Unbelievable! My last post was from July (and it wasn’t mine, strictly speaking). Where did August and September go?
It’s already winter. Fall is always short here, everyone knows that, but it’s never happened that it missed us completely.
Photo by Simon Matzinger on UnsplashA quick update: as of this week, my novella is not free anymore on Voracious Readers Only. I had more than 400 requests for downloads. I got quite a few great reviews (as well as a couple of awful ones). The best thing of all was that some readers contacted me, asking if I had anything else written. I offered them my two novels to read. They genuinely liked them and promised to write reviews once I publish them.
Once I publish them…
The first novel, still without a title, is with my editor now. Besides the title, which should be pretty/poetic, imply the genre (urban fantasy/supernatural romance), and contain the right keyword(s) (Moon, moonlight, shadow, blood, wolf), I have to come up with a blurb, a tagline, and ideas for the cover. And then everything again, for the second book. I’m not looking forward to this part at all. (At least I’m done with changing the names. About that, next time.)
And I miss writing. I’ve been tangled up with this re-writing, editing and futile marketing efforts for way too long. I yearn to open a new Word document and type in that first sentence of a new story.
But before that, as I said, there is still that mountain that I have to cross: the blurbs, the taglines, the covers, possibly a new pen name…
… and the titles. I gave titles to thousands of magazine and newspaper articles, yet I’m helpless when it comes to my own books.
I came up with some ideas, though.
A Song of Light and Shadow (too much George R. R. Martinish?)
A Dance of Light and Shadow (same as above)
The Pull of the Moon (too flat?) The Lure of the Moon(?)
Moon Light, Moon Bright (too kitschy?)
The Forever Side of the Moon (I like this one)
The Edge of the Moon
I’ll give you my heart under the light of the Moon (I kinda like this one, too, but I’m not sure it fits the genre). And it’s a bit too long.
Written in Crimson and Silver
Both books belong to the Red Cliffs Chronicles series.
…
So what do you think about these titles? I’ll be grateful for any input.
And thanks in advance.
JF Kaufmann, Author 
Moon Song? Crimson Moon? I too am itching to get back to writing. Must be the weather.
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Crimson Moon… hmm. I like it. I have a strange feeling that there IS the perfect title for this book, and it’s here, on the tip of my tongue (or my pen :-). I keep thinking about the first Stieg Larssen’s book. His title was The Men Who Hated Women, then a clever American publisher changed it The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
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I really like I’ll give you my heart under the light of the Moon, but I can see how that might not fit the genre (I get some serious dark fairytale vibes from it, which may or may not work with the story itself). I like The Edge of the Moon and The Forever Side of the Moon quite a bit, too.
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Thank you, Reghan. You’re right. I’ll give you my heart… is too romantic for the general ‘color palette’ of the book. I did use the touches of gray and black.
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How about these: Crimson and Silver OR The Right Side of the Moon. Or maybe The True Side of the Moon. ??? I know what you mean — sometimes the perfect title pops into your mind, but so often it’s a struggle to come up with one. Good luck!
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Thank you! Yes, crimson and silver are both important colors in my book, one symbolizing blood, the other the Moon… I become impatient toward the end of the process. This time I have to come up with two of everything: titles, covers, and — the biggest nightmare of all — the blurbs.
By the way, loved your garden pics…
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You’re welcome. I thought about your suggested titles and (based on my own experience) tried to come up with shorter versions, hence leaving out the “Written in” part from one of them. I kept thinking of “blood moon” as well, since that term has become popular recently, but maybe it’s too popular and perhaps not quite right? Thanks for looking at my garden photo post!
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You’re welcome! The photos are great, really. Gardening is one of my pleasures, although I discovered it not that long ago.
As of my title nightmare, thank again for you inputs. ‘Blood’ and ‘Moon’ are definitely the key words. Unfortunately, title-wise, supernatural romance fiction is not the genre where you can exercise your creativity.
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