Something important “clicked” this weekend.

I’m churning out some new words, but I am breaking the “rules” and allowing myself to go back and edit. (Blows a raspberry at NaNoWriMo for not allowing editing.) In the process of working on Gina’s book, something important happened. I realized the last Amazon wasn’t calling to me because I’d given her the wrong name.

I have a former student who is Indian. She was a big inspiration when I wrote Free Falling because of something she said to me at graduation. Deepika was one of the students who wanted me to hand them their diplomas that year. A couple of those kids had already had their names used in some of my stories. (This was the class of 2006, and they were, by far, the most inspirational. They encouraged and cajoled and made me not feel silly for sitting down one day and writing a book.) Deepika looked sad when I was talking to Ross, Sam, and Brian about “their” characters. I asked her why. She said I probably wouldn’t have an Indian character in any of my books. I loved her so much, I took it as a challenge, and Deepika Sen was born and became a great secondary character in Free Falling.

Since the patron goddess for the Indian Amazon is Ganga, I got back in touch with Deepika (the real Deepika) to ask some questions. She directed me to a fantastic website with names from several cultures. When I saw the name Sarita, I finally heard the last Amazon talk to me. So I owe Deepika a big thanks. Again. I just need to make some tweaks to the earlier books, including the story my agent has on submission. But I figure, it’s a quick fix and well worth it if the charcter can finally come to life.

Off to run with my “new” character…