I wanted to share the origin of some of the names of people and my thoughts on a few of the characters in The Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol.  

The names of all of the people in Mandy’s extended family come from actual names of my family (my wife, my kids and their spouses, my grandkids, and a few of my siblings); and, from my niece Gina’s family (her husband, her sons, her parents/my brother).  Some of the names used are nicknames or derivatives of the real-life names, while some are identical.  I mixed things up a bit though, the names of some of the parents in Mandy’s family are actually grandkids in mine.  Some adults in real-life, are kids in the book.  Switching this all up, made it fun for me, and especially imagining the reaction of everyone when they discover how their name is used!

What was more fun was coming up with interesting names for the ancient characters and places.  For example – Mathias Phefvenscen (Phef the Wizard) has a number of sources. 

1. Phefvenscen is an anagram made up from the letters of my parents’ last names.  Even is my family name.  My mother’s maiden name was Schnepf. 
2. Mathias is a derivative of my grand-father’s nickname: Matty.  I never quite learned where “Matty” came from as his full name was Joseph Theodore Even.  I do know is that he acquired the nickname when he was playing semi-pro baseball after he returned from World War I.
3. While the character JT appears to come from the term “just the valet”, it also honors my grandpa who was known as JT “Matty” Even.  So – both character’s names were inspired by his name.

Speaking of JT, he’s a pretty interesting character and is far more than, as he puts it, “just the valet”.  JT is a powerful wizard in his own right, and is destined to be more than just a “helpful guide” to Mandy and her cousins.

Now, as for the characters themselves, there happens to be a little bit of me in each of the three main characters.  I won’t reveal which parts of which character are my own attributes, but let’s just say that not all of the attributes are positive ones.  I also drew inspiration from my own children and grand-children, having watched their personalities and abilities grow from infancy on.

And, after writing the Dragonstone Stories series, I felt it was important to learn even more about Phef, Loganna, and JT.  Their stories are posted on this website under the section titled “Background Stories”.  Check them out to get a better understanding and perspective of these important characters in The Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol.