Well, now I’ve done it.

I’ve always had a nagging feeling deep, buried within that I would never really move forward with a one word title to the first book of The Tome of Greystone. I like “Emergence”. It certainly fits what happens in the book. But then an experienced agent and editor commented that it sounds more like a Crichton book or a Sci-Fi title than epic fantasy. And he’s right. Look up Crichton’s title’s if you doubt it even for a second.

So I need to change it, and it’s SCARY! First I thought I would go with a title with the word Phoenix in it somewhere, since phoenixes are the new dragons (see prior post if that makes no sense to you). But every title I came up with that included Phoenix just sounded… pretentious. Almost snobby. One thing my books are not is snobby. They are quite casual, the characters very much on-the-level, and even the mysterious big picture mysteries feel accessible to me. So I am pressing on towards a new name, something that fits the action but doesn’t feel overblown.

Sigh. Easier said than done.

And consider the irony… I have mapped out the detailed plot for 9 books of about 125k words each. And I have (what I think are) AWESOME names for ALL of them! Except for the first one. The first stinking book! The one that is already FINISHED!

Ah, well. At least I don’t need to worry about the other titles… yet.

🙂

~Kevin