You Name It!

There are a lot of steps in getting to know your novel, don't you think? Some of them have to flow in a certain order, but others can... you know... occur when they may.



One though, that can, out of nowhere, give you coherence and direction is the title. Oh, I know. Important not to get too attached in case your publisher wants to call it Biscotti con Leche or something. But I find most of my books have a MOMENT. Sometimes it is early (like before I even really start:  Kahlotus Disposal Site or Player Down) and sometimes it comes later. But it is this sensation of 'THAT'S IT!'

Really my yard. Really my wine.

And you know, sometimes a name can make all the difference in whether somebody is interested or not. Take this wine, for instance. Normally I buy my wine in a box. It has to do with quantity and price... but there was just SOMETHING about this I COULDN'T resist... If you spot it, maybe you could let me know...



The catchy title of course was complemented by the sale price, but between the two I thought... Hey, surely I will have host gift needs or dinner guests at SOME point in my future... I'll take TWO!





But back to books...



With Confluence, my first book, I don't remember when it came to me, but it has a triple meaning within the story, so if I ever manage to get it published, I am going to fight like heck for it. It is literally a river confluence, a confluence of blood lines and a confluence of events. Legacy has at least double meaning... the intentional and unintentional legacy left from adults to children...





These mysteries are a little tougher... they don't have quite the same narrow path and epiphany moments. So I've come to play a game with them.



They have a THEME... and then there is all that DEAD stuff (murder, slay, kill, death...) and they tend to have a lot of clever word play, eh? Some more than others.



So it started to bug me last week that I didn't have a title for my WiP yet, and I decided to play a little game...

What tools did I have to work with?



Beer

Ale

Brewing, though I confess Cleo Coyle has mostly hogged all the good brewing ones for her coffee mysteries (that note of jealousy should be taken with a heap of admiration—I love her titles)

Pub

Hops

Yeast (erm... yeahno...)

Barley

Malt...

TAPPED... (Say... that's one I may come back to …)



And I thought about it...



Probably you need a speck more info.



My fictional Microbrew Pub is called the Beer Boutique. It's an art theme (fine art) and the ales are named for artists (did I say this last week? It seems I may have). So HERE is the list of names I came up with:



Artisan Ale-ments

Trouble Brewing (one that blasted Cleo has surely used)

Microbrew/Macro-slew

Beer Boutique Blues (which held place overnight)



But... I am going with:





What Ales Me





So there. And just HAVING a title gives me a new sense of commitment... whatever that is... I mean... it's not like I am a girl who doesn't follow through. But it has renewed my excitement on the matter.



How about you? What's your naming process?  Do you feel like you NEED it?

Don't forget to come back tomorrow. Elizabeth Spann Craig, who knows more than me on pretty much every front (except maybe statistics) is coming by for a visit and she's going to be sharing some tricks to writing in serial (not to be confused with writing in cereal, which really you can only do with Alphabits).

Following the Money

Whereby I debate the definition of selling out.

Not my Cat but like the pic...

Yibus know I'm broke, right? That almost three years ago HWMNBMOTI got laid off, and we moped for 4 months and then he admitted he might be ready to train for a real job... so he has been a STUDENT since then, and we've been pretending I make enough for our family of four to live on, but I don't... That is where this story begins... The money is gone... Oh, some comes in every month... about a thousand dollars LESS than I need to break even if there is no water bill (which comes quarterly) or insurance (in February)...





I have a Cozy Mystery contract which provided a SIGNING advance, and then pays a little when I turn it in (got first one in Feb) and when it is published (first of those will be a year from now)... it's a trickle... on the month I GET one, I am okay for the month (except that whole February is insurance month detail), but writing isn't currently making up the difference between my (very good, mind you) day job and what it costs to live in Ann Arbor.

I have my young adult Kahlotus begging for a rewrite (which I will do this summer). And I have my Conspiracy Trilogy from which LEGACY needs just ONE MORE round before trying it out out there... I have Confluence which needs a rewrite... But the problem with ALL these books is they go on the slow road... long meandering sales track...





