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Ian and Sean's Names
Character names are so important, and authors use many different ways to name a character. Sometimes it’s simply a name you love and seems to fit that hero or heroine to a T. Sometimes you’re saying something with a name. Sometimes it’s very personal and tells a story in its own way.
Masters and Mercenaries is my love letter to the James Bond franchise. Why Bond? First, I love them, but there’s a deeper meaning. It’s a connection to my father. He read the Bond books when they were publishing starting in 1953. By the time the movies began rolling out my father made sure he was there each opening day. I came along much later, but I remember being a preteen watching Love and Let Die on television with my father. It was my introduction to Bond, and my father and I found a language we both spoke. When the next new Bond released—I want to say it was For Your Eyes Only—I was sitting next to him, and this continued long after I was an adult and on my own. I still think of my father when I watch a Bond film or really a spy film of any kind. But Bond is special.
So when I went to name characters, I knew I would have two brothers who would start and end the series. (Yeah, that got away from me.) Sean is named after the actor considered the primary Bond of the first set of releases, Sean Connery, and Ian is named for the creator of the entire world, Sir Ian Fleming.
Later in the series I pay some homage to other Bond actors. Serena writes a series called Soldiers and Doms—an obviously meta play on my part. She has a character based on Ian named Pierce Craig in honor of Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig, who played Bond in later movies.
Ian is the only character I’ve allowed to use the iconic phrase—Bond. James Bond. Although, of course, it’s Taggart. Ian Taggart.
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