Don't you think "Brynn" is the perfect Brynn? At least for the first few books; then she'll have to grow up a bit.
We are doing a photo shoot this weekend, after the release party for "No Promises" at the Big House. It will be a busy day! Hope for great fall weather with beautiful mountains and leaves, but fog would be nice too.
Most people don't know that the original setting for all the McKenna books was Minnesota...! The reason was basically that I LOVE snow; silly as that sounds. The weather plays a big role in the books, mainly because the Family business is farming and the harsh winters of Minnesota provided some story lines in themselves.
When we moved back home to the family land in North Georgia, I went to work providing home health care to several indigent families in the hills. Some were so far up in the hills, my four wheel drive truck was a necessity to reach them. It was during the long hours of talking to these elderly people and becoming an honorary member of their families that I realized that they had an important story to tell.
The Appalachian people have a unique culture that has been mostly looked down upon. "Hillbilly" and "redneck" has been bad words for many years. Southern accents, and especially accents from more regional parts of the South, get laughed at. In any TV show or movie, you can pick out the dumb one as the one with the hillbilly accent, who will probably get killed off quickly. With so much emphasis on racism, it seems that regional bigotry is still not only acceptable, it is very fashionable.
I don't like fashions very much; anyone in my family could tell you that. And I REALLY don't like bigotry, in any form. I felt as if my McKenna Family would be perfect for the Southern Appalachians, and that the Southern Appalachian people would have something to teach the McKennas who originally settled here, and also to teach subsequent readers. The quiet dignity, ingenuity, humor, and resilience of the hill people are greatly underestimated and rarely documented. But, they have wisdom to impart.
Which is another reason why the McKenna Chronicles are difficult to pigeonhole and market. Southern Appalachian folks are not really in style.
Which is the way I like them.