by Keri Rozansky | Jul 16, 2025 | Blog
Twelve-year-old Ignatius Ellison was home sick from school when the commotion started. He heard his mother scream, a gunshot, and another scream from his mom followed by yelling and cursing. He grabbed the phone off his nightstand and hid in the closet, burying himself in clothes and hoping not to be found. “Call 9-1-1, call 9-1-1,” he told himself.
His mother screamed again and Ignatius heard his father’s voice join the chaos. More gunshots.
Ignatius took small, shallow breaths and tried not to move. He dialed with shaky hands.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”
”Intruders” and his address as quiet as possible. He added, “in closet.”
“You stay with me, okay?” the operator said. “You tell me when you hear the police.”
Someone stepped onto the creaky wood of his bedroom floor. His dog barked and growled; Its toe nails scratched the floor as it lunged. Ignatius heard the wail of sirens and the commotion changed as the intruders began to make a retreat.
He took a chance and opened the closet door.He approached his window that faced the backyard it just in time to see a man in a yellow shirt and dark jeans jump the fence. Ignatius stared at the man, hoping to remember enough. He panicked again at the sound of footsteps and hurried back to the closet to hide as he had before, but he heard a police officer’s radio and took a deep breath. The officer said something Ignatius didn’t quite understand, and he heard the response “he’s in a closet” over the radio.
The handle wiggled and the officer opened the door, shined his flashlight in, and stepped into the closet. “Hello? Who’s in here?”
Young Ignatius climbed out from under the pile he’d made.
“I’m Officer Young. I won’t hurt you.” The officer extended his hand to help Ignatius out and into the chair at his desk. “I’m here to help. Can you tell me your name?”
Young Ignatius shook his head. Tears stung his eyes and ran down his cheeks.
“I’m here to help. Please tell me your name.”
“Ig-Ignatius.”
“Ignatius. That’s a solid name. I’m here to help you, and my coworkers are downstairs helping your parents.”
Young Ignatius reached out and hugged Officer Young. He felt the officer’s hands on his shoulders and tightened his grip.
“I’m here to help you,” the officer repeated.
Another officer entered the room.
“Ignatius, this is Office Reed. He’s here to help, too. We need to take you and go away for a while so our coworkers can help your parents.”
The officers led him out of his room, down the stairs, and past where other police officers and emergency workers “helped” his dead parents in the living room. They led the boy to a police cruiser and secured him in the back seat.
“We’re going to the police station for now. Your aunt and uncle are meeting us there.”
Young Ignatius buried his face in Officer Young’s side and cried the rest of the way to the station.
Want to know even more about Detective Ellison! Watch the website for the release date of Midnight Splash! Until then, let’s talk on Facebook!
by Keri Rozansky | Jul 9, 2025 | Blog
An important note before we start: whenever you’re using real people, especially celebrities, political figures, etc., you must make sure whatever you write does not slander or reflect poorly on those people. It is a legal headache no one wants.
One of the most difficult things (for me) when writing a new story is finding names for my characters. There are some unwritten rules, like ‘make sure no two names start with the same first letter’ or ‘avoid rhyming names’ and a few others that are often broken by pretty much every author ever.
How do I name characters? Sometimes names just come to me, sometimes I use the first names of friends or family, and sometimes I scour the baby naming sites online for the perfect name. Sometimes I create a formula to apply to a certain group, like the lawyers in Midnight Splash. All of the men have some combination of U.S. presidents’ last names as both first and last names. I wanted them to sound like rich, stuffy, snobby men and women. While some of them are, some of them have more caring and understanding personalities which go against the grain of that snobby name.
I started this story so long ago I can’t remember the reasons why I chose all the names. Looking back, the two teenage boys’ names just came to me – like the characters telling me what their names were (yes, it happens). Other names, including two of the female lawyers are after friends or family.
Another thing to worry about is real people. When naming characters, I searched online for anyone whose name is remotely close to the character name. I don’t want backlash from John Smith because my character with the same name has some sort of legal troubles and the real life man does not. In a way, it’s limiting, but at the same time it ensures my characters are as unique as possible.
