Eleven years ago, I published my first book. Spirit Fall, the first book in a series that has brought me great joy and loyal readers. I was so happy and I loved all of my characters. One in particular was so much fun to bring to life. Although some days, he’s a real pain in my…

I gave him quite the title: Éamon Alasdair Pádraig McClearon

Yes, yes. I’ll tell them. “At your service” to follow the grand name after each introduction. There, happy?

As I was saying, I did my research, found the proper spelling and everything. But then…I lost the accent. Not the lilt in his voice, but the mark in his name. I found that I had continued to simply write Eamon in the rest of the book. As if the little pronunciation mark never existed.

Fast forward to the first round of edits on book five. Yes, let me say that again. Book. Five in my original series. My new editor sends the chunk filled with little shifts here and there, and one huge one: she returned the accent mark to Éamon.

I stared at it in shock. How did I miss that? I immediately sent a message to my trusted betas with the conundrum. Do I get rid of the accent marks from the new book or do the monumental task of going back through the first four book and reintroduce the correct spelling? Oh, another kicker: when he does introduce himself, the accent mark is there. I just neglect to add it after that point.

Both of them basically asked the same question: what do you want to do? Seriously? Were they asking if I wanted to reedit four books, replacing one pesky line over one letter? I was halfway through typing the second question: would you notice if a character’s name changed in the middle of a…

Yeah, of course they would. Hell, so would I. But I owe him, and I owe me. If the mark wasn’t important in the first place, why did I even mention it?

So for the past week, as I await the next round of edits on Spirit Out of Balance, I have been combing through the previous four books and replacing all those accent marks. I’ve done some minor polishing while I had the chance, and only one book, Spirit Song, is left. However, since Éamon doesn’t make an appearance in Bastian’s tale—yes, I’m sorry, but you and Bastian would have been fighting through the whole book and he wouldn’t have time for Miranda—I believe my job is done.

My snarky Irishman is back in his accented glory and moving forward, he will ever more be Éamon. Now if he would only tell me his story, but I already know that answer. He only smirks and repeats the same phrase. “Once we’re done, darlin’. Once we’re done.”