Denise Brown is one of Astrid Maxxim’s best friends. Denise is one of the few kids in the story that isn’t an only child. )I realized after I had finished Astrid Maxxim 1, that I had made many of them only children.)  Denise has a brother named Dennis. Members of my writers group pointed out that with the names being so similar, the readers might get confused. On the other hand, that’s just what people tend to do– name their kids in groups or with similar names.  In any case, by that time, I was married to the names.

Denise and Dennis live with their two dads. I made a conscious decision that I would have a gay couple in the books to reflect the reality of our culture.  On the other hand, having essentially a completely non-sexual (and kind of a 50s naiveté) thing going, I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time fleshing out the details.  Their dads have different last names, so either they live in a state where gay marriage is not legal or they just decided to keep their own names.  The kids are both named Brown, while their other dad is named Richards.

Being a teacher, I have a real thing about people (gay or straight) giving their kids hyphenated names.  It never fits in the computer correctly.  It always messes up class lists.  And the kinds always pick one or the other name and go by it anyway.  I actually had a mother call me one time and tell me not to accept her child’s assignments if she didn’t use her full hyphenated name!  I told her “Get a grip, lady.  What she calls herself is between you and her, and what papers I accept is between her and me.”