Author Guest Post with Allyson Rice: The Key to Circus-Mom Highway

In an attempt to secure an unexpected inheritance—and hopefully find a few answers—two estranged sisters and their newly discovered brother embark on a comically surreal trip through the Deep South to retrace the life of the mother who abandoned them as infants.

Welcome to the March 1st stop on the blog tour for The Key to Circus-Mom Highway by Allyson Rice with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, more guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.

Author Guest Post

The Importance of Character Names

In a recent interview, I was asked, “How important are character names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?” My answer was a resounding yes–names are very important to me. Names are clues about the lives of your characters.

Whether it’s for a book or a script, I’ll first research popular first names in the year the character was born. Then I’ll try to narrow it down and see if I can find popular names in the geographic location my character was born. I’ll also look for common last names in the geographic location. Then I factor in whether the parents might’ve chosen a more popular or less popular name, which tells you about the family they were raised in–whether the parents were more traditional and conservative or whether they were more artistic and/or nontraditional. Then I’ll factor in the sound of the name (is it hard or soft?) and, finally, the meaning of the name. I’ll narrow it down to a handful of possibilities, then choose the name that feels most appropriate to me from that group.

In terms of the three siblings in The Key to Circus-Mom Highway, I first started with Jesse and Jennifer. Because their biological mom, Angie Hartley, had been a teenage mother, I decided she would’ve chosen popular names. I chose two “J” names for the same reason, because she probably thought having two girls, both with “J” names, was cute. The character of their brother Jack wasn’t added until later, and I decided to go with another “J” name because, for Angie, another “J” name connected the kids to one another in her mind and heart. They’re often referred to as “the three Js” in the story (in my mind, like The Three Musketeers). The last names Chasen and McMahon were Chicago-area specific. And when Jennifer finds out her biological dad’s last name is McAllister, there’s an Irish connection to her married last name of McMahon. For Jack’s adoptive parents, Babineaux was location-specific (New Orleans).

The editor who did my final proofreading of the manuscript suggested I change the spelling of Jesse to “Jessie” because the female Jessie was typically spelled with the “ie” ending. But I told her that I intentionally spelled it without the “i” because I felt like Jesse was more of a tomboy growing up, in contrast with her sister Jennifer whom I saw as the more girlie and traditional of the two. And that Jesse’s the one who chose the spelling, hating how girls dotted the “i” in their names with hearts. The editor loved that backstory about the spelling of the name.

Occasionally, though, I’ll just come up with a name that I feel is perfect, even if it’s not time and location-specific. This was the case with Poppy Poupard in Thibodeaux, Louisiana. Poupard is actually location-specific being that there’s a lot of French in Cajun names. Poppy I chose purely for the alliteration (but I did also like that it was a flower considering that the traitures–healers–in her family worked a lot with plants). Plus, once the names are chosen, it often leads to humor in the dialogue. (i.e. Jennifer: “Poppy Poupard?” Jesse: “I love that kind of mustard.”)

Currently, I’m writing a screenplay. It’s a crime drama set in and around Chicago, as well as rural Indiana, in 1920. So, naturally, the characters’ names in that will be quite different from the ones in The Key to Circus-Mom Highway. Instead of Jennifer and Jessica, it’s Sadie, Charlotte, Roxie, and Grace. And instead of Jack and Sean and Connor, it’s Luther, Earl, Ray, and Walter. Sadie is a female detective, Roxie is a carnival worker, and Luther and Earl are ex-con bootleggers. Like I said, character clues…

A great deal of thought and research goes into the names in my projects, even if the reader won’t ever know most of the backstory. Yes, character names are key. (Pun intended.)

About the Book

The Key to Circus-Mom Highway
by Allyson Rice

Published 3 January 2023
The Total Human Press

Genre: Contemporary
Page Count: 254
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

In an attempt to secure an unexpected inheritance—and hopefully find a few answers—two estranged sisters and their newly discovered brother embark on a comically surreal trip through the Deep South to retrace the life of the mother who abandoned them as infants.

On a Tuesday afternoon, sisters Jesse Chasen and Jennifer McMahon receive a phone call notifying them that their birth mother has died, leaving behind a significant inheritance. But in order to obtain it, they must follow a detailed road trip she designed for them to get to know her—and that includes finding a brother they never knew existed.

