February 26, 2007

Faolan Roark

I thought that I would introduce everyone to Faolan Roark, my pen name and sometimes very crazy alter-ego. Giving some insight into why I chose this particular name will be fun, and may shed some light as to what it means to me.

I chose Faolan because I am (mostly) Irish. Faolan is the Irish word for wolf, or so the website where I found it says, lol. I've always loved wolves, add to that my interest in werewolves and the fact that my first book will be about werewolves, I knew this was the name of my muse.

I've had Roark picked as the last name for a while, ever since I learned that my maternal great grandmother, who was born in 1912 was named Mary Roark and that she had kept this piece of Irish history with her until she died. Her gravestone reads......."Florence Mary Roark Gilmore Vanetta Elias". Gilmore was my paternal grandfather, the rest were marriages after he had died. Seems as if she got used to picking up the pieces and moving on, lol.

I thought it odd that she would keep her name after marriage, especially in those times and after hearing stories of her, I felt compelled to honor her in some way.

By all accounts, she was a strong (she broke one of my great grandfather's ribs once), fiesty woman who did things "her own way". My grandma remembers her as never taking no for an answer and always up to no good. Just hearing my grandma talk about her makes me laugh to know that I would have such a rambunctious ancestor.

So, here's to the birth of Faolan Roark....."May you be as fiesty and relentless as another Roark used to be."

1 comment:

Michelle Pillow said...

Good luck with the submissions! I read your kind words on the NCP group. :)

Michelle