Samhain Publishing

I haven’t written historical romance, at least not yet. But I love to read it and I so admire the authors who manage to get it right, by evoking a feeling of place and time while telling a compelling, engaging story.

This month I have a novella coming out that has a minor historical component. For somewhat complicated reasons, the heroine doesn’t really age for most of the book. So she comes from an earlier time. The first thing I wanted to get right was her name. I thought it was key. (Names are always important, but it seemed even more important for this story.) There are, of course, lots of names that were used one hundred and two hundred years ago and are used now, for example, Elizabeth, Anne, Jane, etc. etc.

But I chose a name I’ve wanted to use for ages and I just needed to find the right heroine for it. In my teens I read a book that was very popular in Canada, by an author that most high school students had to read back then. And while I didn’t like all of Margaret Lawrence’s books equally, I loved The Diviners. The main character in that book, so vividly portrayed, was named Morag.

And I used that name for my heroine in Selkie Island. She, like Lawrence’s Morag, has a very Scottish background. That’s probably about all they have in common. (The books are entirely different too, given that The Diviners is CanLit, about a middle-aged writer, and Selkie Island is a paranormal romance.)

If I ever write another book with any kind of historical component, I’ll probably agonize long and hard over the name. I’ve had this time-travel idea noodling around in my brain for quite some time…

Jorrie Spencer
www.jorriespencer.com
Selkie Island coming August 18