When using a friend or family member’s name – especially for villain characters – I make sure they’re okay with it. I haven’t gotten a ‘no’ yet. But for those whose names have been used, remember the character isn’t a reflection of your personality or what I think of you.
In my current WIP (not Midnight Splash), there are only a handful of characters, but the setting of a small Italian town caused me to narrow my choices to traditional Italian names. It’s been fun to research. None of them have last names, so that part is easy. There may be dozens of people with those first names, but without a last name there’s no danger of someone complaining.
Have you written a story and used known names before? If your characters were named after friends or family, did you ask their permission first? Let’s talk on Facebook!
by Keri Rozansky | Jul 4, 2025 | Blog
Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope you have a fun-filled, relaxing day!
by Keri Rozansky | Jul 2, 2025 | Blog
When I first started planning blog posts for this month, I felt like I still had several days of edits ahead of me. But I’ve buckled down to get the little stuff done. Up next, I’ll be considering some plot points and continuity errors, but the end is in sight!
What comes next depends on how big those plot changes are. But things are getting close! Once the final changes are made I’ll have a debut date for you all!
by Keri Rozansky | Jun 25, 2025 | Blog
One of the things that’s been keeping me on the edge of my seat has been that my debut novel has been with an editor, and for quite some time now. Like me at the moment, editing is not her 9-5 job. Rather than obsess, I busy myself with other projects, waiting to hear that she’s done.
Well, she is! I’m so excited to get these edits back and work on implementing them to release this summer. I just wanted to share the news with you all. Carry on…
by Keri Rozansky | Jun 18, 2025 | Blog
Hi, my name is Josh Cleveland and I’ve never done this before. Are blogs like essays? Are they conversational, or formal? What’s this one even about? I know they have themes and stuff, and I want to stay on theme. My teachers say sometimes I don’t always stay on theme when it comes to my writing, so I want this to be right. I did take a look at some of the other entries the people in my town have written here, and a lot of them are about themselves, so here goes.
Like I said, my name is Josh Cleveland. I’m 17 years old and I go to Glass High School. My life isn’t particularly special or anything, my parents are divorced, but whose aren’t today? I know! My life has had this really wild change: a kid from my school moved in at my dad’s house. His name is Turner Moore, and I’m not completely convinced the reason he’s there is the actual reason he’s there. I know his parents travel for work a lot, and his friend Jay said he stayed with them, or when he got older, they let Turner stay in the house alone if it was just for a couple days or something.
But this time is weird. They’ve gone somewhere for an undetermined amount of time. That’s super vague if you ask me, but it’s pretty cool to have a brother when I’m over there. Younger twin sisters isn’t always my idea of a good time. Yeah, we’re close, especially since the divorce, but I’ve wished for a brother or a close friend – like what Turner and Jay were – for a long time now. It seems like I’ve gotten it, but under some sad circumstance
Again, Turner’s parents are “out of town” for god knows why. Maybe one day I’ll find out the real reason, but for now, I’m just glad he’s around. The sad part, Jay died. There was some incident or other over by Glass Creek and, well, he lost his life because of it. I suspect Turner was a part of it, but I don’t know how, and no one’s confirming or denying anything. Still, secret meetings with lawyers and cops, the group of men that seem to follow Turner everywhere, and the way Turner himself seems a little more focused and closed off than usual.
I think my family was chosen specifically for whatever it is Turner needs. We go to school together, we’re on the swim team together, and we have all the same classes at GHS, but Turner goes to JHU in the afternoons as part of their dual enrollment program. He’s super smart. I heard he wore out the AP classes at GHS last year, so the program I guess is a way to keep him in school all day so he can keep his schedule close to mine. He takes the shuttle to and from the JHU campus. During the swim season, we have swim practice after school, and I drive us home. My sisters stay and watch practice or they drive themselves home and my dad picks us up. When it’s not swim season, I drive all four of us home right after school. But that’s not exactly weird, it’s efficient. Why drive two or more cars when we’’re all going to the same place for the same amount of time?
Is there anything else you want to know? You could ask the writer of this blog and they can ask me, and report back or whatever. Anyway, thanks for listening.
