I initially wanted Peri to be called Peony. But Peony is such a sweet name, and Peri isn’t a very sweet person. I think she’d turn her nose up at Peony.
Peri is also the name of girl in a book that I liked as a kid. I don’t remember the name of the book, but she was named after periwinkle snails, not flowers like my Peri is, and she had something to do with the sea. I liked the thoughtful feeling that book gave me.
Roy on the other hand… his name was always meant to be a placeholder. I wanted to make his name a lot nicer–for some reason, Roy didn’t strike me as heroic enough. Then I got to know him better (as well as his parents), and Roy sort of grew on me–the name, not the guy. Eww. And then… the fact that it’s a shortened version of Roy** made me laugh. Silly joke, but I have a silly sense of humour 😛
I’m still trying to figure out the dragon’s name. Dragon names are tough. They should be cool, but also powerful, and somehow match the feeling you get from imagining a dragon. You can’t have a dragon named Bob. Or can you…? *sweatdrop* You can tell, naming isn’t my strong suit.
Talking about Bobs, I just read A Wizard’s Defensive Guide to Baking by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon). Let me just say… I fell in love. I never knew I wanted a sourdough started called Bob, but now I totally do. These are the kinds of stories that make me love reading and hence writing.
Of course, because I liked her story, I had to go stalk Ursula a little. Which is how I found this: Hugo award acceptance speech…
Which led me to finding this lovely video. Who doesn’t love videos of deep and dark unseen depths where odd looking things (don’t octopuses look like skulls with legs?) devour each other?
If you have other wonderful videos of whale fall, feel free to share. I find such things oddly inspiring.