What an incredible experience to see characters come to life in a story, especially as their
names and personalities develop.
When I first began writing ‘The Woman Who Forgot Who She Was’ I focused on my
grandchildren’s names because I wanted to memorialize these precious children all time in a
story. Avery Victoria Spencer was an easy choice. I wasn’t even thinking about how stunning a last name like Spencer would play out. Princess Diana was not on my mind-just my
grandchildren. Over time, tha fictitious Spencer family would work its way into my writing, but not for years.
(Nor was I thinking that such a name could also spell “A Very Victorias Pen Sir”!)
My character, Avery, suffers from dissociative amnesia due to a major life trauma. She doesn’t recall her husband, George Robert Logan, but I will never forget the day I arbitrarily typed the
name ‘Logan’ into my computer and discovered an old Scottish family line with a past that was perfect for a work of fiction. Lords and ladies, castles, King James VI of Scotland (also James I of England), even an unsolved mystery! Check out ‘The Gowrie Conspiracy’ on-line if you want to know more or wait for me to write a possible Volume Six. (I’d check on-line if I were you and if you want to know more right now). What’s in a name? A more exciting journey than I had ever imagined!
Tom and I traveled to visit places that now discovered, influenced my book plots. Places like
Rosslyn Chapel, museums in Edinburgh, London, and others, rich with details about tha 17th century. We even found Fast Castle (not much left) on the shores of the North Sea, which was
the ‘home’ of an unsavory character who (perhaps) got the Logans involved with the Gowrie
plot to (supposedly) kidnap King James. It ruined tha Logan family’s good name, at least for a while. When one writes fiction, anything is possible!
Remember, Book One is now available as an e-book or paperback on amazon. Check it out and I will cherish any review you are willing to write.
Bye for now.
*Probst likes to write in what she calls ‘WEnglish’, an inclusive form of English that respects all genders. More at vivianprobst.com/WEnglish
Vivian Probst is an award-winning author. Her latest work, ‘The Woman Who Forgot Who She Was’ is a five-book series (so far). Book One: Dissolving Her Despair is available as a Kindle’® e-book and as a paperback book on Amazon. Book Two: ‘Waking From Her Weariness’ is expected to be released by April 15th. Probst is writing each book in both English and WEnglish™, her linguistic attempt to make English more gender inclusive for all. More at vivianprobst.com