And the Winner is ....

BRYCE WICKHAM!

All the finalists were fabulous. Thank you to all the readers who submitted them. You all won your choice from my backlist. The voting was fast and furious and Mr. Wickham only beat his nearest competitor by a mere 5 votes. Bryce Wickham was submitted by Jane Lange. Congratulations, Jane! You'll be receiving my entire signed backlist and a special "thank you" on the Acknowledgment page of STROKE OF GENIUS (Coming June 2010).

I'd have been happy to use any of the names, but let me share why I think Bryce Wickham is a good choice for Crispin Hawke's manservant.

First of all, Bryce may sound like a modern name, but its actually an old Celtic one. I'll have to get Jane's ok on this, but I'd like to change it back to the old spelling "Brice." There was a 5th century saint by that name and I like the contrarian nature of naming an ornery character after a saint. Plus Crispin is also a saint name, so they go together well. Add to that the fact that I think they were both born to mothers who worked in the same house of ill-repute and I can fix their birthdays according to their saint days.

Wickham sounds like "wicked" of course, so that also works well for a fellow who goes through ladies' maids like tissue. (Don't worry! He'll meet his own match during the course of the story.) And since we're thinking about changing the 'y' in Bryce to 'i' I might just flip them and make the name Brice Wyckham. I think that gives it a more Regency feel.

Now there is another prize to be given as today as well. I appreciate all of you for taking the time to vote. Everyone who voted was entered into my drawing to win a WHOLE BOX OF BOOKS! Here's my 2nd winner for today: Kirsten B. of Hopkinsville, KY. Congrats, Kirsten!

Thanks for playing, everyone! I'll be posting a new contest on my website soon, so please be sure to check back often. And thank you all for helping me with my current WIP STROKE OF GENIUS!