Titling Meetings with a Six-year-old
My son is quite interested in writing and the publishing process, and since he lives in nearly constant close proximity to a novelist, he has to put up with lots of writing “stuff.” Over the summer, when Bill and I were communicating several times a week, he would pick up the phone with his sweet, “Hi, this is Jacob, who is it please?” and then hand me the receiver with a weary expression and say, “It’s your agent. Are you going to be talking for hours again?”
Lately, he’s been quite aware of the inner turmoil caused by my lack of title. I’ve been holding impromptu titling meetings with family and friends, at church and Bible study. I’ve been using the Lifetime Movie Title Generator, the Abstract Art Title Generator, browsing magazines and spam subject lines, and clicking random Wikipedia links.
Yesterday, my editor told me they are taking Home Another Way to the Bethany House title board for a final yea or nay. I’m satisfied. There were titles I liked much better, but there were also many I didn’t like at all, so it’s a good middle ground. And today, Jacob was sitting at the lunch table while I was on the phone with a friend, telling him about the newest title developments. I hung up and Jacob said, “So, that’s the title of your book?”
“I think so,” I told him.
“Well, at least it’s better than A Good Kind of Crying.” (This was one title my brilliant agent came up with, and I really did like it – apparently, however, books with *cry* or *weep* in the title don’t sell well…)
“Oh, really. If you could name my book anything, what would you call it?”
He thought for a moment, then broke into a huge grin. “I’d name it Up the Mountain, Then Down.” (This was the original title of my book, which I still adore, but it was deemed too plain for a first-time novelist).
“Very funny,” I said.
And he giggled.
Take the Handmade Challenge
This year, I have taken the Handmade Pledge at BuyHandmade.org – or, as I read it, I’m making gifts for all those I can, and buying handmade gifts for others. In reality, my *handmadeness* total will be about 90%, as Jacob is getting a very cool space-aged ant farm for Christmas (I did buy it, however, from small, family-run business), along with the beanbag toss mat he asked me to make for him. And my father, who couldn’t care less about “stuff,” is getting tickets to a Yankees game.
This year, several children on my list are receiving personalized *I Spy* bags. Made of fleece, the 7″x7″ bags are filled with plastic beads, confetti, little toys, and found objects, and have a vinyl window for spying. There’s an item for each letter of the alphabet – amphibian for A, leaf for L – as well as letter beads A through Z, and bonus items, giving kids about 75 things to find. I’ve also personalized the bags with each child’s name and a little message made of shrink plastic (remember Shrinky Dinks? Now there are sheets you can use in your inkjet printer). I made this one for Jacob while he had bronchitis earlier this month and needed to rest – a very difficult task for a 6-year-old.
I have other gifts planned, too – journal covers, jewelry, bookmarks, paper dolls, and herbal teas. I find that, if I’m stuck with my writing, being artsy in other ways helps gets my brain reboot into a creative mode, and not only do the words flow more freely, but the desire to write grows. The more creative I am in every day life, the easier it is to shift from “mommy mode” to “real writer mode.” So, if you’re stuck on words some time, try being crafty!
Norman Mailer, 1923-2007
By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer (From Yahoo News):
NEW YORK – Norman Mailer, the pugnacious prince of American letters who for decades reigned as the country’s literary conscience and provocateur with such books as “The Naked and the Dead” and “The Executioner’s Song,” has died at the age of 84.
Mailer died Saturday of acute renal failure at Mount Sinai Hospital, J. Michael Lennon, the author’s literary executor and biographer, said.
Read the rest of the story here.
And the Title is…
I have NO idea.
On Monday, I received a phone call from my editor at Bethany House, Karen. We went though some of the suggested edits – only one of them was mandatory; Bethany has a blanket policy about taking the Lord’s name in vain, even when the character blaspheming gets smacked over the head with a melamine plate for doing so – and I was pleased with how *little* they thought should be tweaked. I don’t have to have final edits to Karen until March 1.
Plenty of time for ol’ procrastinatin’ me!
Karen and I also discussed titles. My working title, at first, was Up the Mountain, Then Down. My agent, Bill, liked the title for a seasoned author with a reader base, but not for an unknown – nothing catchy about it, nothing to make some peruser pick up the book and read the back cover copy. So, for weeks – months! – Bill and I tried to come up with something literary and intriguing, and that didn’t sound like a Hallmark Channel movie. I spent hours clicking random threads on Wikipedia, using silly title generators, and picking Magnetic Poetry tiles from a hat. Out of sheer desperation, the novel was titled Variations on a Life. It had the dual meaning I was looking for (using variations as a musical term, as well as in the common sense), and I thought I at least *liked* it. Bill didn’t, but we were out of time. And now I can’t stand it either.
So, I asked Karen if she had any ideas, and she didn’t. Nothing wonderful. Nothing that made me sit up and go, “Wow.” Next week, Bethany will begin the titling process in earnest, with brainstorming meetings and all that – I’m praying someone is inspired. And, soon, when someone asks, as she inevitably does, “What’s your book called?” I will be able to give her something other than a stammer and a shrug, saying, “Uh, there’s no title yet.”
All I Want for Christmas is a Goat
Over the summer, I noticed my six-year-old son was beginning to exhibit a cultural *norm* that, as a Christian and a mother, I decidedly didn’t want him to have – materialism. So, I went off to the library and borrowed Material World, an excellent book that offers an inside glimpse into the possessions of 30 “statistically average” families from around the world. In photographs and words, we met a family from Africa whose greatest wish was a second set of clothes, and another who wished only for money to send their children to school. We met Asian families who slept on dirt floors, saw photos of flies crawling over a sleeping toddler, watched a South American woman crouch over her only pot, washing her laundry in it before cooking dinner.
The book left an impression on Jacob. (Even today, if he’s begging for something he absolutely needs, I ask him, “Do you remember that family from Mali?” and he quickly reconsiders.) As soon as we finished reading it, he wanted to know how he could help. Actually, he wanted to pack up a huge box with a sink, toilet, food, money, and clothes, and send it to every one of the needy families. When I told them that wasn’t possible, he asked what he *could* do. We went online to Samaritan’s Purse, and I told Jacob that he could pick a gift to send to a family, and he could earn money by doing extra chores to pay for it.
He looked through the catalog and chose a goat.
He needed to raise $70. Together we picked six chores for him to do each week, and he would receive $3 for doing them; I would match his earnings with $3 of my own. Then we made a chart to hang on the refrigerator so he could color in a box each week to mark his progress. We’ve since paid for one goat, and are working on a second.
If you and your family are looking for a way to show Christ’s love this holiday season – or any time! – I highly recommend Samaritan’s Purse (it gets the highest rating, 4 stars, from Charity Navigator, and 89 percent of its money go directly to program costs). It also does the Operation Christmas Child shoebox ministry, and if you go to the website, you can enter your zip code and find a drop location near you.
