Loran Rudder and the Secret Key fans-If you are reading this, you are one of the VERY FIRST persons to find out insider info on the new Kim Smith book, Loran Rudder and the Secret Key. You’re an INSIDER!
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Naming characters is important and not just a little difficult. With Loran Rudder, I took special care in naming the characters all nautical-related names.A lot of the names and words in the book are sailboat influenced. Because of my brother who has TWO of the dumb things and so I spend some time out on the water. I thought that made sense. I guess that leads you to know that Loran Rudder has to do with sailing, and nautical themes, huh? Yeah, and the longer it gets the more it is leaning toward at least a trilogy, possibly more!

“Sam” in the book, is named after Bewitched, I grew up with Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stevens, and the magic she had in herself and the trouble that ensued when she had to use it–well, that is all captured in the book. Loran has to struggle to contain her special powers, and only use them for good.

“Fid’s” name almost got changed because I am pretty sure it looks like a made up name. Sometimes we don’t want our characters names to seem TOO invented. Some names are more literal. “Sparky Bilge” for one. The name “Sparky” comes from one of the first dogs we ever owned. He was a Jack Russell terrier and man, he was well… SPARKY. That dog tried to eat a garbage can one time. With the garbage man holding it.

I purposely gave “Doc”, “Emily”, and Loran their nicknames. DEE, EM, ELL. Get it? Like the letter D the letter M and the letter L. No reason really, just thought it was cool.

“Hannah” and “Isis” are very similar, twins in fact, and so are their proclivity toward the hated “Gala” and her plots to do Loran harm. “Jaws,” I think, is a relevant choice to the fact that the character is really an old softy.

I just wanted characters to stand out from usual people, after all, they are not normal! I made of point of having names that would make someone think about them.

“Madam” is the equal to all the great leaders in fantasy books that I have ever read. She is my Gandalf.

And there’s “Squeaky” If you know anything about snails, that might give you a hint to what he brings to the table. Or under it as it were since that is where he is found a lot of times.

Names definitely mean something in this book. So that’s something to keep your eye on, if you’re looking for hints about what I am about to publish next year…

Keep checking back for more insider info!