Friday, August 10, 2007

So sue me Bubba.

Okay, some good things happened today. Number one is that I took my last three dollars and forty one cents and got the combo at Dunkin Donuts and gave the kid another donut this morning and she now knows beyond all shadow of a doubt that I am in fact the coolest mommy ever. Of course, the time out she got tonight for pitching a screaming fit on the potty might have erased the aura of the donut...don't know for sure.

The doggie I'm trying to find a home for is right now underneath my feet shreading a little foam football I got while I worked at Clemson. It's keeping her from jumping in my lap and slobbering all over my favorite sweats so I'll let her continue to shread and I'll pick up bits of foamy orange and white in the morning. The sacrifices I make for this blog and my future fame!

I started the process of changing the names in my manuscript today, you know, to protect the guilty. This was a disturbing thing. I find that I don't like creating falsities. I mean, yeah there will be that little disclaimer at the beginning of the book, but I can't stand reading something when I know it's not the person's real name. My name of course will be correct, and if my family promises not to shoot me, their names will be correct, but most others will have to be changed. What have lawsuits done to America?! And then there was the task of trying to come up with the "right" false name. I found myself wanting to give stupid characters names like Bubba. No really, just kidding...but it was strange. I couldn't decide on each one if the new name I came up with sounded authentic enough. I went on the Social Security website and researched popularity of names and tried to find a real name that would have been given to the person in the same year he/she was born. I went on baby naming websites to search for cool sounding names I wouldn't have otherwise thought of. I even pulled out the phonebook to look for authentic Southern surnames. I mean, I put a lot of effort into this. Who knows..? Might be a movie one day and who'd want to play a guy named Bubba or a girl named Jonnie Sue? The real names will always be the coolest. Even as a novice author I've already found something that irritates me. Changing the truth.

3 comments:

Lori said...

tonight ariel gore inspired me to start writing my story (untold for 20 yrs already). also found myself not wanting to change "names of the guilty"- they are really cool names that really captured the personas. i wondered how i would find good aliases. Txs for the ideas! btw - i’m in east ATL. how funny i found u thru a Portland blog!

Heather A Posey said...

Thanks for reading! Let me know how your book progresses - you are writing a memoir as well?

Unknown said...

What'd you change my name to? ;-)