A Rose By Any Other Name
I hope one and all had a happy 4th of July!
We went to San Francisco for fireworks… finally found parking in some merciful lot near Fisherman’s Wharf.
We were very grateful, until the time came to pay $17.50 for parking… when half that time was spent WAITING TO GET OUT OF THE PARKING SPACE, ughhh!
The best kept secret in San Francisco as far as fireworks viewing is concerned is A. Sabella’s restaurant on the Wharf.
We went there, sat at a nice table, had appetizers and desserts, and saw the show right from the window. Of course, you pay through the nose for the privilege of eating there, but what amazing shrimp cocktail! What fantastic crème brulee! What a sad day it was this morning adding it all up in the Weight Watchers journal!
Do you know one serving of crème brulee has approximately 555 calories and 48 grams of fat? No, I didn’t either.
It was delicious though. But still... I woke up this morning feeling like the lowest scum on earth for having sucked it down. Even the chocolate cake dripping with sauce and covered with ice cream would have been a better choice.
On the author front, I have created a MySpace page for the purpose of communicating with readers and friends. If you're on MySpace, I hope you'll visit me on my page there. Already I’ve linked up with many of my favorite authors, and even several readers!
There’s a space for a blog at MySpace. I’m thinking I’ll constrain that one to blogs about reading and writing. The personal stuff will go here, in addition to the blogs about the biz, which will appear in both places. Let’s see how that goes. *GGG*.
TITLES are my current frustration. I don't know why, but I completely suck at coming up with titles. I wanted to call The Bitch Posse WHITE ROSES RED, after a line from the book. It's an Alice in Wonderland reference, of course. But it's not quite as grabby as The Bitch Posse.
New writers angst a lot over titles. The truth is, the title you sell your book under most likely won't be the one that appears on the cover. I know an author who had a great title for her novel about horses: HORSE POWER. I liked this title a lot! It suggested a strong, powerful woman who gathered her power from the animal she loved so much. However, the publisher didn't care for the title so it became RIDING LESSONS. Jennifer Weiner talks about an agent who wanted to call her first novel BIG GIRL instead of GOOD IN BED. Can you imagine? Would you ever have even bothered picking up a book called BIG GIRL?
I did a little digging to find more books that would support my theory that it doesn't matter if my title sucks. (Actually, SUCKS wasn't the exact word used by my agent. She simply said, "It's a good title. Can you think of a great one?" She puts things so nicely.)
Here are some original titles of famous books. What do you think?
All's Well That Ends Well - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Stephen Hero - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Incident at West Egg
Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires
Trimalchio
Trimalchio in West Egg
On the Road to West Egg
Gold-hatted Gatsby
The High-bouncing Lover
Under the Red White and Blue - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tomorrow is Another Day
Tote the Weary Load
Milestones
Jettison
Ba! Ba! Black Sheep
None So Blind
Not in Our Stars
Mules in Horse Harness
Bugles Sang True - Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Catch-18 - Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Well, the upshot is, I'm trying not to angst too much over my lack of a title. Some of the above titles are quite terrible, and the books speak for themselves. Why get too worked up over the title at this stage? In fact, I think I'll email my agent this morning, and tell her I've renamed the book yet again:
Something That Happened (original title of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men).
We went to San Francisco for fireworks… finally found parking in some merciful lot near Fisherman’s Wharf.
We were very grateful, until the time came to pay $17.50 for parking… when half that time was spent WAITING TO GET OUT OF THE PARKING SPACE, ughhh!
The best kept secret in San Francisco as far as fireworks viewing is concerned is A. Sabella’s restaurant on the Wharf.
We went there, sat at a nice table, had appetizers and desserts, and saw the show right from the window. Of course, you pay through the nose for the privilege of eating there, but what amazing shrimp cocktail! What fantastic crème brulee! What a sad day it was this morning adding it all up in the Weight Watchers journal!
Do you know one serving of crème brulee has approximately 555 calories and 48 grams of fat? No, I didn’t either.
It was delicious though. But still... I woke up this morning feeling like the lowest scum on earth for having sucked it down. Even the chocolate cake dripping with sauce and covered with ice cream would have been a better choice.
On the author front, I have created a MySpace page for the purpose of communicating with readers and friends. If you're on MySpace, I hope you'll visit me on my page there. Already I’ve linked up with many of my favorite authors, and even several readers!
There’s a space for a blog at MySpace. I’m thinking I’ll constrain that one to blogs about reading and writing. The personal stuff will go here, in addition to the blogs about the biz, which will appear in both places. Let’s see how that goes. *GGG*.
TITLES are my current frustration. I don't know why, but I completely suck at coming up with titles. I wanted to call The Bitch Posse WHITE ROSES RED, after a line from the book. It's an Alice in Wonderland reference, of course. But it's not quite as grabby as The Bitch Posse.
New writers angst a lot over titles. The truth is, the title you sell your book under most likely won't be the one that appears on the cover. I know an author who had a great title for her novel about horses: HORSE POWER. I liked this title a lot! It suggested a strong, powerful woman who gathered her power from the animal she loved so much. However, the publisher didn't care for the title so it became RIDING LESSONS. Jennifer Weiner talks about an agent who wanted to call her first novel BIG GIRL instead of GOOD IN BED. Can you imagine? Would you ever have even bothered picking up a book called BIG GIRL?
I did a little digging to find more books that would support my theory that it doesn't matter if my title sucks. (Actually, SUCKS wasn't the exact word used by my agent. She simply said, "It's a good title. Can you think of a great one?" She puts things so nicely.)
Here are some original titles of famous books. What do you think?
All's Well That Ends Well - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Stephen Hero - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Incident at West Egg
Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires
Trimalchio
Trimalchio in West Egg
On the Road to West Egg
Gold-hatted Gatsby
The High-bouncing Lover
Under the Red White and Blue - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tomorrow is Another Day
Tote the Weary Load
Milestones
Jettison
Ba! Ba! Black Sheep
None So Blind
Not in Our Stars
Mules in Horse Harness
Bugles Sang True - Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Catch-18 - Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Well, the upshot is, I'm trying not to angst too much over my lack of a title. Some of the above titles are quite terrible, and the books speak for themselves. Why get too worked up over the title at this stage? In fact, I think I'll email my agent this morning, and tell her I've renamed the book yet again:
Something That Happened (original title of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men).
<< Home