Titles and Tribulations

I'm pleased to welcome Vinnie Hansen to today's Salad Bowl Saturdays. Vinnie noticed my offer to guest blog on Saturdays (which is still open, just drop an email to me) and I'm glad she contacted me, because she's written a delightful piece on the mystery of titles

~ Jim. 

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The Great Gatsby could have been The High-Bouncing Lover, Of Mice and Men was almost called Something That Happened, and Harper Lee had the working title Atticus.  It reassures me that even the greats struggled to find the right title. 

Mystery writers of a series presumably have an easier task.  For her periodic table mysteries, Camille Minichino selects another element: The Hydrogen Murder, for example.   Titling strikes me as the easiest part of that series!  Cara Black’s titles move from one arrondissement in Paris to another: Murder in the Marais, Murder in the Sentier . . . .  Sue Grafton just has to think of a crime to go with the next letter of the alphabet, although the challenge increases as she approaches the end.  Y is for Yenta? 

With a series, the title of the first book seals one’s fate. In my Carol Sabala mystery series the first book is Murder, Honey.  I like the double meaning of honey.  The food word suggests the milieu, and what indicates menace better than “murder”? However, even though baker/sleuth Carol Sabala eventually trains to be a private investigator, I’ve needed to retain the titling pattern: a food word and a hint of malice.  The titling should have been straight forward, but the truth is my writing group has had to rescue me from serious missteps!

For a long time I called the sixth, and latest, book in my series Art, Wine & Cheesy.  Set during Santa Cruz’s Open Studios Art Tour, “Art” was a given, and what food item goes better with art than wine?  But the writing group struck. 

“Cheesy?  Really?” 

“Cheesy is demeaning to your book.” 

“Cheesy is cheesy.  That’s the problem.”

“Okay, already,” I sighed. 

So what would the new mystery be called?  Since there was some strangling involved, I thought I might be able to do something with choke, especially since choke is a shortened form of artichoke.  Art, Wine and Choke?  Arty Choke? 

“Bagels and Bullets?” a group member proposed. 

I like alliteration, and there are both bagels and bullets in the book but I wanted “art” in the title.

“How about Art, Wine & Nuts?” I asked.  Seepage, I suppose, from the way I was starting to feel. 

The eventual title, thanks to my husband: Art, Wine & Bullets.

Now I am writing the seventh book for my series, which takes Carol Sabala to Cuba.  I am tentatively calling the manuscript Mojito Madness.  Popularized by Hemingway, mojitos are ubiquitous in Cuba (although the author himself preferred double frozen daiquiris without sugar, or a gin and tonic with bitters). 

Even though I’m counting mojito as the “food” word for this title, it’s the “madness” I’m worried about.  The villain of this seventh book is a sociopath, but I can already hear my writing group objecting that “madness” sounds quaint. 

I’ve already prepared a backup title: Black Beans & Venom.  Black Beans are a staple of Cuba and the new mystery prominently features scorpions.  I would love to hear your thoughts.  Mojito Madness or Black Beans & Venom?

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Vinnie Hansen is the author of the Carol Sabala Mystery Series, 

now also available as e-books at Smashwords and Kindle. She lives in Santa Cruz, California, with her husband, abstract artist Daniel S. Friedman.