The Anatomy of The Good Gene #3

I'd decided the first priority to choosing names for my characters was to figure out where each of them would be from. As you know, the story has an international cast. So, in the summer of 2022, I began defining my characters' origins and working to find their perfect names.

I drew on my extensive travel background and countries I'd spent time in to develop most of my characters' origins. Riya (India) and Jasmine (Philippines), however, are from countries I've spent almost no time in. Six of the characters names, either first or last, are names of people or friends I've met through my travels. Since I did not use both first and last names of people I've met, I needed to come up with an alternative first or last name that was ethnically credible. I'll give the credit to Google and the many searches I did to finally land on the "perfect" name I needed. :-)

It was now time to give each of my new characters personalities, family backgrounds, current occupations and physical qualities. It was a lot of fun designing each of them. By the end of the summer, my main characters had a life of their own. It was now time to begin writing. It was the fall of 2022.

I'll pick up the next phase in my next blog post... stay tuned and have a great day - Dave