Readers of "Mightier than the Sword" may wonder where the main character's name came from. Derek is a conventional enough name for a young American businessman, but where did the last name Farfield come from?

That actually has a bit of a story behind it.

I played tennis in high school and had a great coach--he was this very old man, hunched over, not all that quick with his legs, truth be told, but his racket was super fast and he could destroy any of the girls on the team without having to take more than a few steps at a time. His shots were deadly accurate, as was his advice. And those eyes . . . piercing blue, to the point where when he got in your face to rally your spirits during a losing match, you'd have to look away. They were incredibly intense.

But he was a sweet man, not intimidating. Just . . . intense.

His name was Holman. Coach Holman. And I loved having him teach me for four years. I owe him a lot, in truth.

For whatever reason, my freshman year of high school, I would come home and tell stories about the team and Coach Holman and my younger brother would forget my coach's name and ask, "Hey Meg, got any stories about Coach Farfield?"

I got irritated because after the first few times I pointed out his error, my brother continued to call him Coach Farfield.

So much so that one day at practice, I was confused during a drill and yelled out, "I have a question Coach Far-- uh Coach Holman."

The old man gave me an odd look with those blue, blue eyes of his, but didn't comment on my name slip.

After that though, it became commical every time my brother called him Coach Farfiled. And it turned out that after tennis season, about a month later, I began plotting out "Mightier than the Sword". I knew I wanted to name my main character Derek, just because I liked the name and had never used it in any previous writing.

But what to do about a last name?

And then it hit me. Farfield. Derek Farfield.

And guess what color Derek's eyes are?