I follow a lot of authors on social media because I draw inspiration and knowledge from their experiences. I love hearing them talk about how they develop their books, from their writing process to choosing their characters' profession. It's fascinating to me because no one author's process is the same as anyone else's.

The one thing that blows my mind is when authors say they don't put a lot of thought into the names of their characters. I love names. I love collecting pretty or unusual or strong names, and I've been inspired by names to develop a character for a particular story. I have a list of female and male names, of potential names of cities or towns, and even of pets names, and I draw from this list when choosing just the right names for my characters. I've been compiling this list for years, and I add to it all the name.

For instance, just today, I was sitting in my living room with my husband as he was watching a rerun of a classic TV show he loves. The title of the episode was a person's last name, but when I saw it, I thought it would make a great name for a town. So it got added to the list.

For Knight's Haven, Tristin's name was taken from that same list, but when I first started writing it, I was spelling the name differently. But as I was writing the draft, I kept going back to the spelling I ended up using. I can't explain why I chose this spelling over the one I started with (Tristan), but when my brain gets fixated on a certain thing, I go with it.

Now Kat's name just came to me as I was developing the character. But when it came to choosing her full name, I knew I didn't want it to be something that was expected. Most of the time, if I meet someone called Kat, it's short for Katherine or Katrina or something like that. I decided I wanted her full name to be long, to be a bit of a mouthful, but to have a musical texture to it so when Tristin chooses to use her full name, it has a sensual, intimate feel. So to me, Katarina fit the bill perfectly.

When it came to choosing Cole and Sydney's names for Knight's Rescue, I first found photos that served as the inspiration for my characters. At the time, they were just stock photos I found through a Google search. As I looked at the photos and reviewed my list, the names just seemed to fit. I've always loved both names, and as the story developed, the names just felt right.

There are times where I assign characters names that just pop in my head at the time I introduced that character. An example of this is Sydney's ex-fiance in Knight's Rescue, the antagonist, Emmett. I'm not sure why that name was the first to come into my mind when I started writing the book, but it stuck, so I ran with it.

I'm always looking for potential names, so if you happen to have a suggestion, feel free to comment or email me. I love unusual names or traditional names that have been shortened to unique nicknames.

So let the suggestions flow!