Into The Night Book Reviews: Blog Tour: The Frozen Star (the Star Series #2) by Jessie Lane

Thanks for stopping by to check out our post in the blog tour for The Frozen Star by Jessie Lane. This is book #2 in the Star Series and we've got lots to share with you today. We're even lucky enough to have Melissa, one half of the Jessie Lane writing duo, stop by to give us the goss on choosing character names in our guest post.

Title: The Frozen Star

Series: The Star Series #2

Author: Jessie Lane

Genre: Upper YA/NA Paranormal Romance

Blog Tour Organised by: The Author's Taproom

The journey continues:

Kay had discovered secrets, lies, shocking truths, and even love in a strange new world hidden from humans. Everything she thought she knew was turned upside down when she found out three things:

- She wasn’t human.
- She has a power she can't control.
- And there was a possibility that she had found a way to cure the cancer that was rapidly killing her with that very same power.

Then, just when she was on the precipice of gaining everything she wanted and saving her own life, tragedy struck. Will she be able to fight her way back to Ryan and save herself in the process?

Kira had lived a terrifying and confusing life of servitude and abuse under Lord Donovan and his son, Cole. It was an existence that had stripped away her emotions, and eventually, her reason to keep fighting. Just when she thought freedom was within reach, Lord Donovan struck again, ruining her plans and almost killing her in the process. When she awoke from her injuries, it was to stunning revelations that would change her life forever. Changes that she was not entirely sure she wanted to embrace.

Persistent individuals such as Prince Kane refuse to let her walk away, though. Will she embrace all of the sudden fortune in her life? Or will she walk away from those who need her most, forsaking their acceptance and love?" Insert Banner

Deciding on Character Names

Hi everyone! It’s Melissa from the Jessie Lane duo, and today I’ve stopped by Into The Night Reviews to talk about the character naming process. Picking a name for a character sometimes can take forever, while others just pop in our head because that is how we see the character and no other name will do. But when we are looking for those unique names, we like to put in some research to find it.

We take into account a lot of different aspects when we choosing a name for a new character. Some characters need a name that will help make them stand out to the reader so that they won’t forget them. Other characters need a name that helps them blend in to the background because they don’t really need to be memorable. Here are some of the questions we ask ourselves when choosing a name:

Where is the person going to be from?

What time period or era do they live in?

Do we want their name to mean something? What’s their heritage?

How unique do we want their name to be?

What does the character look like?
That would be the traditional approach to finding a character’s name, but Crystal and I aren’t traditional in any way. We were Facebook chatting this one instance and it involved a very awake and alert Crystal living in Kentucky and me testing out my new migraine medication, un-caffeinated, and dealing with the 3 hour time difference because I lived in Washington at the time.

We were searching for a German name with a strong meaning that was not only unique, but old enough for an old-school werewolf character in our Big Bad Bite Series. Needless to say about hour into our research, my medication kicked in and so did the pot of coffee I had consumed. As I posted name after name with their meanings, my in between banter was becoming more and more hilarious. Triggering Crystal to have some witty comebacks to my goofiness.

*Crystal digs up conversation on Facebook chat so the world can see Mel’s silly medicated self. Side note, here we are trying to come up with the bad betas name for the Corvus pack. Although Marcus Valerius Corvus was a roman, I was thinking a German name because Corvus took over the area of Germany for his pack in the book.*

Melissa - Love Muffin.

Crystal - A bad dude name is not love muffin.

Melissa - Oh u mean like bad guys bad.

Crystal - Yeah! lol

Melissa – lol. Your mom goes to college.

Crystal – Goober.

Melissa -Chester lol.

Crystal - That’s a dork name. Think bad and evil.

Melissa – Yogi.

Crystal - You're smokin’ crack aren't you?

Melissa - Migraine meds are NICE.

Crystal - LMAO! Hugh? Gunter? That's a German name.

Melissa - Hunter punter. Lol. Sorry I’ll be serious.

Crystal - Silly woman!

Melissa - Damain

Crystal - Not German. Goober. Hugo? Oh! Kaiser! Do you like Kaiser?

Melissa - Achmed, Kaiser Sosai! Love that movie. Wait, what we talking about again.....lmao

Crystal - A German name for the bad werewolf. Get it together woman!

Melissa - Marko

Crystal - Marko is not German woman! How much of those meds did you take?!

Melissa - Marko is on the name page I’m looking at.

Crystal - Your page lied! It’s not German and it's not on my page. Marko is like Italian or something.

Melissa - Malger, and it said "MARKO: Serbian and Slovene form of Greek Markos, meaning "defense" or "of the sea." Also in use by the Basques, Bulgarians, Dutch, Finnish, Germans, and Romani. Compare with another form of Marko." Radulf?

Crystal - Now read what you just sent me silly. It says right there that the Germans used it, but it is not of German origin. Like I said your page LIED to you, lmao!

Melissa - shush

Crystal - rotflmfao! What about Guy? Guy Schwartz?

Melissa - lmao and u call me a goober?

Crystal - Why does that make me a goober?!?

Melissa - Spaceballs. Let the Schwartz be with you.

Crystal - Whoops. Forgot about that, lmao.

*Crystal’s note before she leaves this post - I hope you enjoyed this example of our supreme goofiness, and before I leave, I’d just like to clarify one thing before it comes back to bite me in the tushy. The only ‘Chester’ I know who’s not a dork is the Chester from Linkin Park. If anybody would like to prove me wrong on this issue, feel free to submit proof in pictures of hopefully hot, half naked men. Thanks guys!*

*Melissa shakes her head at Crystal’s antics* Anyways, a few times we have changed their last names and maybe some nicknames, but for the most part their first names have pretty much stayed the same. I have a spreadsheet with all the names we have used, what series they are for and what the names mean. Plus a few dozen more that have caught my eye and I can see their characters forming in my head.

So, now you’ve had a sneak peek into what it’s like for us trying to pick a character’s name. Usually, the more unusual it is, the better. Out of curiosity, I’d like to know, what are some of your favorite character names?

Before I go I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to Into The Night Reviews for letting me stop by and chat today. I hope you all will check out Jessie Lane’s latest release, The Frozen Star, from our YA/NA Paranormal Romance & Fantasy series! Happy Reading!

Jessie Lane is the best-selling author of The Star Series, Big Bad Bite Series and the Ex Ops Series.

She lives in Kentucky with her two little Rock Chicks in the making and her over protective alpha husband. She has a passionate love for reading and writing naughty romance, cliff hanging suspense, and out-of-this-world characters that demand your attention, or threaten to slap you around until you do pay attention to them.

You can follow Jessie at: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Goodreads & her Amazon Author Page

Jessie writes Upper YA Fantasy/Paranormal Romance & Adult Paranormal and Contemporary Romance. She’s currently working on her next two novels, The Demon Who Loved Me (Big Bad Bite Series #3) and Stripping Her Defenses (Ex Ops Series #2).

M.L. Pahl (Melissa) has departed from the Jessie Lane pen name to pursue other things. She will be sorely missed, but I know she has an amazing future ahead of her. You can follow M.L. Phal at: Facebook and Twitter

You can also check out her Facebook page that she shares with her older brother Matthew Leo for their upcoming book, Zombies Don’t Ride Motorcycles, HERE.