What's in a name?
192.6
Happy
Sunday morning, folks. The past week has flown by, and it’s already time for my
weekly blog post. I wish I had some more news about the release of my new
novel, The Dragon of Doughton Park,
but I don’t. If that’s what you came here for, I’m sorry. Don’t leave yet. I do
have something cool to share with you. And then, there’s always my incredibly insightful
ramblings to follow.
Since I joined the world of indie authors
last year, I’ve made a number of interesting friends by way of Facebook groups,
blog tours, etc. One of them is Maghon Thomas, who does a regular blog, Happy Tails and Tales Blog. She
reviewed my first novel and I was lucky enough to persuade her to be a beta
reader for the sequel. She’s also a Cajun lady, and has been trying to coach me
in my struggles to nail that dialect for one of my characters, the werewolf (or,
rougarou, I suppose would be more accurate?), Cynthia Lamelle. This week she
vindicated my efforts by bringing the character to life on Youtube with a
reading from the new book! Y’all can check it out by clicking the Maghon on
Youtube link below.
Now the incredibly insightful ramblings I
promised…
I opened the fridge Saturday morning to see
what’s for breakfast. All I found was a single egg and a bag of bagels. I don’t
know what I was expecting, because this is the standard scenario towards the
end of my two week pay cycle. Nevertheless I was disappointed. I wasn’t in the
mood for an egg, and the bagels were scavenged from the leftovers of a company
brunch the week before, I’d been eating them every day since, and I was tired
of them. But, if life gives you eggs and bagels…
I improvised a meal my Mom used to prepare
she called Eggs Alabama, where she
cut a hole in a piece of white bread, broke an egg into the center, and fried
it in the pan. I widened the tiny hole in the bagel, melted some butter in the
skillet, and went to work. As you can imagine, it was a poor substitute. For
one thing, it wasn’t Mom’s (although I’ve been cooking for myself for over 40
years, Mom’s food is still the best). For another thing, the bagel was a little
hard. Still, I covered the result with strawberry jam and it wasn’t half bad.
Plus, it was mine. I decided to give it a name. I called my creation Bagelegg. Yeah, I know. Not that
original. Not that enticing. But, as the Immortal Bard once wrote, what’s in a name?
I started naming my adlibbed culinary works
when I got my first apartment after graduating from the University of Georgia
many years ago. Armed with a near-useless degree in English Literature and a
severe lack of ambition, I got a job as a bus boy at the Wrangler Steak House,
just off campus in Athens. Times were hard. The $1.35-an-hour-plus-tips wage
(the tips brought it up to about $1.36/hour) barely covered my primary
expenses, rent and drugs, but I could eat one meal a day at the restaurant, and
I could take home any scraps I scraped off the plates I cleaned.
Gross
is the comment I usually get from folks when I share this story, but I promise
you, I cleaned the meat and potato scraps I took home, and I cooked them
thoroughly. I came up with two main ways of preparing the results for
consumption. Sometimes I’d boil all the scraps along with a few steak bones in
a big pot with sauces and spices (ketchup and salt) to make Meat Soup. Other times I’d throw the
scraps in a big skillet, along with canned veggies and whatever leftovers were
in the fridge, and sprinkle cheese over the top for Glop.
Glop and Meat Soup. I liked my names, but I
don’t think they were too appealing to others. A typical conversation with the
rare visitor went something like…
Hey,
that smells good. What are you cooking?
Glop. Want some?
Uh, no thanks.
You sure?
<silence>
…
or sometimes…
Hey, that smells good. What are you
cooking?
Meat soup. Want some?
Uh, no thanks.
You sure?
<silence>
So, what’s in a name? Apparently, quite a
bit. The stuff smelled good. The dog never
turned it down. But, in all the time I lived in Athens, no matter how much
pot was smoked beforehand, I never persuaded one human being to try
either concoction.
Wow, man, I’ve really got the munchies.
Want some Meat Soup?
Uh, no thanks.
You sure?
Uh, I gotta go, man. Later.
Sigh. I’m afraid a less-than-compelling name
can steer some folks away from an otherwise tasty treat. Fine. If y’all don’t
want to eat my Glop, I’ll eat it all
myself. So, there.
But I’m afraid the same principle applies to
books, and I’ve slowly become aware that my talent for coming up with lame
names may be affecting sales of my novel. The overwhelming majority of folks
who’ve read The Draculata Nest have
liked it. It has an average reader rating on both Amazon and Goodreads hovering
around 4.4-out-of-5 stars. Folks who’ve read the soon-to-be-released Dragon of Doughton Park have been wildly
enthusiastic.
But, if you read all the reviews you’ll see
a recurring theme where folks have had to overcome reservations about both the
cover and title of the book before
becoming pleasantly surprised at the content within.
My know-it-all-friend David warned me about
the title of The Draculata Nest when
he read the first draft and suggested I come up with something better. I
ignored him and stuck to my guns. I’m an artist,
after all. But, you can’t argue with the readers. Critics? Sure. Editors?
Maybe. Not readers. Readers are the ultimate test of the value of any book. I’d
be insane to ignore reader feedback.
But, what am I supposed to do? Perhaps I
should follow convention and name the two books something like Forbidden Lust and Passion’s Release. The covers would have shirtless male hunks with
washboard abs and scantily clad women regarding the reader with sultry
expressions. Sorry, I can’t do that. I have some
integrity left. (Actually, I wouldn’t be adverse to the scantily clad women,
but if I veto the one I should be consistent, I suppose.)
Well, I’m doing something about the cover.
I’m blessed to have the artist, Ray DeLotell, to have done the cover art for
both a re-release of DN and the
upcoming Dragon. He’s also come up
with some great conceptual ideas for the cover of the third book of the series.
We might be stuck with the titles, though. The Draculata Nest is copyrighted and
already has a year’s worth of reviews and such under the name. I’m not sure
what problems it might cause to change it at this point. And, like I said, I’m
not really good at coming up with compelling names.
Maybe you guys could come up with some
suggestions. Yeah, that’s it. Those of you who’ve read DN or Dragon (all except
David, who’s already suggested some totally inappropriate titles), if you were
naming the books, what would you call them? Leave a comment.
And remember:
From now until the time Dragon goes on sale, the ebook price for The Draculata Nest has been reduced to only $0.99. You can purchase
DN through one of the following venues…
oh boy! I'm officially on the internet hahahahaha ok I am now going to go link this up to my blog so I can share as well :) LOL I do <3 you and Cynthia :) she's quite fun! I'm working on another snippet for you as well :)
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see it, Maghon. Keep us posted!
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