One of my BuNoWriMo ideas is ALSO that... Medium Wrong is the name (the talk to the dead one I mentioned yesterday)... and it is a lesson in be careful what you pretend to be... one of those cosmic justice teaches us a lesson things... and it is a GREAT story, as I see it... but it ALSO goes on that slow road... and it is ALSO one I really want to get RIGHT and I think it could use a few more months to stew...

If you can see through, why bother?

Because I have an idea that I KNOW I can sell, and sell sooner than later... There is a HEAVY market for trade mystery... my sassy Microbrew based, not-quite-cozy... my agent has expressed interest in the idea... she wants to see it when I have it... and SHE KNOWS editors who do this, who will contract not on the WHOLE POLISHED BOOK, but on a synopsis or outline and three BANG UP chapters (or so—50 pages). Now being ME, I really don't want to shop it until I have the first draft done, but if I could sell something right away that in the immediate term only had to be polished through the first quarter... that would REALLY help my cash flow...



And I have wanted to WRITE this series ANYWAY... I'm excited about it.



The premise: McKenzie MacIntyre (Kenny) tried the real world. She wore a suit, marketed for a software company, married a finance banker and had a son. But when the bottom fell out of the NASDAQ and her marriage fell apart, she decided she wanted a life with more tangibles... she opened a Microbrewery.



I am setting the brewery in Old Town Portland (the old industrial district, where warehouses are now lofts and art galleries mingle with Portland's remaining underbelly). She has an easy friendship (and not a little sexual tension) with her (currently attached) brewer; employees are made up of the Portland standard pierced and painted young artist types, and she has a teenage son whose (uptight but quickly going broke) father thinks a brewery is no place for a boy.





I hate to have money drive decisions I make... I WILL write the other... but I am just thinking it would be nice to have the bread and butter on the table while I wait for the main meal to come... (because the YA WILL pay more in the end... These mysteries sell so easily because people devour them, but they can devour them because each one doesn't cost a fortune (or pay the author a fortune)... and honestly... they are easier for a writer to get right—the audience reads fast and is forgiving... they are still a LOT of work, but the easy spot they fill makes it easier to get it 'right'.

This and Kahlotus by Joris Ammerlaan

Another Though Milling Around



(much more fuzzy) I am flirting vaguely with self-publishing my trilogy that won't fall neatly into YA or adult because of the MC age problem... I am WAITING a bit... If my current agent wants my YA stuff, then I think she will want to take on my full career and she may have strong opinions there—I don't want to burn any bridges and she deserves a conversation. If I end up with a DIFFERENT agent for Kahlotus, I think I will keep the three strands of career separate... Mystery with my current agent, YA published traditionally and this funny, hard to genrify batch I will do independently. I intend to formally edit (I have it on good authority one of my Burrow peeps has her eye on an editing career and I'm willing to bet she'd let me pay her a percentage of what I earn until she's paid). I would also want to pay my buddy Joris, who did my FABULOUS book covers gratis, but if I actually make MONEY using the covers, he deserves to be paid.



I want to do my rewrites though, before publishing the first, so the second and 3rd could be up with just a couple months between...I even have my pricing strategy figured out... I think I could do pretty decent with them.  They are good stories. They just don't FIT easily anywhere.



None of THIS is a sure thing... I'd prefer to sell traditionally... Heck, maybe I will submit Legacy to ABNA next year instead... if only the hook for it was easier... but then there is a lot of help on that front.





The PLAN (evil cackle)



By May 31: Finish first draft of Cozy 2

June: Write Microbrewery Sassy

July 1-21: rewrite Cozy 2

July 22-August 7: Cozy 2 to peer reviewers. Edit Kahlotus.

Aug 8-21: edit Cozy 2, send to agent

Aug 22- Sept 15: edit Microbrew beginning. Send to agent when she returns Cozy 2

Sept 16-30: final polish Cozy 2 (turn in Sept 30)

Oct. One of rewrites

Nov. Medium Wrong

December Start Cozy #3



Now all this could change. So far this year on plans, I have missed an editing month (well, 2 really) because this Cozy has taken a lot longer to write than I thought, but I've done okay... Other goals all met.



And if ANYWHERE along this line someone who might lead me to money makes a request, I will jump... because while I dislike hoops or being told what to do, writing for a living is MUCH less of that than anything else I've ever done, so I will take it until I make it...