Character Names In "The Plan"

I've feilded a few questions asking where I got The Plan's character names. Here is a brief background on the main ones.

President David Kaiser - I got the name from two graduate school text book authors. The books have long since been sold (or lost) so I can't remember the authors' exact names, but David came from one and Kaiser came from another. Ironically, I think "Kaiser" was from a book on ethics. Which if you've read the book, you know how ironic this is.

Professor Marcus Rogers - Here again, Marcus Rogers came from two different text book authors. Marcus is the last name of one of my favorate professors at the Universtiy of Minnesota - Professor Alfred Marcus. The real Dr. Marcus went to the University of Chicago (and Harvard) and so that's why I placed him in Chicago.

Mike Powell - The president's behind-the-scenes contempoary was a late edition to the book. My original idea was to have the professor be the bad guy. But for some reason, he turned into being "morally wrong," but not a person who wanted to abuse The Plan's power. I also wanted to make a link to organized crime. Mike Powell was that link. Mike is my brother-in-law's first name. No idea why I used this name.

Matt LaPoint - Matt is the first name of one of my best friends and former roomates. I needed a good guy, and Matt was fitting. The last name, LaPoint, I made up. Not sure why. It just seemed to fit.

Nick Kennedy (Kendo) - Another one of my best friends is named Jon Kennedy. Tough I haven't called him by his formal name in years. He goes by Kendo to his friends. I've always thought Kendo would make a good hero's name. Thus Nick Kennedy, aka Kendo, was born. Nick is the first name of the former meat locker owner in my home town of Hayward, MN. No idea why I used his name.

Nadeen Kumar - I worked with an Indian named Nadeen at a consulting gig many years ago. And then worked with an Indian with the last name of Kumar. I had a good relationship with both of them and for some reason their names just popped into my head.

Wilbert Gresafe - Remember him? He's the crusty old marine owner who Nadeen rents the "Fish Getter" from. Gresafe one of my colleague's last name. Not sure where I got Wilbert from.

Charles Shuster - Shuster is the last name of a friend of mine who moved to Las Vegas to play cards. Just like Charles did in the book.

Press Secretary Justin Olson - First and last name of two more college friends.

Malek Abid - No idea where I got this name from. Just popped in my head.

Perry Luke and Jack Perry - Here again, no idea where I got these from.

There are a few more characters but I don't have any good reasoning for why I named them.

Editing is almost finished for "The Plan"

At 2:14PM on August 18th I finished my second edit of a forthcoming novel called "The Plan." After nearly three years of design and writing, I'm hopeful to have "The Plan" published this fall/winter. The exact release date is still up in the air as I'm 1) reviewing the need (and cost) of a professional edit job, and 2) working out the details of a self-publishing contract with Book Surge (part of Amazon) or LuLu.

From the research I've done, getting your first book published is nearly impossible. You basically have to send your manuscript to every publisher in the world, hound them relentlessly, and pray that someone takes a chance. I don't have the time to do these things so I'm going down the self-publish route. Book royalties, which are extremely low, are higher for self publishing, but you have to do most (i.e. all) of your marketing, selling, and front a portion of the production costs. I'm still working on the contract with Book Surge (or LuLu), but I'll probably be paying $400-$700 to get my book published and into the marketplace. (Yes I'll most likely lose money. But I didn't write it for the money. I wrote it becasue of an interest in writing a book.) I plan on doing limited marketing (e.g. my blog) and sales (mostly word of mouth as I'm not a salesman) myself.

I'll give more details on what the book is about (and how to buy it) as fall/winter nears. But as a teaser "The Plan" is a clandestine effort (The Plan) to assassinate notorious criminals before the dysfunctional justice system mishandles the apprehension and conviction. I got the book idea many years ago while thinking about how the O.J. Simpson case would have been handled differently in a dictatorship (at the time Saddam's Iraq) rather than a democracy. More to come in the weeks and months ahead.