Today I welcome author Dana Michelle Burnett!
First off, thanks so much for having me on the blog today!
Often whenever I’m talking (or in this case writing) about my Spiritus Series or Possessed in particular, one question I’m often asked is how I came up with the characters names.
Because Possessed is about a Civil War soldier haunting the reincarnation of the wife that murdered him, I had to create names for my characters that would exist both then and now. Looking through some old civil war letters online, Rebecca seemed to be quite popular for a woman’s name during that time, so coming up with Becca was pretty easy. Then there was her father David (actually the first name of my best friend’s Dad), Billie (Legend of Billie Jean anyone?) and Ally (actually began as Sally and a typo changed everything).
Out of all my characters, the real challenge was the name of my ghost, Alastor. I knew that I wanted to pay homage to my own roots, so I picked a last name from my own family tree, Sinclair. Then I sat for days trying to think of something that sounded “old fashioned” enough to be the ghost’s first name, but instead I just went with the name Alastor because I always liked it. I was about three chapters into writing the novel before I learned that “Alastor” means vengeful spirit or possessing entity. Talk about the perfect name for this character!
I guess it really is all about the name, but in Alastor’s case, it also tells the whole story.
About Dana:
Dana Michelle Burnett spent most of her life writing short stories and sharing them with family and friends. Over the years, her work was published in numerous commercial and literary magazines including Just Labs, Mindprints: A Literary Journal, Foliate Oak, and many more. Her short story John Lennon and the Chicken Holocaust was include in The Best of Foliate Oak 2006.
Dana Michelle’s Spiritus Series introduced the idea of a ghostly romance and became a Kindle bestselling series. She’s an avid reader of anything dark and romantic. Dana Michelle lives in Southern Indiana with her dancing diva daughter and an assortment of pets.
Possessed Blurb:
Every story has two sides…
Alastor truly believed that his life was over the night his wife Becca shot and killed him over a century ago, but now he has returned as a spirit to haunt the reincarnation of his traitorous, murdering wife. Why now? Why Becca after all this time?
When Becca moves into her ancestral home in Corydon, Indiana, her life takes a puzzling and thrilling turn when she meets the ghost haunting the halls. As the seductive spirit lures her closer and closer, she learns about her own past and starts to understand that some mistakes are meant to last.
To Becca, Alastor is a seductive spirit that seems to see straight into her soul. To Alastor, Becca is what he has waited a century for–A second chance. But a second chance at what? Love…Or revenge?
How far will each of them go to rectify the wrongs of the past?
