What’s in a name?
The name for my main character Tori came easily to me. I wanted it to be a simple, short name that wasn’t too common. I like names with vowel sounds as I knew them when I grew up – call them Italian, German or Māori – rich or open a, e, i, o, u sounds, not their English counterparts. I can’t remember when the title “Teaching Tori” came to me. I think it was right at the start. Initially, I called my work in progress Tori and Tom, but then I found “Teaching Tori” describes what happens in the novel much better. It plays with the two meanings of ‘teaching’ – one as a verb, the other one as an adjective (Actually, I think it’s called a gerund - I need to find out the correct grammatical term because I am a grammar nerd.) Teaching Tori shows Tori in her job, as opposed to ‘singing’ Tori or ‘typing’ Tori. She is a primary school teacher and lives for her job and the lives of the children in her class. She is ‘teaching Tori’ – Tori, who teaches. But the novel is also about Teachi