Meg from the By the Spoonful Soup Shop

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Hi everyone ~

Well, I’m happy to say I’m in a much better mood these days.  You see, I’ve had a big problem for a long time.  I’ve appeared in all three of the Soup Lover’s Mystery books.  Just in case you haven’t noticed me before, I’m at the By the Spoonful Soup Shop every day, waiting on tables, loading the dishwasher, listening to Janie’s problems and Lucky’s problems and Jack’s too.  But to tell you the truth, I have definitely felt . . . overlooked, taken for granted. 

And then one day, it just dawned on me!  I didn’t have a last name.  No wonder I felt like a wallflower.  My author, Connie Archer, had never given me one!  Can you believe that?  When I asked her about it, she was well . . . frankly . . . flummoxed.  She told me it just hadn’t occurred to her!  

So I put my foot down.  I told her I wasn’t coming back to the Spoonful until I had a last name.  I gave her some time to come up with one that I’d approve of, but she still didn’t suggest any.  (Don’t tell anyone this, but she told me she was having a problem inventing one.  Nothing really appealed to her.)

I ask you – how can I be a character if I don’t have a complete name?  What does that mean?   

That I’m not important to the story?  That I don’t advance the plot just a little bit?  I was crushed.  I mean, my feelings were really hurt.  

You’ll say, okay, but what did you do about it, Meg?  I’ll tell you what I did.  I went out into cyberspace.   Me!  That’s right.  I complained LOUDLY about my predicament to Dru Ann, a sympathetic soul, just a few weeks ago on another blog!   

I shamed my author into running a contest for me, to give me a last name and it worked!  A lovely woman named Elisa Varey came up with a last name that my author liked and I liked too. 

Wanna hear what it is???  It’s Findly.  Sort of simple and maybe some people will think it’s plain, but I like it a lot.  It suits me.  So that’s my name now – Meg Findly.  

And to sort of smooth my ruffled feathers, my author is giving me a pretty big part in Book No. 5 (yet to be titled) of the Soup Lover’s Mystery series. 

I guess complaining did the trick, huh?   What do you think of my new last name?  I’d love to hear your comments.