CANDOR improve your SAT score? Hey, that's what the poster says!

Yesterday I was at Albert Einstein High in Silver Spring, MD, for things entirely unrelated to writing, and a friend said, "do you see your book on those posters? They're everywhere!"

No, I did not see it--in fact I had been strolling past all of these great posters and not even glancing! In my defense, I was day-dreaming about my WIP at the time. Or maybe I was thinking about cupcakes. I'm not entirely sure. Either way, I was entirely distracted. 

As I've announced previously, CANDOR is a Black-Eyed Susan 2010/2011 Nominee. The winner in each category will be chosen by student readers' votes. It looks like the Media Center at Einstein High put together these great posters to encourage students to read the nominees and vote. What a thrill to see CANDOR up there!

One (top left) seems to be fanning the flames of the school's rivalry with Clarksburg High--love it! That's right, pick up a book and show those Coyotes! 

The next (at right) shows all of the Black-Eyed Susan noms for the high school level. I love that my book is next to my friend LK Madigan's FLASH BURNOUT. I like to think that Oscar and Blake are telling dirty jokes to each other from behind the book covers. It looks like Oscar is giving all the other noms the stink-eye. C'mon, Oscar, play nice. 

My favorite poster, below, would warm the heart of every good CANDOR teen who goes to SAT review parties on Saturday nights. 

"IMPROVE YOUR SAT SCORE... READ FOR PLEASURE", it entices. Better yet, do it with one of Campbell Banks' special CD mixes. Guaranteed results.

How I name my characters

I take naming my characters very seriously. There isn't a single character in my books that doesn't have a name of significance. Sometimes readers can pick up on why I chose that name--but other times it's a private meaning, just a touchstone for me.

A few examples:

--In my upcoming book, DROUGHT, the main character's name is Ruby. I chose that name for a number of reasons. First, rubies are a precious stone, and Ruby is precious to the Congregation that is her family. Even though most of them don't know it, her blood sustains their lives. I also liked naming this character after a gemstone that needs cutting, polishing, to be made beautiful--because Ruby will have to go through transformations before she reaches her potential too. And then there's the most obvious reason: rubies are red. So is blood.

--But the main character in my first book, CANDOR, got his name--Oscar--quite differently. In the first draft of CANDOR, he wasn't the son of the town founder. Heck, he wasn't even the main character. No. He was the son of the school custodian. He had the bad luck to be named Oscar, which meant he had to deal with a lot of kids teasing him--the custodian's kid living in a trash can just like Oscar the Grouch, etc. That gave him a chip on his shoulder. It's one of the few characteristics that survived as he evolved into the rich, smooth main character with big secrets. Somehow, I couldn't bear to change his name. I figured it sounded fancy, like a boy born into privilege. Besides, he wouldn't let me call him anything else. 

--I won't reveal any of the names in my new book, since it's still just a little baby idea and these things DO change, but I will share a few of my favorite places to research names:

• US Census Records. If I'm writing about teens in 2015, then I like to check their birth years to see which names were most popular then. Some characters should get very popular names, and others the most obscure.
• Baby name books--a favorite writers' tool. My go-to book is titled THE BEST BABY NAME BOOK IN THE WHOLE WORLD, by Bruce Lansky. 
• Graveyards records and landholder records--some you can find via Google while others you will only find at your local research library. I chose some of the last names in DROUGHT (Pelling, Prosser, Schuyler) from common property holder names in upstate New York. 

Happy character naming!

The three REAL Candors

Recently my friend Amy was driving through the Ithaca area in New York and took this picture of a road sign (undoctored, I promised):

Yes! There are real towns named Candor. I don't know if anybody in those towns has actually read my book. Or maybe they haven't... because they live in the REAL one. And Campbell Banks certainly wouldn't allow such a thing in his town. ;)

There are three Candors in the world, that I know of:

• Candor, NY (population 5,317)
• Candor, NC (population 855)
• There is also an area called Candor in France!

Who knows? Maybe other real-live-Candors are lurking out there too...

Brainwashing beyond CANDOR

The people at Audi seem to be picking up the brainwashing waves from CANDOR... I wonder if all these people have been listening to the same Messages? :)

Zee Avi sings Nia's song?

I don't want to spoil CANDOR's ending for anyone, so I suggest that you skip this post if you haven't finished the book! 

Zee Avi's song "Honey Bee" is a song that some CANDOR fans might think Nia would sing to Oscar after the book ends... check it out here: