And speaking of names...

I have one more story to write for the marathon and while the stories are coming easily, the one thing that is not are the character names.

I've written thirty stories with an average of three names per story - some with more, but I ain't counting them; that makes ninety or more first and second, and nicknames I've had to come up with.

I've dipped into The Great Australian and New Zealand Book of Baby Names by Cecily Dynes - it has 10,000 names - and thought the rest up myself.

Luckily, there are also a number of sites out there to assist should you get stuck:

20000-Names has over that number; All-Names has links to name sites, and is probably a good place to start if you want something different or traditional.

It's actually fun to come up with names. Or perhaps 'fun' is the wrong word? It's more like, once I've got a picture of the protagonist in my head, the name arrives soon after. Sometimes it works well, and sometimes the names need a little tweaking to suit the plot. I'm rarely dissatisfied or disappointed, but it sure is nice to have some backup in case I have an empty-headed moment where no names arrive.