Some regions have a tradition of a physical Character's Graveyard, complete with miniature tombstones and grave sites, that gets populated whenever an author kills off one of their characters. I was thinking it might be fun to do this virtually, though I haven't fully thought out how to do it.

Still, I think it might be based heavily on my autopoll software (re-use is good ;-) ) that scans and parses nanowrimo forum threads.

The bells and whistle software may or may not happen this NaNo (depends if I can catch up and get ahead on my novel), but it still would be fun, I think, to do a thread on this.

To participate, put:

NAME="your-character's-name"

CAUSE="the-cause-of-death"

and then the rest of whatever you write in your response will be used to populate a tombstone's TITLE attribute (that appears on mouseover of an image). If you don't have NAME="" and CAUSE="" labels in your post, no tombstone will be generated (so comments and kudos are okay too).

NAME="Briggs"

CAUSE="Eaten by a large, carnivorous dinosaur."

Briggs was a bully. He slapped Chase (my main character) around and threatened him. In the end, however, he left by what he thought was the front door but actually connected to a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth. One of them was particularly hungry and close by.

NAME="Peg Anderson"

CAUSE="Pneumonia"

Peg is survived by her two children and three grandchildren and remembered fondly by all that knew her. This novel would not exist without her death.

NAME="Ferus"

CAUSE="Crushed"

Ferus was a beast!

NAME="Emperor Meluar Sorvera"

CAUSE="Stabbing"

He deserved it.

NAME="huge glass window"

CAUSE="bulldozer"

It was asking for it.

NAME="TKera"

CAUSE="Tortured to death by crazy"

T'Kera was the first of several young women to fall prey to my favorite serial killer. No doubt she would be comforted to know that he was insane at the time, and now feels just awful about it.

NAME="Agatha"

CAUSE="Fever"

Agatha was the sweet old lady who taught everyone in Folly Canyon to read and write for no apparent reason, and liked to help with the laundry.As the first casualty of the Fever epidemic, she is the only reason anyone has to believe the Fever can be deadly. She is survived by her husband, Old Man Whittler, and probably also by some kids and grandkids that we will probably never meet.

My favorite.

I'm saddened by her death already.

NAME="Dr. Aaron Patterson"

CAUSE="Suicide"

Dr. Patterson, a well known family therapist, made a deal with the devil, who in this case happens to be a prosecuting attorney. He's given a choice: Fabricate a patient's mental illness file sufficient to prove that she was a danger to herself and others, or be prosecuted for the criminal sexual assault of an 11-year old girl. He realizes that the purpose of the file is to institutionalize a perfectly sane woman. When Dr. Patterson is confronted by the woman, he can't face his choices and shoots himself with a .22.

NAME="Fearghal"

CAUSE="Stabbed with a spear"

You push people around long enough, sooner or later they're going to push back. Sometimes with pointy objects.

NAME="Imogene"

CAUSE="throat slashed"

Imogene was actually killed in the 2nd book in the series, but as I am at the point in where her surviving friend and mate actually get together (which had been the plan, but oh no Imogene had to go and pop in and make readers cry). She was captured two nights prior and tortured during that time. Arvel held a knife to her throat and gave Vaughan a choice, his mate or Myrna (the heroine of the 2nd book). Myrna chooses herself not wanting to let anyone else get hurt. Arvel accepts, but slashes Imogene's throat anyway. That is the defining event that makes both Vaughan and Eve on a path of revenge for the next five years (until their book begins).

NAME="John and Cara"

CAUSE="unknown cause adoptive daughter Eve didn't like them"

This is my one main cop out in the book and I admit it, but I could never come up with anything good hence why they sorta just get forgotten about by Eve. She hated how they raised her.

NAME="Eve's parents"

CAUSE="Murder"

I never gave them names as Eve was too young to remember their names and no one in the clan seems to remember the names either, as the ones that would have known are all long dead themselves. This I am working on. One night after Eve had been put to bed, a group from the other clan came and attacked the house seemingly unprovoked. Her father was killed during the attack and her mother died 24 hours later due to her injuries.

NAME="Prince Cayden Longsigh and his mate Caryn Nora"

CAUSE="the slaughter of June 1704"

This is one event I avoided in Keegan's book. He mentions that his parents had been killed during the night of the lucis attack, but he never wanted to talk about it. As Eve sees what happens that night, it is finally revealed how both Prince Cayden and his mate die. Cayden is overpowered and stabbed in the abdomen. Caryn dies partly of a broken heart and massive internal bleeding caused by blunt force trauma to most of her body from the attack.

