H: Holly Reginald

Holly Reginald is a scientist, and one of the main villains in The Experiment. I struggled to find a name for her for a while. I looked through our baby name book, possibly one of the most tattered books in our house, in search of a name. I decided her last name would be Reginald, and I thought at first that her first name would be Anatola. However, thinking about that name, I decided I wanted to use it for an orphan girl in a story inspired by L. M. Montgomery's books instead (and no, I haven't written it yet). The first name I thought of after making the decision not to call Miss Reginald 'Anatola' was Holly, and so that became her name. Most of the time I just call her Miss Reginald, though.

One of Miss Reginald's lines has been in my mind since long before I began to write The Experiment. I thought of it then, and still do, as the sort of line that would be played in all the trailers if it was a movie: ". . . he is my pet project. To see what kind of a monster I can create." I was determined to work it in somehow, and I did.

Miss Reginald's character underwent some last minute changes about two months ago. One of my test readers pointed out how she unrealistically rambled on and on to no one about her evil schemes. I admittedly have great difficulty writing villains, so I was glad that this reader pointed out ways to make her more realistic. It was difficult for me to figure her out, to learn her motivation, and so I wrote an interview with her to learn more about her. You can read that interview here. Miss Reginald is an interesting character, and you can read all about her in The Experiment available tomorrow (though if you want to stalk Amazon and Createspace, you may be able to find it later today:) ).