New Blog Feature: Questions for the Hive Mind

          Hello, Friends of Ann Kinnear and Lizzy Ballard! I have been neglecting my blog over the last few months while I focus on writing Lizzy Ballard Book 3 as well as my first non-fiction work, The Craft & The Voyage of The Indy Author: Practical Advice for Achieving Your Creative Goals. (If you're interested in writing or indy publishing, please follow me as The Indy Author at www.theindyauthor.com or at The Indy Author on Facebook and Twitter.) I've also been doing some guest blog posts to help spread the word about my work; check out "What's in a Name?" on Sandra Carey Cody's Birth of a Novel blog (search for "matty" to find my post).
          However, I thought it would be fun to use the blog as an opportunity for some reader interaction for those of you who aren't on Facebook or Twitter. I periodically post Questions for the Hive Mind on those platforms, and thought I'd post them here as well for you to comment on! Here are the two that are currently open for comments:

1. I'm thinking of making the new bad guy in Lizzy Ballard Book 3 Swedish or Norwegian ... what Swedish or Norwegian fictional villains should I be aware of so I don't make mine too similar? (I got bogged down going through a list of Bond villains, although I did learn that Blofeld is Polish.)
2. For all you character-naming experts, here's a big one, and a signed copy of Lizzy Ballard Book 3 will go to the winner ... Lizzy gets a fake drivers license: what's the name on it? (She's getting an existing license showing a person who could pass for her--not "special ordering" one--so the name on it shouldn't be a derivation of her name.)

          Please post your comments below, or, for more real-time interaction, post your thoughts on my Facebook or Twitter author pages.