Titles

Titles really are not my thing. I struggle with them. My friend Sherryl who thinks she struggles with them -- at least I think she thinks she struggles with them -- is brilliant at them. She can always be relied upon to cough up some title more deep, more meaningful, more nuanced and layered than I ever could. Frankly, I suck at titles.

When I started my swamp blog, I knew what I wanted to call it. Swamp. Short and simple. Easy. But when I tried to get that address for my tumblog, it was already taken. So I went for Swamp Musings. But as I've been musing over my swamp blog, I'm starting to think I should've called it "An appreciation of clouds", because that's what it seems to be about as much as the swamp. This year we are having some great clouds! Here's a photo of today's clouds, and one naughty dog (paddling in the distance) who escaped out the front door and ran off.


But back on the subject of titles. I had my novel titles all worked out: Shadow Knight, Shadow Fall and Shadow and Pariah. Of course, when I first worked out my titles, years ago, there weren't as many shadow titles around. Then Raymond Feist brought ot a shadow-titled book as did one of my friends. And then a magazine came out called Shadow Fall. And when I really think about it, my main character isn't a knight -- he's a soldier. So now I've decided that the first book is going to be called Shadow and Pariah, but I have no idea about books two and three -- only that they will have to follow the same sort of formula. Parallel construction is a beautiful thing! I can see that's why Philip Pullman's first book was titled The Golden Compass in the States, rather than using it's UK and Australian title Northern Lights. Anyway, I suppose in time the titles will come. No point getting stressed about it.