Things I’ve Done in the Past 24 Hours

1. Changed the name of one of my main characters.
2. Changed it again.
3. Wrote angsty emails to my editor and Carrie Ryan about the name of my main character.
4. Consulted approximately seven thousand naming sites on the internet for insight into what I should do next.
5. Made the questionable decision to take my eleven month old to the Bethesda Library to hear Ellen Hopkins talk.
6. Listened to Ellen Hopkins talk for 15 minutes.
7. Removed Q and self from Ellen Hopkins’s talk since Q decided to not be quiet.
8. Played with Q and a set of rather sexist “career dolls” in the children’s room of the Bethesda Library (seriously? Why was it male doctor, female nurse, male police man and female cashier?) while I waited for the end of the Ellen Hopkins talk.
9. Got Tricks and Perfect signed by Ellen Hopkins, who was very sweet to Q.
10. Drove home from Bethesda with a snoozing Q in the backseat, and, as often happens during quiet night-time drives, had a brainstorm about my naming issue.
11. Came home and started Googling names again.
12. Randomly saw an ex-boyfriend playing a bit part on a TV show.
13. Almost spit my pizza across the room when I saw it.
14. Reveled in the cooler temperatures.
15. Doodled five variations on the new character names onto a sheet of paper.
16. Realized I looked like a middle schooler doodling the name of her crush on her Trapper Keeper.
17. Realized it looked even more like that because one of the names actually was the name of a guy I dated in high school — NOT the guy I’d just seen on TV. (And guys, I’ve had like three ex-boyfriends in my life.)
18. Considered whether I could actually name a love interest in a teen book the same name as a guy I’d dated when I was the character’s age.

I am still undecided. I am ruminating over a pot of tea. What say you?

(Yes, this is what making a book looks like. Why do you ask?)