Hi all,

Happy Mother's Day to all moms, aunts, sisters, and all who share maternal love with those around them!

Because I'll be celebrating with my mom and family and am coming off a couple busy work weeks, I pieced this together from notes I've jotted down at various points or stuff I've been asked.  I'm also on a bit of an insomnia run and mentally fuzzy so please excuse any typos I didn't catch.

God bless,
Jenni


Miscellaneous Story Q and A

How do you choose names for original characters?

I'll explain in more detail as I continue the Behind the Names series but in general...

For human characters, sometimes I determine their approximate year of birth and country of origin.  Then I search for common or at least semi-frequent first names for that time and place.  For last names, I don't pay as much attention to time periods and just Google something like "common last names in France."  I zero in on a few that I like the sound of and then look up their meanings, if they exist.  Then I'll choose the one that seems most apt.  If I know anything about their family's history, I'll pick something relevant to that... so you have Owen's first name actually being Orville because his parents were pretty traditional and named him after his grandpa.

Sometimes, a character just clicks with a name and I can't imagine that character with any other name so I just go with it.  One recent example of that is Jess.  They're based on Jim from Our Flag Means Death so I wanted a more masculine name whereas Jess is used for both males and females.  However, I just couldn't move past Jess.  Part of that is probably because I am biased towards J names.  I also have some vague memory of a cowboy-like character named Jess.  Probably from something my Grandpa Jim used to watch.  And Jess kinda has that stoic cowboy vibe going for them.  (Also, if anyone knows what show or movie my distant memory is pulling that from, please let me know.)

Speaking of Jess, all the characters from "The Lost Sheep" had to have names that tied into their OFMD counterparts.  Some were obvious like Steve/Stede and Edgar/Edward, both going by Ed.  Some were a little more tweaked like Oliver/Ollie for Oluwande/Olu and Demi-John for Wee John.  Lucius became Lucky because they sound similar with my head canon being that Lucky's legal name is Patrick but he doesn't like it.  Similarly, Rocky disliked his given name of Clive and opted to go by Rocky which ties into Black Pete since Peter means "rock."  For Frenchie, I just wanted a French name and liked how Baptiste sounded.  For the Swede, it seemed appropriate to just go with the most stereotypical Swedish name I could think of so I chose Lars.  And Karl's name comes from the fact that the character Karl is based on (Buttons) has a pet seagull named Karl in OFMD.

But I think my favorite name from that bunch is Ant/Antony in place of Roach.  It keeps the bug imagery but also allowed for this exchange with Joshua which I love.  It comes after Ant alludes to his struggles being ostracized by his family as a queer man:

"I know, Antony.  Do you know what your name means?"

With tears in his eyes, Ant shook his head.

"'Highly praiseworthy.'  Many also link it to the Greek word anthos which means flower.  It's fitting.  Despite all the hardships that came your way, you grew.  You flourished.  And you used your skills to feed your family... and feed them well!  There were many, many times I wished I could pop in and join you all."

Ant beamed.

"Now you can."

One thing I'm really looking forward to down the road is seeing how Andrew's and JenniAnn's descendants are named.  So far we know there's a Penny and a Jenna, both of whom honor JenniAnn with the former also paying a less obvious tribute to Andrew.  It'll be interesting to see if there might also be nods to Vincent, Catherine, Allison, Robert, or any of the other grandparents.

 Is it difficult for you to write characters who have identities that you don't share?

Yes and no.  Just to take one example, Ed is an extremely easy character for me to write personality-wise.  But it does concern me that I have no lived experience as a Māori person or even just generally a person of color and also not as a gay man.  I do try to educate myself but, of course, that's not a stand-in for actual experience.  However, I think it's worthwhile to present inclusive stories that feature characters outside one's own identity.  Especially given what I'm writing... stories with characters coming into contact with angels and even the Son of God... I think any potential stumble is outweighed by the alternative which is Joshua only focusing on white, Christian, progressive, American women.  Having watched my fair share of Jesus movies were he only seems interested in building relationships with men or is just wholly aloof, I know that's not great.

