The Importance of Titles

Because they are important, aren’t they? The Lord of the Rings just sounds so much more epic than Short Hairy Man Saves the World. The Sun Also Rises sounds intriguing. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? makes me want to pick up the book to find out. Same with The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. With a Game of Thrones you know what you’re going to get – the clue is in the title.

I’ve often bought books on the basis that the title intrigued me. And of course the title also has to appeal to the market you’re aiming at. Which is where I came unstuck. The WIP is done and into revisions ( which so far are fairly minor, luckily). But, and it’s a big but, it’s a fantasy romance. So the title has to appeal to romance readers. It has to sound romancy. And also fit the style of the book.

So it was called For I Am A Jealous God. In the style of old GRRM, this tells you what is going on in the book. It fits. So much it hurts. But it’s not a romance title is it? No. And therein was my problem.  So, as it’s the sequel to Ilfayne’s Bane I’ve got two choices. I go with a title that links the books together. Or I go with something that is romance-oriented and fits the book. And this is where I need a hand.

If I go for the title to link the series, I’ll go with either Hunter’s Bane ( which will make the third book Hilde’s Bane, possibly) or Hunter’s Oath (which will probably make the third Kyrion’s Gift) which still kinda links them together in the ‘Someone’s Something’ style of title.

But in my puddle of angst at trying to rename the book, I trawled through lots of poetry – Lovecraft, Byron, Shakespeare. And I found something that fits, I think. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 142:

Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate,
Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving:
O, but with mine compare thou thine own state,
And thou shalt find it merits not reproving;
Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine,
That have profaned their scarlet ornaments
And seal’d false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robb’d others’ beds’ revenues of their rents.
Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lovest those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee:
Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
By self-example mayst thou be denied!

Now this almost perfectly encapsulates Our Hero’s feelings for much of the book. And so the thought of calling it Love is my Sin came along.It fits. Oh yes.

And this is where I’d like your help.Which one do you think is better?

Eggcorns

Yes, you heard me right. Eggcorns. You know what those are don’t you? The nuts on oak trees. Yes, they are. Honest.

Or at least that is how one person always heard the word acorns. And eggcorns has come to mean those tricky words you’ve probably only ever heard and never seen written down. So your mind interprets the sounds as it sees fit.

So depending on your accent it might be social leopard or soaping wet.

There are more examples here

And then of course there is my own personal stumbling block. Words I’ve only ever seen written down and so pronounce as they they look like the should be pronounced. When I was 12 or so I had to read aloud in class. I’d only have seen ‘quay’ written down. And Qu = a Kw sound, right? Yes, so I said kway. Yes, it took a while to get over the giggles that caused.

And it was only a couple of months ago that I discovered that hyperbole is not pronounced hi-PER-bowl. When I heard Judi Dench say it in Quantum of Solace I wondered what on earth was that word? Maybe it was just her posh accent? A quick trip to the dictionary and a cry of ‘No WAY!!’ and now I know – I’ve been saying it my head wrong all this time. I should have been saying hye-PER-buh-lee to myself. And I still say wrong in my head now, because I can’t get out of the habit.

So, what words does your brain interpret in its own sweet way?

In other news, I’m doing a serious ( well a bit serious anyway) blog post tommorow about making characters 3D – check out the Naughty Girls Next Door

The youth of today…

I mean I could understand when none of the kiddiwinkies at work knew who Alice Cooper was. Before their time really. I boggled a bit that none of them knew who Odin and Thor were, but hey, not everyone’s into that.

But to be asked ‘Who’s Stephen Hawking?’

!!!

If they aren’t called Jordan, or been on Big Brother, or a footballer, they don’t have a clue who they are.

Mind you, it was a fun day when I walked in and said ‘I’m writing smut now. Pirate smut’ ( I blame that trip to the Royal Navy Museum myself ) The conversation regarding slang words for, er, various parts of the body, and which I couldn’t use for historical reasons, leading on to the discussion of the etymology ( after I’d told them what etymology means anyway) of the word flange…Well it quite made my week.

But yes, I’m writing smut. My husband is so proud.

And in other news, my book cover is in a competition! Vote now!