Wednesday 8 February 2017

What's it called?

Blue sky and sunshine and holidays. That'll do nicely. 
I'm just completing what I hope will be the last set of edits for the first novella of 2017, which will then be back to the publisher and all points north.

It's quite big, for a novella - 60,000  words - and it's not romantic suspense. I'm not actually sure what genre it is. It has a bit of a mystery, and lots of running around on the French and Italian Riviera and of course, a love story. I'm hoping it might become the anchor book for a new series that will be loosely centred around a detective agency in Bath - with lots of romance and con men and running around on the Riviera and other glamorous places. But that is for the future.

I can't tell you what it's called, as it doesn't have a name - at least not an official one. It's actually had a number of names. It started out as A Hand-picked Husband - try saying that after a few glasses of wine. At one stage, when life was in chaos and I thought it would never actually see the light of day, it was called The Novella from Hell which was very unfair, as it had done nothing at all to deserve it. The working title it is going under at the moment is Watching the Detective - one of my favourite Elvis Costello tracks, but that is a bit quirky, and doesn't really tell you a lot about the book.

And that's the thing about the title, it's the first thing that anyone sees/hears so it's important. And it's useful if it lets the potential reader know what the book might be about and whether it's a good choice for them.

So the best title for the story would be one that says holidays and sunshine and romance and a mystery to be solved. We're still working on that one. I rather liked Escape to the Riviera, but Jules Wake got to it first.

 I'm waiting for a stroke of brilliance to occur to someone. I'm sure it will happen. Once it does. I'll let you know. 😃

2 comments:

  1. It's interesting to see how the title has changed over time! I'm not even going to try and help you out here. I am useless at titles. Absolutely completely useless at them. I'd probably call it Romancing the Riviera Rogues, and not be able to say it after a glass of prosecco or two, either.

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    1. Actually Kath, I rather like that one. It would be good for the whole series.... Wanders off, muttering.

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