Title Trivia
Today, purely for your amusement, I thought I'd share some random trivia about my titles. It's possible I've shared some of this information before, but I'm sure I've never put it all down in one place. I hope you enjoy!
When writing ONCE BITTEN, I initially titled the book Dead Cats Don't Cry, which is a line Bobby says to Kita in the third chapter of the book. At that time, I planned to call the second book in the series Good Cats Stay Dead, which was a line planned for the second book. (When I shuffled the plots of the second and third book, that line was moved and is still said by the intended character, but in book three instead of in book two.) I abandoned these names long before selling the series.
By the time the books sold, the first book was titled Dark Haven. The second and third books were planned as Crimson Death and Moonlight Gate. My working series title was The Kita of Firth Series. My editor tossed the initial title as not sounding urban fantasy enough and several others were thrown around in very quick succession. I actually found out the official title and series title (Once Bitten and the Novels of Haven, respectively) when I saw the final cover at Dragon*Con 2008.
I followed the title scheme set down by my editor with that first book and the titles TWICE DEAD and THIRD BLOOD were approved for books two and three. I'm not sure what book four will be called yet, but I'm throwing around a couple ideas based on the plot for the book, but nothing has settled yet (and then it still will have to be approved.)
As opposed to the many times named Novels of Haven, the Alex Craft Novels had a very different naming journey.
I dislike having projects called "untitled" on my docket, so when I first created the new document for GRAVE WITCH, I went ahead and titled it as such simply because it was about Alex and she is, well, a grave witch. I assumed another name would hit me while I was writing, but nothing better ever came to mind. If I had gone through a formal querying stage for the book, I might have gotten around to changing the name--maybe--but as the situation worked out, Lucienne is the only agent I ever sent it to, and she decided to represent me and it was back out the door and sold before I could so much as catch my breath let alone change the title. Of course, once it was sold, I just assumed my editor would change the title (I mean, that was how it worked with my first series, right?) But it didn't change. People liked the title. (Heck, I like the title, I just assumed . . . well, you know what they say about assumptions.)
Then it came to naming the second book. While writing the first draft, the file actually said GW2. For the first time in my life, I was working on a completely untitled book--totally unlike me. When I started sending it out for critique, that fact really started bugging me, so I started applying random names to the book. Honestly. One day/week I'd send out chapters under one name and the next it would change. I have notes in the margins from my cp's that say things like "Wasn't this called something else before?" Thankfully, the book does now have a title. My editor finally pressured me for a title because the file I sent her just said "An Alex Craft Novel". I sent her a list of half a dozen or so possible names because I still couldn't decide. Luckily, she could. The winner was (I think I can announce this) GRAVE DANCE, which will be out in 2011.
What will the third Alex Craft Novel be called? Please don't terrify me by asking.
Okay, now you know more than you ever wanted about the titles to my series. I hope you found it amusing! Happy Friday everyone. Have a great weekend and make sure to stop back by on Monday when the Blog Party picks up again!
By the time the books sold, the first book was titled Dark Haven. The second and third books were planned as Crimson Death and Moonlight Gate. My working series title was The Kita of Firth Series. My editor tossed the initial title as not sounding urban fantasy enough and several others were thrown around in very quick succession. I actually found out the official title and series title (Once Bitten and the Novels of Haven, respectively) when I saw the final cover at Dragon*Con 2008.I followed the title scheme set down by my editor with that first book and the titles TWICE DEAD and THIRD BLOOD were approved for books two and three. I'm not sure what book four will be called yet, but I'm throwing around a couple ideas based on the plot for the book, but nothing has settled yet (and then it still will have to be approved.)
As opposed to the many times named Novels of Haven, the Alex Craft Novels had a very different naming journey.I dislike having projects called "untitled" on my docket, so when I first created the new document for GRAVE WITCH, I went ahead and titled it as such simply because it was about Alex and she is, well, a grave witch. I assumed another name would hit me while I was writing, but nothing better ever came to mind. If I had gone through a formal querying stage for the book, I might have gotten around to changing the name--maybe--but as the situation worked out, Lucienne is the only agent I ever sent it to, and she decided to represent me and it was back out the door and sold before I could so much as catch my breath let alone change the title. Of course, once it was sold, I just assumed my editor would change the title (I mean, that was how it worked with my first series, right?) But it didn't change. People liked the title. (Heck, I like the title, I just assumed . . . well, you know what they say about assumptions.)
Then it came to naming the second book. While writing the first draft, the file actually said GW2. For the first time in my life, I was working on a completely untitled book--totally unlike me. When I started sending it out for critique, that fact really started bugging me, so I started applying random names to the book. Honestly. One day/week I'd send out chapters under one name and the next it would change. I have notes in the margins from my cp's that say things like "Wasn't this called something else before?" Thankfully, the book does now have a title. My editor finally pressured me for a title because the file I sent her just said "An Alex Craft Novel". I sent her a list of half a dozen or so possible names because I still couldn't decide. Luckily, she could. The winner was (I think I can announce this) GRAVE DANCE, which will be out in 2011.
What will the third Alex Craft Novel be called? Please don't terrify me by asking.
Okay, now you know more than you ever wanted about the titles to my series. I hope you found it amusing! Happy Friday everyone. Have a great weekend and make sure to stop back by on Monday when the Blog Party picks up again!
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