I’ve been developing a new series telling the story of a group of college girls who also happen to be Ninjas. My inspiration for this has been every James Bond film ever plus the 1970s Charlie’s Angels TV series (though I was too young too watch it at the time).
Dreams Come True
Truly the inspiration for the series was a dream that I had several months ago. My daughter’s name is Anna, and one of her best friends is named Hannah. I’m sure it causes some confusion among their friend group, but for the most part they enjoy it. In my dream, they had several other friends with names that ended in “-anna” in some for or other. They were also awesome, Kick-Butt Ninjas.
Code Names
As I’ve brainstormed the series and how it will work, the biggest problem that I ran into was my frustration with having four or five main characters whose names all sounded alike. As I would read back what I had written, it sounded like I was in an “-anna” echo chamber. Joanna, Anna, Hannah, Savannah, . . .
So I decided that the characters would have a regular name and then they would have a Ninja code-name that ended in “-ana”. The four Ninja girls at the beginning of the first book are Susan (Susana), Katie (Katiana), Anna, and Hannah. I left Anna and Hannah with their regular names in honor of my daughter and her friend. Plus, they are the two that started the Ninja group (prequel maybe?). Also, they tend to be Yin and Yang to each other, so I thought it was fitting that their names are so similar when their personalities are so different.
Indie Publishing
The idea for the Ninja girl series fit well into the direction that I wanted to take my writing career. Before I go back and revamp my first manuscript to send it to other agents (the ones who haven’t rejected it yet), I wanted to explore the idea of Indie Publishing. It may turn out that all of the indie-haters are right and it isn’t a valid publishing path. But I’ve seen enough success stories (even moderate ones) that I think I’ll try it out for myself.
It also happens to fit well with my slightly control-freak-ish, slightly jack-of-all-trades-ish personality.