I loooooooooooove to write characters from the American South--I have no idea why. I was born in Iowa, raised there and in California. Went to college in CA, then have lived in NYC and Iowa as an adult. I don't have any family members from the South. But the South is totally fascinating to me.

When I was researching a character from Tennessee, I asked a friend from the Mississippi Delta to give me some tips. One thing she told me is about the Southern preponderance to give your child a family name (like the maternal family name) as a middle name, and then call the child by a name based on that. Such as John Tateman Smith going by Tate Smith. Even cooler was that this goes for girls--so you get a girl named Tate. I don't know why, but I love this!