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.”