Saturday, February 18, 2012

What's In A Name...

Or title? How many of you labor over a title for your books? Sometimes it's hard, isn't it?

Yeah, I'm debating on the title for the third book. It has changed from one thing to another. You know how you have to slap a title on your WIP, and you stick with it up until the moment you are just about ready to give it to the world (or your publisher).

I have the title "Beyond the Black Veil" on this third instalment. However, I've seen a title out there called "The Black Veil" and I don't want to have it so closely related to someone else's title, esp. if it's another vampire novel. It's almost impossible to find a different title now a days, but you always try.

The title came to me because of what happens in the book--Sabrina goes Beyond the Black Veil when she steps through a portal and is in a totally different world and the explanation is that they are beyond the black veil, which is also the networking of black holes into which a person travels in order to go from one world to the next. She is able to go between worlds, because she is the sibyl, but other humans aren't able to escape. Vampire's also are stuck there.

Okay. Sure that works. But I'm still not crazy about the title because there might be something better.
Here are some ideas to ponder:

I have creatures called Dreadfuls which are part of the main plot. I'm trying to think up a way of incorporating their name into a title. These Dreadfuls are not ghosts, but Sabrina slowly realizes they are similar to demons. They cause sickness in humans, and within weeks they die terribly. When her Dagger of Delphi kills one it has no physical body, but disintegrates. She suddenly is in demand to rid their world of these Dreadfuls because there are only so many humans, and their are dying.

Vlad Drakulya is also in this story, and even though he has a role in the book, it isn't really about him, either. But I sort of like the idea of using his name in the title, but then again so many titles out there with "Dracula" in it.

The Plot Idea:
Sabrina is trying to locate her missing cousin in this third instalment, and has by chance come across a portal which opens up briefly and snatches humans to this world where vampires rule. These humans become their Blood Dames/Doms, and also serve to reproduce other humans or also can pro-create with the vampires. They are also stuck in the late 1800's. I wanted to mix things up a bit, have Sabrina in another world during nearly the entire book, and this book was born a few years ago. She becomes romantically involved with Drakulya's son, Jett who is engaged to Princess Penelope. Jett happens to be a psychic vampire who feeds on... sex.

If anyone has ideas, leave a comment, and if I use your idea you will receive the third book free with your title as a thank you--when it comes out, of course. So, maybe that is enough incentive. Even if your suggestion is changed slightly and I use it, I will still give you a free book. How does that sound? Any of you need further information, let me know. I have been placing scenes up once in a while at Lorelei's Muse. I'll probably be doing teasers from it now and then this spring, so be looking for them.

Thanks in advance!

13 comments:

  1. Let's see...know how you feel about titl...hmmm....The Dreadfuls...The Dark Battle...Ummm...I'll think some more.

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  2. I know, Shelly. I'm trying to work on something. I may have to do a word search thing of titles and mix and match things.

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  3. I posted this over on a group on facebook I belong to (Hot Off The Press), and have gotten a few good ideas. Among them are:
    "Blood Veil"
    "Vampire's Veil"
    Drakulya's Veil" - (mine)

    I'll wait and see if I get any more good ones. I'm trying to stay away from the word "blood" as too many titles do have this in it.

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    1. Drakulya's thats a horrible spelling, it makes me thing of this kid in Texas who thinks Dracula's from Sweden or something equally moronic, also focus on the Black fail, Hoping not to late since if the ret of your titles are as cliche as this i am not going to bite. besides somethings that parallel reality in fantasy literature , sometimes just angers real people. Why even veil anything?!
      Not to hip on the Plot, but perhaps a better substitution is
      probably a rename on your series, with Dreadful in that title it might see with being Dreadful days , Dreadful Nights, the rest is not quite sounding that good to me. I think i would need to know more about your books to be of more help. Dreadful blessings , curses things that might have to do with this, creating a title is easy, but making it match the book 100% is where some of the difficulty lies. good luck
      D, ,

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    2. "D"
      First of all the spelling of Drakulya is how the historical "Dracula" (the Impaler), spelled it. I do research things. It wasn't an arbitrary spelling.
      "Black Veil" is something modern "vampires" call their world. Again. I did research this. I felt it was appropriate, and those who call themselves "vampires" would get. I didn't expect the world at large to get it. And since I'm the writer and the one who created this series I can call it whatever I like. Fantasy has that option of making it up as you go.
      And third, since you came to this post a couple of years later, the title of the book is Vampire Nocturne. It came out in 2013. It is alive and well, as are the other two prior and I've just put out the fourth book, and am writing the 8th book in series.
      Thanks for stopping by. Have a good day.

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  4. I always like unique words. I titled my first book Transubstantiate (which just means "to change") and it's the only title out there like that. I also like the word "vainglorious." Another word for black or dark is "stygian" and it refers to the river Styx, the underworld. Maybe something like that? Good luck! (I've also been into one word titles for awhile too. My second novel is called Disintegration.)

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  5. Hmmm - yeah, titles can be a bit tricky sometimes.
    How about just 'Beyond the Vail'? Sometimes, once you decide on a cover, that helps. Dreadfuls? Hmmmm How about 'Hunting Dreadfuls and Finding Love'? Well there's a couple ideas anyway. Good luck.

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  6. Well, I've certainly gotten some food for thought, here!
    Thank you Anna, and thank you Richard for your input!

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  7. I actually quite like "Beyond the Black Veil". It has a cool ring to it. I haven't had enough coffee yet to offer any remotely acceptable ideas, but I do really like that the names of your previous novels have steered clear of using sayings for the titles. That seems to be such a common route, but it always feels like a bit of an unimaginative cop-out to me.

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  8. Well, thank you Emma, for your feed-back on this. So, Beyond the Black Veil has at least one vote.I'll have to put this up to a vote at some point over on my main blog.

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  9. I don't know if this will work for you, but whenever I"m having trouble with a title, I will try to take a phrase out of the book - something the character says or something that is in the book that has a unique pairing.

    other than that tidbit of advice, how about "The Dreadful Truth" for a title?

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  10. Yes, Nicole, this works pretty well. I've done just that with my last two books. The working title probably isn't all that bad, I just thought I would see if any of you had some thoughts about it.

    I'll take your idea into consideration. (^;

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Hey, did I get you thinking? Want to add a comment? Be my guest and be nice about it. Since I've seen too many "anonymous" users I've taken this option off. Sorry, but you are only interested in selling me something. But my regulars are always welcome!