Deciding Alice’s name?

Hi. I was wondering how did you choose Alice’s name? How did you choose any of your character’s names? How do you choose their physical characteristics? Lastly, did you plan out Alice’s life from the very first book? Did you know she’d marry Patrick after they became childhood sweethearts? Did you know she’d have children with Patrick? or get breast cancer or suffer the death of a friend? sorry to bother you with so many questions! Have a very nice week mrs. Reynolds-Naylor! 🙂

I wanted a name similar to “Agnes” in “Agony of Alice.”  Wasn’t that the name of a saint on a prayer card that she found?  She began to think of her life as the “Agony of Alice” because of all the embarrassments.  I wasn’t sure yet about Patrick, and certainly not breast cancer.  Many things developed as I went along.