Anagrams

Anagrams are fun little word games. A famous anagram comes from the Harry Potter series, wherein a mysterious book written by a Tom Riddle (I guess JK Rowling wanted to go for an on-the-nose name for that one) goes on to explain that the name “Tom Marvolo Riddle” was twisted into the anagram “I Am Lord Voldemort”. The reveal of the alias added further tension to an already high-stakes climax in Chamber of Secrets.

When I first wrote what became “Reunion at University Avenue,” I had the idea early on that I didn’t just want to write about my college experiences or to fictionalize them. Instead, I wanted to write a novel about the reaction classmates might have if such a book was written. It was all very meta and self-referential – to the point of using the name “Ben Burns” as the main character’s alter ego in the book.

Well, one thing I’ve never mentioned before is that I latched on to the name “Mike Adams” as the protagonist for one very simple reason. It’s an anagram. What does it spell? “I Am Masked”. It was the perfect anagram, and the name stuck with me ever since. Even now, his story is all but finished, yet I can help but use the name and pieces of the character in other works.

This is a long way of saying that I am a big fan of anagrams.