OMG I’M A HEROINE IN AN URBAN FANTASY AND IT’S EVEN PRONOUNCED CORRECTLY!!!
Mr. Wonderful and I joke that I married him because he’s the only person to ever pronounce my name correctly from the very beginning. You people named normal things, like Kate or Tracy or Laura or Shannon or Lisa or Scott or John or even Oliver, just don’t understand the trial of having a unique and unpronounceable name. Eventually one gives up correcting people. Imagine my trepidation and anticipation when I discovered this post on Vampire Wire:
Review of Jeri Smith-Ready’s Wicked Game. “It’s about a human (Ciara) who goes to work for a radio station full of vampire DJs. Who would have the best knowledge of music over the decades than the poeple who lived in the past decades? Vamps thats who.” (DCL)
Someone named their heroine Ciara??? DID SHE PRONOUNCE IT CORRECTLY??? Woe behold the author who names a character Ciara and tells people to pronounce it Sierra. Let’s not even talk about that singer. I immediately looked up the author and read the excerpt:
“So, Ciara…” David slips me an earnest glance. “Why do you—”
“It’s keer-ah, not see-air-ah.” I rattle off the pronunciation as politely as I can. “Not like the mountains.”
“Sorry. I bet you get that all the time.” He flips my résumé to look at the other side. Blank. He lifts my portfolio folder, probably searching for another page. “Where’s the rest of your job experience?”
YAY!!!! I called my cousin and screamed at her over the phone. I’M A CHARACTER AND IT’S PRONOUNCED CORRECTLY!!!! You people with normal names are used to seeing your name everywhere. For me? Only in Ireland. The high point of my recent pilgrimage was meeting the customs agent, handing her my passport, and having her pronounce my name correctly on the first go.
I would like to kiss Jeri, but will settle for thanking her by buying all her books.
Tags: Ciara, Jeri Smith-Ready, pronunciation, Wicked Game
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June 8, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I’m….very happy for you. LOL!
Now I don’t have a name that’s difficult to pronounce, but I have a different issue. My legal name is Mary Katherine, but I go by Kati. Which meant the first day of Every. Single. Schoolyear. I had to do my spiel to my teachers. I didn’t enjoy that much.
But, yay you! A heroine whose name matches yours! :wink:
June 8, 2008 at 2:15 pm
haha! You’re so funny!
I just won this in a contest so will be starting it today! Go Ciara! :)
June 8, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Kati – I went through that too, only many teachers never got it right and fell back on calling me Miss Brady for the rest of the year.
Tracy – You have to tell me how it is. I REALLY REALLY HOPE that the heroine lives up to her kick-ass name. If she doesn’t I just don’t know what I will do. Cry probably. ;)
June 8, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Congratulations! And thanks for the not-so-subtle tutorial (I admit, I was thinking of you like the mountains…now I know better. Sorry!)
June 9, 2008 at 4:40 am
I have a ho hum name. Yours has style. :D
June 9, 2008 at 8:51 am
I actually got my hands on an ARC and it was good. Definitely a new twist to vampires that’s growing on me.
June 9, 2008 at 9:23 am
I’m halfway through Wicked Game right now and it’s just great. You should get your hands on it. :)
June 9, 2008 at 10:20 am
Katiebabs – but you get to be in Ilona Andrews book, which is AWESOME.
Tracy, Jackie, Anglie – I feel so left out! I better get over to the bookstore today so that I can join the cool kids. You have to tell me how Ciara is as a heroine.
June 9, 2008 at 12:24 pm
So far she’s very complicated….in a good way. And the spunk/sass factor is high.
June 9, 2008 at 1:35 pm
LOL! Ciara, Danette sent me a link to her review and I saw your comment. I admit, I thought, “Please don’t let her pronounce it ‘Sierra,’ or she’ll be insulted on the first page.”
So congrats on pronouncing your name correctly. ;-p
Ooh! I should tell you, I found the name through a song (“Ciara,” obviously) by Luka Bloom. He’s this amazing Irish folk-rock singer. The song is on one of those New Agey Wyndham Hill Christmas CDs (I think it’s called “Celtic Christmas”). Anyway, the song appears in the book (Shane plays it for her on the guitar), so hopefully Luka will gain some new listeners.
Hope you enjoy the books! And you can kiss me if we ever meet. :-)
P.S.: I’ve never seen my name in a book, except when one of my author friends put it there on purpose (minor character). It was creepy.
June 9, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Well now you know why I heart Lisa Kleypas her main character is Sara Feilding she has a HAWT gambler owner Derek she wears glasses (me) and she’s a writer (me)
June 9, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Jeri – Hello!!! Thank YOU for pronouncing it correctly. It’s one of the most popular girls names in ireland, but that does me a fat lot of good here. Ha. I like my name. It fits me well. I think I own Celtic Christmas by Wyndham Hill. Funny that I never paid attention to the song titles before. I’ll have to hunt it down. I love celtic music. Everyone is saying great things about your book. I look forward to reading it!!! Are you ever coming out to the Pacific Northwest for a book signing?
Sarai – and it’s such a good book too!
June 10, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I LOVE the PNW–we spent two weeks there on our honeymoon, but sadly I haven’t been out there since. I need a good excuse–like a convention or book signing. :-)
July 17, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I guess I must be an evil Mom, because I saddled my little girl with the name Ciara as well. I just thought that it was so pretty and didn’t really think that people would have THAT much of a problem saying it the right way. Oh well, I’m naive, what can I say?
I did give her the middle initial J though so she can go by CJ when she gets old enough to care should she choose to.
I don’t mind so much when people mispronounce it just from looking at the spelling, but when I specifically SAY her name before they see it and they still get it wrong- that just drives me nuts. How dumb do you have to be?