For the next week, this ill-assorted trio treks across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to meet their mother’s old friends, from circus performers to a juke joint owner, each of whom delivers a shocking vignette into the life of a young mother traumatized by loss and abuse. Along the way, these three siblings—Jesse, whose fiery exterior disguises a wounded, drifting musician stuck in a rut; Jennifer, whose carefully curated family life is threatened by her husband’s infidelity; and Jack, whose enigmatic Jackie, Oh! persona in the New Orleans drag queen scene helps him escape the nightmares of Afghanistan that haunt him at night—must confront their own demons (and at least one alligator). But in chasing the truth about their real mother, they may all just find their second chance.

This uproarious debut novel is a reminder that sometimes, the family you’d never have chosen may turn out to be exactly what you need.

Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | B&N | Kobo | Target

Excerpt

“We have a long drive ahead of us. Don’t make me turn this car around.”

“You can’t say that when you’re not driving, Jen,” said Jesse. “It makes no sense.”

“I know! I was kidding!” She let out an exasperated sigh.

Jack stroked Sean’s head and returned to staring darkly out the window at the passing scenery. Jesse eyed him surreptitiously in the mirror.

Over the next hour, Jennifer occasionally attempted some small talk to ease the tension, but no one was having it. Nerves were frayed and tempers were short after too little sleep the previous night. Not to mention the disturbing story from the previous day that they were all still attempting to process.

After another hour, Jennifer couldn’t stand the crypt-like silence anymore. She reached for the radio, asking the others what they wanted to listen to. Jack answered “Country” as Jesse simultaneously said “Anything but Country.”

“What’s wrong with Country??” he roared. “They’re the best damn storytellers in the music business!”

“If you have to even ask that question,” said Jesse, “then it’s pointless in even responding to you.”

“Good! I don’t wanna hear it!”

“Fine!” Jesse snapped.

“Fine!” he snapped back.

“Fine!”

“Fine!”

Jennifer was morbidly curious to see how long they’d keep that call-and-response going, but after 3 more rounds of “Fine!” she yelled, “SHUT UP!! I don’t want to hear another word out of either one of you for the rest of this drive.”

That seemed to do the trick.

That is, until Jesse mumbled, “You’re not the boss of us…”

About the Author

Allyson Rice is the author of the novel The Key to Circus Mom Highway. (“Fans of family drama, road trips, and non-stop laughs will love this cross-country adventure.”–BookLife/Publisher’s Weekly). She’s an award-winning mixed media artist, and a producer with Atomic Focus Entertainment.

After spending many years as an actress on stage and on television, she left acting and spent the next decade running yoga/meditation retreats, women’s retreats, and creativity retreats around the country. After that, she pivoted to focus once again on her own creative work. In addition to her writing and art, she’s also a photographer (her work was most recently seen in an exhibition at the Soho Photo Gallery in NYC).

Some random bits of Allyson trivia: 1) She’s been skydiving, paragliding, bungee jumping, ziplining through a rainforest, and scuba diving with stingrays; 2) she has an extensive PEZ dispenser collection; 3) she played Connor Walsh on As the World Turns for seven years; 4) she’s been in the Oval Office at the White House after hours; 5) she’s related to the Hatfields of the infamous Hatfield/McCoy feud; and 6) her comedic rap music video “Fine, I’ll Write My Own Damn Song” won numerous awards in the film festival circuit and can now be seen on YouTube.

Also available from Allyson Rice is her line of women’s coloring books (The Color of Joy, Dancing with Life, and Wonderland), and The Creative Prosperity PlayDeck, an inspirational card deck about unlocking and utilizing your creative energy in the world. She’s currently at work on her second novel and her fourth women’s coloring book. But she is most proud of being mom to musical artist @_zanetaylor.

Author Website | Business Website | Facebook | Twitter | IG | IG | IG | Amazon | Goodreads

Giveaway Alert!

Allyson Rice will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B&N gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dec 28	Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews	Jan 4	All the Ups and Downs
Jan 11	Fabulous and Brunette	Jan 18	Sandra’s Book Club
Jan 25	Literary Gold	Feb 1	Viviana MacKade
Feb 8	Archaeolibrarian – I Dig Good Books	Feb 15	Hope. Dreams. Life… Love
Feb 22	Long and Short Reviews	Mar 1	Westveil Publishing
Mar 8	The Avid Reader	Mar 15	Paws.Read.Repeat
Mar 15	The Pen and Muse Book Reviews

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