I do love the idea of sensitivity readers but I also think we need to draw a line between professional creators who will get paid and people for whom it's a hobby.  For the former, I think networks and production companies should budget for diverse, fairly compensated writers' rooms.  And publishing companies should promote and fairly compensate sensitivity readers.  And I have seen arguments that fanfic writers should do the same but I'm just not there because the concept of "pay-to-play" obviously favors wealthier writers.  Taken to its logical conclusion, fanfic writers with more money to pay more sensitivity writers could tell more stories than those with less income.

All that being said, I think whether someone is a professional writer or a hobbyist, if you write something concerning a group that's not your own and a member of that group gives you constructive criticism, you best pay attention and honor that. 

When you make up characters, do you have specific actors in mind as playing them?

Sometimes.  I tend to not bring that up, though, because 1. I want people to imagine them as however they would like to, 2. I don't want to tie a character to an actor and then have that actor do something bad and possibly taint the character by association, and 3. even when I originally imagine them as looking like a particular actor, that could shift as time goes on.  I think I've imagined three or four different actors as Reuel at this point, for example.  I also sometimes forget who I had in mind.  Does Peter look like Oscar Isaac... or does Yosef?  Nonetheless, if someone's curious about how I imagine a particular character, they can always ask. 

Obviously, I imagine all the TBAA angels as being portrayed by those actors.  Same goes for the entire Aotearoa crew looking like their OFMD counterparts and Jamie and Gwen looking like the The Haunting of Bly Manor characters who inspired them. 

What is the system of government in Asteriana/Dyeland and El-Chanan?

Right now, I think Asteriana is still small enough that when a decision needs to be made that could impact everyone, it's very possible they're just ruled by a web-based poll.  Possibly later on, as the population grows, they'll have to establish an actual system of government.  It'd definitely be some sort of democracy.

El-Chanan is a democracy but with the caveat that Reuel is the head of the church which is very powerful in El-Chanan so there is an element of a theocracy.  Normally, I would think that was a bad thing but considering Reuel is an angel and has been a near-constant presence in El-Chanan since its very beginnings, one can very safely assume he has only the best in mind.  That being said, I don't think it's the case that Reuel says something and it automatically makes it so.  Rather, I think that when a decision needs to be made, Reuel will make his case to the people and they can then vote with his words in mind.  I would think that would then mean that Reuel's word is almost always heeded... and on the rare occasion it is not, the people realize their error and remedy it as best they can.  They likely remember that stumble for some time and heed Reuel for at least another generation or two before they stumble again and the pattern repeats. 

One could think that maybe Andrew eventually becomes like Reuel in Asteriana... but I'm not entirely convinced he remains in Asteriana long past JenniAnn's death. 

Why is JenniAnn sometimes referred to as Andrew's wife?  Is it still the case that angels can't get married?

JenniAnn is only referred to as Andrew's wife when it's from the POV of someone who doesn't really know them.  So, for example, a bunch of the patrons of St. G's probably assume they're married since they have no idea Andrew is an angel and, based on his write-up in the JCS program, know the two have children together.  Andrew and JenniAnn only bother to correct people if it's likely they'll eventually learn the truth about them.  But they're not going to correct some random theatre-goer who makes a passing reference.  They would never introduce themselves as husband and wife simply because it's not true.

Angels can still not get married.  Ed is only able to marry because he became human.  The only possible exception I could think of that I don't think I'm likely to explore is if it was something like a Mary/Joseph scenario and a woman became pregnant out of wedlock in a culture in which the punishment was death or banishment.  Possibly God would have an angel step into the husband role but, even then, it would not be a traditional marriage.  While it's definitely not a theory I hold to, I know some people believe Joseph married Mary to protect her legally but theirs was not a romantic marriage.  He was more like her legally mandated bodyguard and provider.  Again, I don't personally believe that's the type of marriage the parents of Jesus had but that's the only scenario in which I think a marriage would be even remotely possible for an angel.


This newsletter is dedicated to John Dye for giving me something to focus on when I'm having mentally fuzzy days like today.

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(Photo Credits: The photograph used on this page is from Touched by an Angel and owned by CBS Productions, Caroline Productions, and Moon Water Productions.  It is not being used to seek profit.)