NAME="Arvel"

CAUSE="slaughtered like an animal"

(Last one I swear! I killed a TON of people in this book)

The most graphic of all the deaths that is done in the book. Arvel has been the villian since the start of the series and frankly I was tired of him just as bad as most of the characters were. He confronts Eve in the cemetary just outside of where Imogene's crypt is and in revealing more of Eve's memory (including one massive spoiler), he stabs her which finally makes her snap. With her powers unable to be controlled she goes after him with a fury and rage that has never been witnessed by even the most elite of the warriors and most are horrified with what she did to the body (I won't put here cause it is gross). I figured that after all the books Arvel had been the bad guy he deserved to go out in a grand way and die at the hands of the one female character (that at the start of the series) I did not think was capable of harming a fly.

THIS is why I really missed the "Fantasy Death Toll Tracker" thread that's usually in the fantasy forum and doesn't seem to be around this year. It always made me feel so... tame. And it was nice to lay my one or two named characters to rest in a long list of other named characters, and also a long list of "Here lies the entire village of such-and-such... Sorry, it was a plot point."

I only have one death planned for this year--Agatha, mentioned above--which I think makes this my least bloody NaNo yet. Of course, if I ever write a sequel to this book, it will involve a war... And quite frankly, with the rebellious political atmosphere I'm about to set up, this year may be more dangerous than I intend.

NAME="Flannagan"

CAUSE="a festering wound"

Wrong place, wrong time. Sorry, buddy.

NAME="forty-nine partygoers"

CAUSE="an unruly fondue flame"

In the beginning of my novel, Emi is sent to reap a single person, but Chance follows her curttails through the veil between theHereafter and the old world, adding chaos into the mix and making the banquet table at the ball catch on fire. There were, alas, no survivors, to Emi's displeasure.

I have a lot more characters to kill--Bensen may die, and Chance will fall (although it's more reverting than dying). And then Isabella slays Death and takes over the job. Many, many things to do and I can't wait to get to those scenes!

NAME="Fujou-chan"

CAUSE="Epic ninja battle with her quarry"

Fujou, also known as Reizumi and Mizuki, became fast friends with Yukimaru, my FMC, when she realized that the girl she was hunting had lived the same life that she had, only worse. Instead of capturing or killing her quarry, Yukimaru, Fujou chased her just close enough to keep her masterssatisfied. Unfortunately, that could never last and they forced the two friends to fight. Yuki was pretty upset. And by upset, I mean that it changed her life, as killing your best and only friend can do.

NAME="M'ray"

CAUSE="blood loss after lacerations received from a giant cat"

M'ray is the only daughter of Mr. Rat (as Chase calls him); she is very much a sister to Chase. While helping Chase and Thea get a special medicine from the "giant" hospital, she is attacked by a giant cat. Chase tries to heal her wounds with the medicine, but she has lost too much blood and dies. Inside, Chase blames Thea for M'ray's death.

NAME="a Courier"

CAUSE="a fox, sort of"

Couriers are these giant ravens used as messengers for Death and his Reapers. Although they strictly can't DIE (their body dissipates and they are, in effect, "reset" back to their beginnings), Chance killed one that was trying to capture Emi to bring her to face justice for her crimes.

NAME="90% of the population of Chicago"

CAUSE="biological warfare"

Well, that's one way to fix the traffic problems.

NAME="Dree"

CAUSE="killed by a knife thrown by Worm"

Dree (which I think is short for Andrea) had earlier been assaulted by Worm (the evil mirror world version of Chase); she raised a small pocket knife for defense against him. He reacted by throwing a larger knife at her, which kills her (alas).

NAME="Head Priest"

CAUSE="throat cut"

The Head Priest (who will be given an actual name in a later draft, probably) made the mistake of ticking off a dragon. The dragon sent an assassin, telling her that if she did not kill him, the dragon would. Along with the rest of the city. Dragons are not very precise creatures.

Isada, having handled the situation, has now accidentally inherited her job, to the dismay of pretty much everyone.

NAME="Cormac"

CAUSE="suicide by cop"

The Murderer of my murder mystery, Cormac couldn't face the trial and punishment he knew he'd be stuck with if he went home. So he didn't.

NAME =Rhiannon

CAUSE = Stabbed to death by her quasi-boyfriend.

This just sorta popped outta nowhere, so I am having a BLAST just figuring out what my characters are doing. I have a feeling it's gonna be an all-nighter...

NAME = My Novel

CAUSE = Writing on too many forums when the story needs attention NOW!

I have pretty much no clue what I'm going to do, and tomorrow we're celebrating all the birthdays in my family since my brother was away at college. I don't think I'll have too much time to write... Definite all-nighter...

YOLO!!! (That was old years ago, wasn't it. Oh, well.)

NAME="Avarice"

CAUSE="a contract out for her life"

Except Avarice can't exactly die, so every time she's "killed" (reset), another year passes and the contract is renewed.