This week's challenge has been coming up with new names for places and bands. Once upon a time, I had some friends who were in bands, and they had dozens of fun names they wanted to use, including logos for those band names if and when the time came. Could I remember even one? Nope (feel free to chime in with one of your favorites).
At any rate, one of the wonders of the Internet is fiction generators. You can ask it for the names of fictional colleges (which I did for FAMILY ALCHEMY), or restaurants, or bars, or even fictional town names. So I went out to search for fictional band names -- and I was disappointed. There are several websites to choose from, but the first one couldn't find anything based on my search criteria, which frustrated me enough to pull something out of a hat. Because my imagination works well enough, and I have goofy enough friends that sometimes these things do return to front of mind.
The other option for names or ideas, and lots of authors do this, is to "phone a friend." The Who Wants to Be a Millionaire game that equates to post the question to Facebook. I've done that a time or two, too. (A shout out to all the people who have helped me in this regard.)
So in answer to the oft-asked question "how do you come up with all this stuff?" Sometimes I don't, and I have to use a lifeline.
So here's my "phone a friend" for this book. The working title is When She Put The Book Down, which is long and cumbersome and could work, but maybe not... (sigh, take a deep breath). It's another Hoffman Grove book with Sue appearing as the main character. You may remember from COOKIE THERAPY that she likes to read. In this book, that love of reading is going to be put to the test when her new neighbor moves in and she has to help him solve the murder of his former roommate, whose suspicious death was ruled a suicide. It isn't really a "cozy" per se, but she is trying to put everything she's learned reading mysteries to the test, including trying to decide if the new neighbor DID kill his roommate. If anyone has any suggestions for a better title, I'm all ears!
In the meantime, back to writing the story!
I agree that's a long title, especially when you consider what it will have to look like in thumbnail size on the cover. Titles are usually the last thing I come up with, not that "I" come up with all of them. I ask friends, too. The title has to convey so much in so few words. Wish I could help. Maybe later after I've had some time to think about it.
ReplyDeleteThat’s what I keep saying….
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