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.