So that’s it. That is the secret I’ve been very nearly bouncing in my seat about for the past little while. Lost and Found. First take a moment to admire that freaking awesome cover. Isn’t that fantastic? I commissioned that image from a very talented and super nice artist, Darek Zabrocki and I just love it. <3

So, yes. In case you’ve not guessed already, my plan is to share my novella, Lost and Found, chapter by chapter right here on my blog. Starting in September I will be posting a chapter every other week, then if there’s enough interest once we’ve posted the whole story  I’ll make a .pdf for people to download and read all at once. Know what else is super, super cool?

Bill Ratner.

Okay, so he’s a who, not a what, but Bill Ratner in all his super coolness offered to narrate the story so in addition to the text version, I can also offer an audio version — all completely free. How amazing is that? Um. Very.

This is a huge group effort. I’m providing the story, Darek the art, Jo added the text to the cover and Bill is lending us his voice and audio editing skills. I think it’s going to be fantastic.

I’ll post a blurb and all that good stuff later, for now I’m just going to be excited

*bounce bounce*

This poor story has gone through so much and so many names. The very first scene I wrote for it, the one that inspired the rest, was a meant to be a stand-alone story (it failed) called “What Makes a Man”. Then I expanded on the story and it was called “On a Mission”, then that story became a section of the novel-in-stories called “Swamp Story”, which was then renamed “Blood and Stone”. I eventually decided it didn’t work as a novel-in-stories and ripped it apart. This story got the title “There” with its sequel (which is now part of the same story) being called “And Back Again”. Interestingly, another part of that novel-in-stories was recently published as “Shades of Green”. But I digress.

I”ve got a new title. A good title. This tale’s forever title. For better or worse, till death…you get the idea.

The title is

(more…)

Just came from a wonderful meeting with my critique group…where we pretty much decided that the story currently known as ‘There’ can not really stand on its own and it needs the sequel in order to work.

All this time I’ve been struggling with the question ‘What is this story about, really?’ and the question I should have been asking is ‘Whose story is this? Colby’s or Xavier’s?’ The thing is, my critique partners (one in particular) has been asking me that for ages now but it never clicked in my brain until tonight. The short spoiler-free version of the answer is, this is not Colby’s story it is Xavier’s story. Colby’s mission is the sub-plot, Xavier’s escape and the man who held him are the real plot.

That changes things. A lot of things.

I’m happy to have come to this realisation now as I’m beginning another round (hopefully the last) of revisions and not once I was done them again, but at the same time, that means I need to come up with a title in very little time, and the wonderful suggested ones may not work.

I know that flexibility and change are pivotal to writing and revision and I know this is the right thing to do, but I feel a little bit flakey…and not a bit silly for not figuring this out sooner and for wasting everyone’s time and creativity today. Thank you for the suggestions, I am keeping them all in mind as I frantically brainstorm for the right title for my now, much longer, story.

Muddied Waters
Heart
Heart of the Swamp
Lost and Found

Those are the ones I still think might work…or they might not.

I’m going to go take a bath, they help me think and right now my brain could really use to stop spinning quite so quickly.

I need a title for the novella/novelette/story I’m working on, and I need it soon. Like, by the end of the day. *sigh* Titles are irksome, sometimes they come really easily and other times they make me fight tooth and nail and even once I have one I’m not sure it’s the one I want.

In this case, the working title is “There”. The reason it is called ‘There’ is because its sequel was called ‘And Back Again’ and I thought that was quite clever, he he ho ho. However, the first story kinda gets screwed name-wise in the absence of its sequel, and that’s not cool.

I don’t have a polished blurb (or even an unpolished one for that matter) for the story, so let me just tell you a little bit about it. This is an Aphanasian story (like Shades of Green or Sister Margaret) about a sixteen year old girl named Colby and a tentacled man named Xavier. Colby goes to the Aphanasian swamp to find the reptar’s magic stone, Z’thandra’s Heart, which she thinks might cure her brother’s illness. In the swamp she runs into Xavier who has just escaped from the man who held him captive and performed expiriements on him for years. Together they struggle to find their way to the Reptar and the stone Colby so desperately needs, while simultaneously running away from the mercenarys sent to recapture Xavier.

Yeah. That description needs work LOL I hope, however, there’s enough there for you to help me out here. Some title ideas I’ve had included the following:

Heart
A Bit of Heart
In the Swamp
Morass

… Yeah, see how I’m drawing blanks? So far my favorite is ‘Heart’ because it refers to several things including the name of the magic stone and the relationship that grows between Colby and Xavier, but… I can’t decide.

Do you have any ideas? Suggestions from not in my list will be greedily accepted. I know ultimately I have to make my own decision, but I’ve been struggling with this for a good, long while now and I thought it would be good to look for some outside help. And did I mention I have to title it by the end of the day?

*sigh* Yeah.

Help?

ETA: “Heart of the Swamp” and “Lost and Found” are two titles that were suggested which I think have potential.

I -finally- sent in my nominations for the Dwarf Stars Award. Thank goodness they extended the deadline to August 31st or I’d have been pooched. The email reminding me to do it has been sitting in my inbox, marked red for important with a big star beside it for a couple weeks now. That is how badly I fail at email.

So, that’s done now which means the top of my to-do list for tomorrow is my newsletter. Yay! It will only be a couple days late LOL

The writing retreat went okay. I finished a final revision of THERE as well as “…Oh My!” and I submitted the latter to a publisher. Love how vague I am there? It’s that superstitious thing again. I don’t think, however, I was any more productive than I would have been if I’d stayed home…which kinda defeats the purpose of paying for a hotel room, meals out and the like. I’m not giving up on this retreat idea, but I think next time it needs more structure, and possibly more people. I’m going to give it some thought and see what I come up with…