If you’ve read past posts about my books, then you will know how much thought and time I put into naming my characters. I like the names to mean something – to tell a little bit more about the person they’re given to.
When I started writing my murder mystery, I decided to take a bit of a different route – this time paying homage to my favorite characters on the many detective procedurals that I’ve watched over the years. And re-watched. Often. Aside from the friends who did the Kickstarter ‘add on’ to have a character named after them in this story, all characters pay tribute to these favs.
My main character is Alia Maselli, nicknamed Moz by her younger sister. While her given name isn’t an homage, her nickname is – in honor of the great Willie Garson who played Mozzie on White Collar. He is, easily, one of my favorite characters across all forms of storytelling. He is smart, loyal, and quirky. And I can’t imagine anyone else in that role. (A number of smaller character names also come from this show, thanks to the plethora of aliases that Neal has.)
Moz’s partner is Jane Acierno – a play on Jane Rizzoli, my favorite badass detective from Rizzoli &Isles. She’s both feminine and vulnerable, but can also kick butt and take names. It’s those moments when her soft side breaks through that I enjoy the most because it demonstrates how complex she really is. So when it came time to ‘casting’ Moz’s partner, it was a no-brainer. (In addition, my friend Brady’s character is modeled after Vince Korsack, who was Jane’s original partner on the show who retires and buys the bar they all hang out at.)
Ella Wolfe is named for Ella Lopez on Lucifer. She’s another of those characters that contains contradictions, which I love. She is both lightness and darkness. She is bright and bubbly, but she’s got a past that becomes present in the most inopportune times. In the story, my Ella is also a Forensics Tech and helps on a number of the cases that Moz works on. (And no, I don’t have a devil in this story. No magic realism this time around.)
Lt. Sean Jokala’s name honors two people. The first is Sean Murray, who plays my fav NCIS character, Tim McGee (he’s a bit nerdy and always trying to do his best). The second is Lt. Jokala, from the Madison police department (who was kind enough to answer some questions related to police work in the Madison district). (I also borrowed a bit of David McCallum’s Ducky for my own ME.)
In addition to taking an Introduction to Investigation course at the college where I teach, I’ve studied at the feet of so many of these shows (plus Bones and Brooklyn Nine-Nine and others that I’m unable to think of in the moment). I suppose it was only a matter of time before I created my own story. 🙂
Ami Maxine 