Naming
All the people I know have taken great care when they were naming their children. Some have named a child after a member of the family, or some give a name because it sounds good to them – the poetry of it. When the newspaper gives a list of the most commonly used names of the past year, I see that out of nowhere a popular name has arisen. I didn’t know a single Jacob when I was young. Now the name is widely used. A baby’s first word is most often the name of his parent: mama, papa. I agonize over titles for my novels because it is the first hint a prospective reader will have of what is inside. I think the title of my first novel, Flora, Write This Down, was my most successful. The title of my fifth, last novel is too long. In the book of Genesis, God brought each beast and fowl to Adam to name, Adam’s first action. “And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”