Many people have asked me how I came up with such unusual character names in MARUPA: The Legend of the Black Pearl. Marupa and the Princess Alandra were purposely created and most of the other names I just made up.

Marupa is derived from my wife's name, Martha. I took the first three letters of my wife's name, MAR, and made up the UPA to the rest to it. Marupa has a good ring to it for an island warrior's name. Perhaps I should have named one of the other character's after my wife. I don't want people to think that I purposely named a warrior after my wife. Believe me, a warrior is not the true nature of my wife except for perhaps being a prayer warrior.

Alandra is derived from my name and my daughter's name. At the time my daughter was only nine years old. The first two letters, AL, of Alandra comes from my name, Alex. The last part of Alandra's name, ANDRA, comes from my daughter's name, DeAndra. So, ta da, there is how the name Princess Alandra was created.

The other names such as the island of Shantu, the mountain Kuja, the twin's names Kikko and Jakko, the parrot Caleeko, the monkey Coco, and the mountain animal Mutaki were all made up. Ironically, several years after I wrote the novel, I searched a lot of those names in the computer only to find that most of the names I made up were already in existence. Oh well, so much for originality and creativity!

Here are some of the other character names I mention in the novel: Konaka, Grazza, Panji, Banduma, Chief Akunda, Chief Jamara, Buranka, Shamile, Tishna, Lanishka, Juambi, Palambi, and Lupango. Then there are a few other unusual names such as Manteeka Pachura which means "Learning Circle," Paleema which is a type of flower that grows on the island of Shantu, and a Shamaka which is the type of dress that the island women wear.

I hope that you enjoyed all of the characters and their names. I do enjoy hearing from my readers and will certainly entertain any names you may have for my next two novels. If you have questions regarding the pronunciation of any of those names or any other questions, please feel free to e-mail me at: ABQWriter@aol.com.