More Than Just a Title

When I was younger, I remember my dad saying, "I hate it when they use the title of the movie in the dialogue." That stuck with me. Sometimes, it's cool. But most of the time, it stands out.

Along those lines, creating a perfect title for a book is hard. How do you sum up the content of a 300 page book in a catchy phrase of 5 words or less? There are times when, yes, the title just comes to you. That was the case with Once Upon a Heist. I actually came up with the title before I came up with the story. Checkmate was pretty natural, too. It only made sense to use a chess term for that story.

With my Crown's Call books though, I wanted to keep them as one word titles. But those titles became something more than just descriptive words to suit the stories. The meanings go way deeper.

Poison, for instance, is setting the stage for the villain to make his mark. His influence threads through the entire series. Beyond that, it goes to a personal level with the main characters. They suffer the consequences of their poor choices, especially those relating to the villain. (There is hope, though, so don't get bogged down in all the negatives listed above.)

Fusion is the same. Throughout the story, things or people come together in unexpected ways. Relationships, quests, motivations, destinies... While one of the "fusions" is obvious, the others are there in nuances.

As I'm working on Asylum, I'm seeing more and more of the double meaning of the title. You're familiar with the phrase insane asylum which has a pretty bad connotation to it. The word is used for haunted houses and other frightening experiences. But it also is defined as a place of safety and refuge - a sanctuary. Without spoiling the ending for you, the main characters, following all the harrowing events, end up in a place of safety. They find their asylum.

I've crafted all my titles to reflect something more than just a part of the story. And occasionally, the title shows up in the dialogue. But it's just one more little detail that, as an author, makes me proud.

Someday, I'll share the other titles with you.

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