love to join us as we lift up the Name of God and lift up each other, here’s the details for 2013: 

CALEB Conference 11-12 October

 Riverglenn Conference Centre

 70 Kate Street 

Indooroopilly QLD

AUSTRALIA

 Earlybird deadline is August 1

Details, prices, electives can be found at 

http://wordswithwings.net/ 

ANNE HAMILTON is the current president of Omega Writers Inc. She is also the Australian editor of the devotional The Word for Today by Bob and Debby Gass. A former mathematics teacher, she is also the author of 11 books ranging from children’s fantasy to meditative theology. 

Her latest book, God’s Panoply – The Armour of God and the Kiss of Heaven, is due for release on August 1. It’s all about nasa’: which is also a word for ‘submission’. When this particular word for ‘submission’ in Hebrew primarily means to uplift another person so they can in turn lift you up, it could just change the sense of certain notorious verses in the New Testament. Check out more at www.fire-of-roses.com/wp