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Heidi Peltier
Author
The Book of the Delmar #3: Involuntary Kings
Names:
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MERRICK: Merrick means "strong ruler" or "ruler of the sea." Obviously, Prince Merrick was named after his original Delmar ancestor Merrick who was the first King of Isola di Squalo. He is the first Delmar to have that name since the original. I felt that Dylan really felt a connection to the family legend, especially after encountering the beast himself, and I thought he'd want to pay homage to the first Delmar.
DEZIRAE (DEZ): Dezirae means "desired," and from what I researched, is a name used in the Caribbean. The character of Dez is modeled almost entirely on my niece whose name is Desney (we call her Des). And yes, she is a softball player, a pretty good one as a matter of fact (she's now a college freshman and playing ball for her university). She is also kind and brave and strong and caring, just like Dez in the book. Our Des is chasing stars, and I know she's going to catch them someday!
Me and Des at her Sweet 16 party.
DASH: Funnily enough, the name Dash seems to mean "one who runs fast." I wonder if that's true! The character of Dash isn't really based on anyone at all. The name Dash is one that I actually suggested to my sister-in-law when she was pregnant with my nephew. She wanted a "D" name, and I thought Dash would be really cute. She went with Darius, but my other nephew's name is Cash. So Dash is kind of a combo of Darius and Cash. When I was writing the character of Dash, the image I had in mind was the character played by Doug E. Doug (Sanka Coffee) in the movie "Cool Runnings." In fact, when I was writing Dash's dialogue, I played the words with Sanka Coffee's voice in my head.
Doug E. Doug as Sanka Coffee in
"Cool Runnings."
left to right: Rory (my son), Cash & Darius
comparing Easter egg loot.
left to right: Cash, Rory & Darius at Rory's
birthday party. (They were all born within
12 months of each other.)
THE HURRICANES: The hurricanes in Involuntary Kings were all named after members of my family. Some felt that the intensity of the storm did not match the personality of the individual for whom it was named. But actually, a lot of thought went into what month the storm hit the island. In case you don't know, storms are named alphabetically, so storms in June would have to start with letters near the beginning of the alphabet. Storms in November start with letters near the end (of course, that depends on how many storms there are that season.) So, naturally, my June storm was named for Ava, and my October storm was named for Reed.
from left to right: Hurricane Erick, Hurricane Dennis, Hurricane Kyra, Hurricane Ava, Hurricane Reed
DR. KATE: Dr. Kate Penn-Warren was also named after some members of my family. I have an aunt named Kathryn and a second cousin named Kate.
MISCELLANEOUS:
THE CAB RIDE: When the Delmars first arrived in the Caribbean and had to take that harrowing cab ride, some may have questioned why royals would take a cab in the first place. They probably wouldn't. But I had to include that story because it actually happened to me and my husband. We visited the Caribbean during a cruise several years ago and feared for our lives when we got into an old minivan with one seatbelt for the two of us and a driver who probably didn't have a license. Thankfully, we survived the ride and managed to find a ferry back to our ship instead of taking another cab. At the time, it was very scary, but now, we look back on it and laugh. It's still a running joke with us (by the way, my husband is a police officer) that the "only lah is the da seatbelt lah" in the Bahamas.