Recently, I offered as a prize the opportunity to be a character in one of my books. A woman named Amanda won. 🙂 So, in Leap of Faith there is a character named Amanda, a noble and brave woman who attempts to save the hero. The real Amanda emailed me yesterday to tell me how exciting it was for her to read the book, waiting to see what I had done with her name. The fictional Amanda doesn’t appear until about three quarters of the way in, so she had to read almost the whole story. Still, she seemed pleased.
I’d definitely offer up a character naming as a prize again. It was fun.