Saturday, February 11, 2012

Derp? Chime In

Just now on Facebook, ":Redacted: could you please do me a huge favour and if possible write my daughters name into your next book? Her name is :redacted: and if you could do that not only would I continue to be a huge fan and be eternally grateful :)"

That was left as a comment to a general post by a popular MG author.  It wasn't a call for people to help him find names for a character (which I sometimes see).  It wasn't a contest wherein the winner would get their name in the author's next novel. 

I don't know about you, but I think that takes tremendous cajones.  I wonder what they were thinking.  Was it a case of 'it never hurts to try' or what?  Do readers develop such a relationship in their heads with the authors they love that asking a favor like that seems natural?  Or have we reached a place in civilization where common courtesy has gone by the wayside?

Maybe it's just me.  I'd never be so presumptuous as to think any author would grant me that kind of favor.  (I mean, unless it's someone I know really well and I jokingly said 'hey, if you like me so much, name a character after me'.)

Feel free to chime in.  How would you feel if some random person asked you to name a character after their kid?  Would you ever do that with a favorite author of yours?

Funny story: A while back - maybe last year - I was reading a favorite author's latest romantic suspense and saw that one of her secondary characters had my last name.  Since I visit her blog and comment regularly, I jokingly thanked her for the honor and she said something about it being subconscious.  (Okay, maybe not that funny.  Guess you had to be there.)

4 comments:

  1. Omg! That's outrageous! I would never ask an author to name a character after me or anyone else I know!

    LOL that's neat that she had a character named after you. That must have been entertaining to find while reading ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nope, couldn't do it - am always amazed at those people who can (and do)! Question is - if the author doesn't, will this person cease being a fan (implied) and possibly a stalker (yeah, that's where my mind tends to go)?

    Cool about your 'claim to fame'!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think that people growing up in a digital age think that the people in their computer are their best friends, no matter who they are or if they ever even look at their comments pages. So maybe that was it?
    erica

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can't ever imagine having the nerve to do something like that. Mind you my daughter's name, Saskia, seems to keep cropping up in romance novels at the moment, and each time the character is spiteful or nasty in some way! Poor Sas.

    ReplyDelete