Please join me in welcoming Karin Harlow here today to Dark Faerie Tales. The first book in her L.O.S.T. series, Enemy Lover, was recently released on May 25, 2010. Enemy Lover is also part of my Debut Paranormal Romance Reading Challenge.
One lucky commenter has a chance to win a copy of Enemy Lover and a custom L.O.S.T. latte mug. Details are listed at the end of the post.
Character Names
by Karin Harlow
Angela thank you for the invite to hang out at Dark Faerie Tales. Angela is my heroine’s name in ENEMY LOVER, until she is extracted by L.O.S.T.
Speaking of names. What’s in a name anyway? Or titles? My heroine, Jax Cassidy, formerly known as Angela Giacomelli is a girl who grew up in Little Italy in Baltimore City and while she had a father who was more of a sperm donor than an actual parent, Angela challenged life with a smile and devil-may-care attitude. She was bulletproof. It showed in everything she did. She excelled in life, she believed in herself and loved challenges and the adrenaline rush that came with them. But something terrible happens to Ange, and despite the horror, she survived. Her spirit didn’t die as so many other things that night. It was the betrayals that came after her terrible ordeal that defined who she would become. Old wounds festered, yet her sprit turned into anger and the demand for justice. She crosses a big line. And pays for it by being sentenced to 20 plus years in prison.
Angela means Messenger of God. In what she did, as a cop and finally to exact justice for those who could not do it themselves, she acts as if she was the messenger of God’s wrath.
When Ange is extracted by L.O.S.T. Last Option Special Team, she is erased and in her place, Jax Cassidy rises from the ashes of Angela’s former life. Why did I pick the name Jax Cassidy for the woman Angela would become? Because it’s cool like Jax. And also the name of a writer friend of mine, the real life Jax Cassidy.
The acronym L.O.S.T. has two meanings. First, Last Option Special Team, but more than that, when you become a member of L.O.S.T. you are in effect LOST to all who knew you and to who you were. You are reborn. Hence the Phoenix as L.O.S.T.’s insignia.
The villain in ENEMY LOVER, book one in the L.O.S.T. series, is named Joseph Lazarus. He’s a deadly and very powerful vampire. The bible talks about Lazarus’s rise from the dead. And so, with Joseph Lazarus he rises from his human death to his new life as a vampire.
Then there is my hero in ENEMY LOVER, Marcus Cross. Marcus’s name has double meaning. Marcus means dedicated to the God of War, Mars. In his human life, Marcus was a special ops sniper. His maker, Joseph Lazarus, is a colonel who eliminates any real or perceived enemy of the state. Marcus is his go-to assassin. Then there is Marcus’s last name Cross. How ironic is that? Vampires are construed as all things evil. To bear the name of such a holy and revered symbol as the cross is a heavy load to bear is it not?
But Marcus Cross is a man who confuses the paradox. He too is severely damaged, and flawed. Yet he too is LOST but then is found and undergoes several transformations and truly is representative of all that the mystical phoenix stands for.
And oddly enough? I never once gave any of those name factors a thought, well, with the exception of Lazarus. The names, the themes, the tone of my characters just naturally fit them and their story.
As does the title ENEMY LOVER embody the relationship between Jax and Marcus. They are enemies of the highest order. Each is commanded to eliminate the other, yet, there is something stronger, something intangible but defining between them that transcends every thing and every one, except themselves. It’s heady stuff the chemistry between Jax and Marcus. It was heady before they met on page and that headiness pulled me along at breakneck speed the entire time I wrote ENEMY LOVER. I was fortunate in that. I didn’t have to do much except write what I was told. It’s a writer’s greatest gift, to have two characters so meant to be.
So, that brings me to a question for you all: What is your favorite fictional character’s name (feel free to tell us what it means, but not mandatory)? If you comment with an answer, you will be eligible to win a very cool, custom L.O.S.T. latte mug!
Thanks again, Angela for the invite to hang to today!
A full time writer, Karin spins dark tales of suspense, love and things that go bump in the night. Drawing from her life as a cop’s wife, her stories resonate with authority and reality. When Karin isn’t writing, she enjoys traveling the California coast line with her husband and one or more of her four children or getting together in far off places with her writing buddies.
You can visit Karin around the web here: Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook
Synopsis (Product Description):
When you have no alternative, then you call in L.O.S.T. Because with the Last Option Special Team, it’s do or die. . . . It’s Jax Cassidy’s first mission for L.O.S.T.—one that will give the former cop who went rogue a chance to prove herself. Her assignment: gain the trust of assassin Marcus Cross . . . eliminate him . . . then take down Marcus’s mentor, Joseph Lazarus, a man with a bold eye on the White House. But the woman who’s known by her team for being a femme fatale succumbs to passion, only to discover Cross’s deadly secret. He’s a vampire, and Joseph Lazarus is his creator.
Left for dead by his platoon in the violent hills of Afghanistan, Special Ops sniper Marcus Cross was given a second chance at life. His newly heightened skills make him the perfect killing machine, and as Lazarus’s right-hand man, he’s quickly rising to the top of his dark empire, purging enemies with speed and precision. Only when dangerous beauty Jax Cassidy is sent to bring him in does he begin to question Lazarus’s motives and his own actions. But when Jax’s life is threatened by the one thing that can destroy them both, Marcus must make a bitter choice—her death or his.
GIVEAWAY GUIDELINES:
One lucky commenter will have a chance to win a copy of Enemy Lover and custom L.O.S.T. latte mug.
To enter, leave a comment below answering the following question:
What is your favorite fictional character’s name (feel free to tell us what it means, but not mandatory)?
1. +1 entry for answering the question (required).
2. +2 entries for becoming a follower of this blog and Dark Faerie Tales on Twitter.
3. +3 entries for tweeting about this contest, blogging about it, linking via your sidebar etc…(please tell me where!).
4. Giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only.
5. Please include your email address in your comment.
6. Giveaway ends Friday, June 18th at 11:59 PM EST.
7. The winner will be picked with the help of Random.org.
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Plus, it just sounds intense.
on 
on