Don Day didn’t give it too much thought when his friend and New York Times best-selling author C.J. Box mentioned he’d put the Cowboy State Daily meteorologist into one of his novels, but he was puzzled.
While Box has had a longtime habit of putting the names of real Wyoming people into the books he writes, it’s generally done as part of a charity auction where the winner pays to appear as a character, and a good cause benefits.
Day knew he hadn’t won any “name-in-a-book” auctions.
“We had just been kind of joking around at an event and having a little bit of fun,” Day recalled. “And so I go, ‘Well, I didn’t buy it at an auction or anything. So, how can I end up in the book?’”
Box then told him the name of the forthcoming book, which was “Storm Watch,” all the hint he was willing to offer at the time.
But it made sense, given that Day is a longtime Wyoming meteorologist, although that would also go against the usual Box formula, in which the real people in the book are named, but aren’t their real selves.
It was a puzzle that Day kind of forgot all about it — until, that is, the novel hit bookstores in 2023.
That’s when Day started getting phone calls out of the blue, some from friends he hadn’t talked to in years. They were excited to let him know they’d read his name in a C.J. Box book.
Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day is one of dozens of Wyomingites whose names have turned up in C.J. Box novels over the years. In his book "Storm Watch," Day played himself — and lived. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day is one of dozens of Wyomingites whose names have turned up in C.J. Box novels over the years. In his book "Storm Watch," Day played himself — and lived. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day is one of dozens of Wyomingites whose names have turned up in C.J. Box novels over the years. In his book "Storm Watch," Day played himself — and lived. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
Named Twice
Turned out Day had been mentioned not once, but twice. Once when a character tuned into Day’s forecast on Cowboy State Daily radio, and once while reading Day’s forecast online in print.
Those two little mentions have been much bigger than Day ever expected.
“I have heard from people all over the place,” Day told Cowboy State Daily. “In fact, I am still hearing from people who are all the way from Massachusetts to Arizona and other parts of the country.”
That’s been a trip, Day admitted. He’s already a well-known meteorologist across Wyoming, but appearing in a C.J. Box book has added a new dimension to his name recognition.
That was good news for Day. The other good news for Day is that his character wasn’t killed.
At least, not yet.
“I did think about that in the back of my mind when he told me,” Day said. “Because, when you’re in a C.J. Box book, you’re usually like, if you remember the old ‘Star Trek’ (episodes) a red shirt.”
Red shirts were typically minor characters in the 1960s vintage ‘Star Trek’ episodes who died soon after their appearances, often minutes or even seconds later. These characters were almost always wearing red shirts, a trend fans quickly picked up on.
The term “red shirts” has thus come to mean any expendable character in any fictional setting. Red shirt deaths, however, are not frivolous. They serve a narrative purpose by highlighting the danger of a situation and upping the stakes for main characters.
So that had Day wondering, at least a little bit, what his friend was imagining. Was he going to get eaten by a bear? Or knifed in the back and die alone in some lonely corner of nowhere Wyoming?
Safe, For Now
Day is pretty safe for now, Box told Cowboy State Daily. There are no particular plans to kill the meteorologist off.
“That was a real reference to Cowboy State Daily,” Box said. “That someone had read something in Cowboy State Daily or heard the weather forecast over the radio, Don Day’s forecast. And I just like to put that kind of stuff in there to make it authentic.”
Box doesn’t need Day’s permission to include his name in his books as long as the reference is neutral and doesn’t frame someone in any sort of negative light.
However, Day’s was an unusual case, Box acknowledged.
Most of the time, when Box puts someone’s name in a book, it’s because they won his “name-in-a-book” auction and have agreed, as a condition, that Box can use the name in any way he sees fit for the book.
That could mean being a seedy villain who checks into the Wolf Hotel in Saratoga and then dies in the first scene. Or it could mean being a dude ranch manager. It’s all luck of the draw, Box said.
“I donate probably 10 to 16 of those a year,” Box said. “And most of them are in Wyoming, which is why most of the names are Wyoming names. I bet there’s 200, 300 Wyoming names in the books, and a lot of them are recognizable names.”
Like Gov. Mark Gordon, whose wife, Jenny, won a “name-in-a-book” auction before Gordon’s election to office.
“I made him the general manager of an exclusive dude ranch,” Box said. “And then Mark had someone else, a proxy, buy Jenny’s name a few years ago, and she didn’t know it. I made her the head of the predator attack team going after grizzly bears.”
Box said when he uses the name of a real-life person, he generally wants to make sure their physical description and character attributes are as far from the real person as possible.
“Most of the names are either, like, victims or bad guys, or drug dealers, or prostitutes, or whatever,” Box said. “So, I don’t want anyone to think that that’s what I think of them personally.”
Killing off “name-in-a-book” characters off is also not a plan Box makes in advance. It just happens as the plot unfolds.
Sometimes, names end up carrying through to multiple books.
That’s the case with the county prosecutor in Box’s Joe Pickett books, Dulcie Schalk.
“She’s in a whole bunch of books,” Box said. “And I never really start out thinking there will be any additional ones, but sometimes it just happens.”
(Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
A group of C.J. Box fans gather to meet the Wyoming author of the wildly popular Joe Pickett series at the North Richland Hills Library in North Richland, Texas. They're holding his novel "Storm Watch," in which meteorologist Don Day is featured as himself. (Courtesy North Richland Hills Library, C.J. Box via Facebook) 
"Storm Watch" by C.J. Box names Wyoming meteorologist Don Day, where he plays himself. 
