Soul Screamers Secrets by Rachel Vincent

Author Rachel Vincent’s paranormal YA series Soul Screamers continues with a new book about bean sidhes Kaylee and Nash, grim reaper Tod, and even more extraordinary characters — My Soul to Save, in stores now from Harlequin TEEN. But have you ever wondered what goes into creating a series like Soul Screamers? Rachel guest-blogs about some Soul Screamers secrets that gives you a glimpse into this writer’s creative world…

by Rachel Vincent, author of MY SOUL TO SAVE, book 2 of the Soul Screamers series (Harlequin TEEN, January 2010)

I’ve written three Soul Screamers novels so far, and one prequel novella, and I sincerely hope that from the outside, they look pretty polished, due in large part to the entire Harlequin Teen staff. But from the other side of the book shelf (my side, where the story comes from) the view isn’t quite so pretty. In fact, it’s often chaotic. And because the questions I hear most often concern the writing process (or other behind-the-scenes aspects) I thought I’d share a little of that chaos, and how I try to tame it. These are my Soul Screamers secrets:

• There was quite a body count in My Soul To Take, and I initially had trouble keeping up with them in the text. And because Kaylee had to refer back to them while she was putting the puzzle pieces together, I needed a way to keep everything straight. A way to remember what order the girls died in. My solution? Alphabetical last names. Seriously. They died in alphabetical order. Heidi Anderson, Alyson Baker, Meredith Cole, and Julie Duke. I can’t decide if I’m a genius, or the world’s biggest dork. You decide.

• I have issues with names. Seriously. Naming characters is HARD. Kaylee needed an Irish sounding name, but one that wouldn’t be hard to pronounce. In the end, I went with something simple and familiar, and fairly popular with actual American parents in the last decade.

Nash was more complicated. He had five previous names, and none of them seemed to fit. Unfortunately, the only one I can remember is Carter (weird, I remember the number, but not the actual names), which I ended up using for another character. But to be completely honest, even the name Nash doesn’t feel completely right to me. Even after seeing it in print. Maybe that means there’s more to Mr. Hudson than even I know so far…

Tod was easier. His name is one of the German translations for death. Similarly, Marg (from My Soul To Take) is Persian for death. Libitina (Libby, from My Soul To Save) is the Roman goddess of funerals.

Levi Van Zant (Tod’s boss) was originally named George, but my editor thought that was too similar to a character from an old series about reapers (Can you believe it?! I’ve never seen the show!), so I changed it to a name from the period of his actual life. His last name, incidentally, belongs to one of my husband’s co-workers. I loved his last name, and Mr. Van Zant said I could use it.

Sophie was originally named Sadie, but one of my agent’s other clients had just written a book about a character named Sadie, so I changed the name, just in case. Now, I can’t imagine Sophie with any other name.

• Titles are just as hard as names. Originally (way before submission ), My Soul To Take was called Soul Song. But when I googled the title, another recent book came up with that name, so I did some brainstorming and came up with not only a new title, but a title theme.

The only problem? There are so many Soul Screamers titles floating around in my head now that I tend to get them confused. More chaos, I tell you. So privately, I think of them by the color of their covers. There’s Green (MSTLose, the novella), Red (MSTTake), Blue (MSTSave) and Purple (MSTKeep) so far. And yes, that was a hint. I haven’t seen the final cover for My Soul To Keep yet, but it’s purple!

• Last of all, one event in My Soul To Save—a minor bit of chaos, or maybe just embarrassment—was inspired by my own real life. Or rather, my best friends. Have you read the book? Can you guess what it is? If you guess right, I’ll tell the story…

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