My main reason for changing the surname was the poet Robert Frost...

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

Ass and butt are worse than rear or derrier because the Anglo Saxons were conquored by the Normans.  The Normans were French and therefore took over the aristocracy.  Therefore, the gutteral Anglo-Saxon words (butt, ass, shit, fuck, etc) because the "low" or "crass" way of saying things, while the romance French way (derrier, deficate, intercourse, etc) because the "proper" way.  This has also made words change meaning.  "Stool" (Germanic), for example, originally had the same meaning as "chair" (Romance).  However, the common Anglo-Saxons were the ones who owned small, short bits of wood with no back and called them stools, while the rich aristocrats owned plus seats with backs and arms and called them chairs.

Thus endith the English lesson.

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

My main characters tend to be males aged between 16 and 28 and I almost exclusively write in a contemporary setting.  My characters are also usually very passionate people who wear their hearts on their sleeves.  One of my characters is also Irish.  Therefore, my characters curse.  Sometimes, an inordinate amount.  Why?  Because 20-something males curse.  A lot.  I actually tone it down from my normal speech patterns.  Do I have them f-bombing every page?  No.  That's not how people talk.  People don't swear indiscriminately.  They build up filters based on the social situations.  At work, instead of yelling out an s-bomb when I stub my toe at work or drop something,  I yell out "Crap!"  But if I'm home alone and I drop something, I will spew forth a string of curses which would make a sailor blush.

In my opinion, I feel that you should write for your audience and write for your characters.  Would Michael swear?  Probably not.  Would Harry?  Probably.  Would one of Marcone's low-level thugs?  Probably every third word.  The Dresden Files isn't meant for children.  Dancing around cursing by characters would feel awkward in the prose.  If you're writing something for young adults or children, then of course you should cut out the cursing. 

Here's the big thing, though...many people are offended by certain words.  For some people, it's the f-word.  For most women, it's the c-word.  However, you have to balance in your mind alienating some of your audience by using these words and how much the prose suffers from losing them.

In my opinion, the worst thing you can do break the fourth wall by using fake curse words unless it's something your character would do.  If you watch the TV show Scrubs, it's part of the character of Elliot that she doesn't swear and says words like "frick!" when she would normally curse.  However, if you use "friggin'",  "freakin'", "crap", "heck", etc. too much without a good reason, it will seriously damage the flow of the narrative because it makes me think about the author's motivation.  This is really bad in sci-fi and fantasy because authors in these genres have a bad habit of making up curse words.  I love Battlestar Galactica, but I'm SO sick of "frak".  Shadowrun finally ditched "drek" and "frag".  Red Dwarf is at least creative about replacing curses, but "smeg" became comedic after a while.

Just like the choice of how graphic your violence should be and how much detail you should use in describing sex, you have to think about your audience and the style you're going for.  The prose should come first above anything else.  Don't censor yourself at the expense of your story and your style.

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

Huh?  No, that means they definately WILL be signing!  That's the point of the author's room...the fans walk around the maze of tables, buy books, chat with the authors, stare at cleavage, and get their stuff signed.  What I don't know is if they'll be doing anything else other than signing for three hours.

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

Apparently, Romantic Times has been trying to get around that stigma by expanding into basically any fiction written by or aimed to females.  The title of the magazine is now "RT Book Reviews".

But I've been to them several times (I used to manage a bookstore, and it was owned by my mom so she'd take me when I was a kid).  While it's about a 10:1 or 15:1 ratio of women to men (with the husbands usually in the hotel bar or across the street with the kids at Astroworld (before it closed down anyway) or at the Astrodome watching the game (before the Astros got a new stadium)), there are a lot of men there.

For the record, you don't have to spend the $300-500 for the actual convention unless you want to attend the panels and everything.  The author signing is only $5 and takes place in a big giant ballroom.

By the way, if you're a single guy, be sure to wear sunglasses.  The women -- especially the authors -- usually wear dresses that show a LOT of cleavage...and these women definitely have a lot of it to show...Make sure no one can see your eyes when wearing the glasses so that you won't get caught staring. :p

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

Maybe I overthink things, but I feel that the name should reflect the character's personality.  For one thing, I wouldn't have named that character Robert Frost anyway if I'd thought about it for another five seconds or so because his main magic is based on fire.  Plus, I like having something that ties the character's name to the character's personality to make it easier for readers to remember.  If I name a minor character "Aiden", then you'll think of fire (Aiden means "Flame-bringer" or something like that).  If he is a very passionate person with his feelings always at the surface, this ties the name to the character and makes it easier to remember.  However, if he was a very cool and collected person, then it would be the wrong name for him.  I mean I could randomly look up the cast and grew for Day of the Dead and start matching up names, but then it'd lose a lot of meaning.

And I can't change names.  I've tried, but it doesn't work.  In one project I was working on, there was man and a woman who were originally siblings both from Houston, TX.  I then changed the male character to being from Ireland and having moved to the US a few years previous to the story.  However, I could not bring myself to think of the character as anything other than the name I had originally chosen for him.  So now I'm forced to figure out a believable way to have her still be from Houston and him from Ireland yet still keep them siblings.

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

I gave up on that.  I kept giving stuff I'd written to friends to get opinions and the conversation, no matter how well-read or educated the person, would go like this:

Me: So what did you think?
Them: It was good!
...
...
...
Me: And?
Them: And what?
Me: Care to expound a little more?
Them: What?  I liked it, it was good.
Me: Well, what did you like?
Them: Everything.
Me: Was there anything you didn't like?
Them: Not really.  It was good.
...
Them: What?
Me: Seriously, you're not going to hurt my feelings.  Just tell me honestly what you thought.
Them: I liked it!
...
...
Them: What?
Me: <mumbled> Thanks.

And I just don't have the heart to tell them that they did NOTHING to help me.

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.