Bestselling author C.J. Box is famous for putting names of real Wyoming people in his novels, and they usually end up dead, a serial killer — or both. Some, like meteorologist Don Day, play themselves in Box’s books, and even manage to stay alive. (Courtesy North Richland Hills Library, C.J. Box via Facebook)
Wyoming’s ‘In’ Joke
While it doesn’t seem like it’d be difficult, naming fictional characters can be something of a chore.
Every book has a whole new cast of new characters clamoring for namesthat ideally suits them as far as the year they were born, as well as their — or their parents’ — nation of origin.
Whole articles have been written on the ins and outs of choosing appropriate character names.
Some authors keep a baby name book handy for the purpose, and Box has done that. He’s also simply looked at objects on his desk to quickly come up with a name to suit a character.
When he first started out, Box had a pretty novel approach. He used the PRCA media handbook.
“Rodeo cowboys have such great names,” Box said. “So, I’d usually choose one first name from one guy and a second name from another guy. So, it wasn’t an exact character, right.
“The first three or four books are just filled with rodeo cowboy names, and the people who follow that would really get a kick out of that.”
When someone suggested the “name-in-a-book” auction to him, though, he decided he liked that much better.
That way, he’s getting a signed release from those whose names appear in his books and, at the same time, some pretty awesome charities are getting nice, fat donations. Those include the Wyoming Children’s Society, Wyoming Hunger Initiative and many others.
Most of the time, a name auction raises around $3,000 for a charity, Box said, but some have gone as high as $25,000. In all, Box thinks he’s raised anywhere between $300,000 and $750,000 from his “name-in-a-book” auctions, which have filled the last 25 or so books with a dozen or so Wyoming names in each book.
The highest dollars often come about when rivals try to outbid each other, but once the bid gets high enough, Box will sometimes agree to put all the names in the book if the rivals are all willing to pay the same amount as the winning bid.
“Two subsequent speakers of the House tried to outbid each other one time at a fundraiser, and they both got their names in the book,” Box said. “And I told them right off they’re going to be thugs, and they were.”
Some of the other names in the books have included Pete Illoway, a former Wyoming legislator, who was portrayed as a meat guru; and Office of Tourism Director Diane Shober, who was portrayed as a long-distance runner.
Saddle bronc rider Brody Cress as well as cowgirl and former Cheyenne Frontier Days Dandy Peaches Tyrrell have also appeared in his books.
“A lot of them have been politicians, and they’re almost always bad guys,” Box said.
Over the years, Wyoming readers have come to really enjoy looking for names they know in Box’s work, he added.
“I just look at it as a Wyoming ‘in’ joke,” Box said. “It’s in every book, and only people from Wyoming are going to recognize it. It’s not going to be national or international.”
Not Trying To Be Naughty
Some of the names have prompted editors to ask questions from time to time, Box said.
“Some of the names are so unbelievable, that I’ve had editors question why I’d use a name like that when I could have gone with something more conventional,” he said. “Like I remember one character, a woman named Sunny Magaziner. And it’s like jeeze, you know, she’s in the book?
“Another one was a legislator named Brad Boner in real life, and I had an editor question that name, thinking I was trying to be naughty.”
Other times, the names are so ordinary and bland, the editor has the opposite question.
“It just seems like a lack of imagination,” Box said. “Like Eddie Smith. That’s a real name in a book and a real person, but it comes across like, ‘Oh, come on.’”
Box is both random and methodical when it comes to placing each of his auction names in novels.
“As I’m writing, it’s just Male Name No. 1, Male Name No. 2, Male Name No. 3,” Box said. “And then I will come in later and fill those names with people who won these character name (auctions).”
That ensures he doesn’t even inadvertently choose any real-life details about a person while he’s writing. He’s already written the book without knowing which name is going where.
“It’s totally random,” Box said. “When I get done with the manuscript, I’ve got a stack of women’s names and a stack of men’s names, and I just go through the manuscript and take one sheet at a time and say, ‘OK, this is a woman.’”
Not Everyone Is Always Happy
Box tries to ensure no one ever waits more than a year for their name to appear in a book after a fundraiser.
“If I’ve got my fill of names, I’ll say, ‘You know, I’d rather not give one away, because it won’t appear for a couple of years. So hit me up next year for this,’” he said.
If he comes up short, on the other hand, he’s been known to turn to a baby name book to look for a name from an era that fits a character or just start looking at random items on his desktop to choose a name.
Most of the time, however, he has plenty of “name-in-a-book” auction winners to go around for each novel, and usually the people are just happy to be in a book.
“There was one name I gave to a really bad buy who turned out to be a serial killer, and that particular character lasted over three or four books,” Box said. “His family did not like that.”
The name, though, was chosen at random, just like all the other auction names.
“That was a great name, but when I used it, I wasn’t intending to carry that name over for several books or make it as bad as I did,” Box said. “To make matters worse on that, it was one of the ones the television show picked up, too, so his name was on television as well.”
That just goes to show it’s a dicey business to appear as a character in a C.J. Box book. Most of the time, you’ll end up dead, a serial killer or both.
But sometimes, if you’re very lucky, you could just end up appearing as your ordinary old self, like Day.
It might all be down to charity and chance, but it still makes a fun bit of insider trivia to share between Wyomingites and one of America’s most popular authors.
Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
