Okay readers, I need some help.

Publisher Elora’s Cave is looking for sweet Regency novellas for their Christmas anthology, and I’m going to give it a shot. It will be good for my brain and creative process to work on something else for a while–and it will be good for my work ethic to have a deadline that I can’t move!

Without giving too much away, I can tell you that the idea I have is for a male wallflower story. He’s a science geek who has been out of society on archaeological digs (things like excavating the Elgin marbles in Greece), and has only recently returned home. She is a duke’s daughter and a social butterfly who is being forced into a betrothal to a Bad Guy.

But neither of them have names.

Naming my characters is always one of the hardest parts of a story for me. I don’t have children of my own, but I imagine this is what it would feel like to name them (except that I get to know my characters as adults first 🙂 ). I agonize over baby name books, comb through lists of important and historical people. I dissect my family and friends–would I name a character after any of them?

This time, I’m enlisting help. Your help. I need a first and last name for my hero, Mr. Archaeologist. I also need a first and last name for my heroine, Lady Butterfly. Leave a comment on this post with your suggestion(s), and if I use yours you win a Kindle book!

Official Rules:

• You may suggest first names, last names, or first + last names for either or both characters.
• Repeated names will not be counted–please scroll through the comments to make sure someone else hasn’t already suggested the name you had in mind
• You must be able to download e-books from Amazon.com (as opposed to Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk, or another of Amazon’s regional sites) [NOTE: This is not because Amazon in any way sponsors or endorses this giveaway, but simply because that’s where I bought the books.] If you don’t have a Kindle, Amazon has free reading apps for various computers and tablets.
• One book will be awarded for each first name and each last name I choose, for a total of 4 possible winners
• One person may win more than one book
• Comments must be left on this post by 11:59 pm EST on Friday, February 28, 2014 to be eligible for this giveaway

Prizes:

• The Hanover Square Affair by Ashley Gardiner, book 1 in the Captain Lacey Regency mystery series
• Royal Renegade by Alicia Rasley, a traditional Regency romance novel
• Winning a Bride by Jade Lee, a steamy novella introducing the Regency Brides series
• Spy Wore Blue by Shana Galen, a Lord and Lady Spy novella