The Book Post

The Siren Tour – Tales From The Road, Part II.

In yesterday’s blog, (unsurprisingly titled Tales From The Road, Part I), I mentioned The Makeddes. Since Fetish hit book shelves in 1999 I have been asked 1, why I named my main character Makedde, 2, where the name came from, and 3, how the f&%*# it is pronounced.
My answers:

3 Maa-Kay-Dee
2 I made it up. (I do write fiction, after all, and I liked that it could be shortened to ‘Mak’)
1 I was very young and I have no idea what I was thinking.

In the subsequent years that I have spent wondering what I was thinking in creating an unpronounceable protagonist in an ongoing thriller series, I have discovered that the name Makedde most closely resembles a male African name, though pronounced differently. Like every author, I wanted to create a memorable protagonist, and in my case a memorable name as well. But what I could not have possibly predicted was the slowly growing population of Makeddes that naming would create, many of whom I have met at book signings around the world. Incredibly, since my fictional Mak was launched into book shops, well-meaning parents have starting naming daughters after my troubled private eye/forensic psychologist...

I certainly hope the name proves luckier for these daughters of the future than it has for my beloved Mak, who has suffered several kidnappings, broken ribs, a broken jaw and a severed toe, amongst other minor set backs which include the obsessional attentions of various psychopaths, hit men and serial killers. She lives in a dangerous (fictional) world indeed, and is quite the psycho magnet if I may say so myself.

Thus, in addition to the arm-wrestling fans, the artists and the givers of dead flowers, I was delighted to again meet some young Makeddes on this tour, and wish them luck with their problematic name. The eldest was eight, and she has been forbidden to read the sordid tales of her namesake for six more years. (For the record, I read Stephen King from age ten, and it only made me a little freaky)

Check back for The Siren Tour - Tales From The Road Part III - The perils of live TV, network censors, and being called 'Kate'...

Happy reading,