The results are in. A winner has been chosen and my next
novel, until submission at least, has a title.
Thank you! I never envisaged I’d receive so many entries to
my What Would You Call It? competition, nor that it would be so
illuminating. Those little asides you sent explaining why you chose one title
and not another? They were gold dust.
One title won by a fair few votes, one was 'Marmite', my
original working title was more popular than I’d have thought it might be and
none of the titles heralded no votes at all.
I suspect that, Her Place, which gained the fewest votes,
was a little too vague, even obscure. Note to self: intriguing, perhaps; nebulous,
no. I had a titter about my wild card: Meatballs. You certainly felt strongly
for, or against, that one. I agree that it could be misleading, dangerously so,
because no, this story isn’t a farce and I wouldn't want people thinking it was.
Whilst there may be some farcical elements, laugh a minute it isn’t - I’m not
that clever.
So, who won?
All the votes for the most popular title were put into a hat.
Actually, strictly speaking, it isn’t a hat, it’s a laundry basket. It’s one of
my household’s not infrequent, ‘internet fails’. We have a fair few of these. Next
time I’ll post a pic of the ‘minute yellow trug’ and there’s also the doll’s
house sized – it seemed such a bargain – bottle of Shiraz.
So, the winner! My hubbie, to ensure absolute transparency, pulled out one name from the hat/laundry basket, and that name was: Liz Carr. Congratulations,
Liz! If you could email me your contact details and choice of either Glass Houses or Tea and Chemo, I’ll get a signed copy to you forthwith. And please
don’t forget to let me know to whom I should sign the book.
The winning title? This Remarkable of Days and I am
absolutely thrilled with it.
Although, as with many titles in my experience, it
does have a question mark hanging over it: it’s knowingly grammatically
incorrect. I would hope that people would assume this was deliberate (surely a
mistake wouldn’t get all the way through to the title of a novel? But then,
stranger things have happened...) and there is certainly a strong reason for this
wording. However, some potential readers might be put off right there and then
by the suspect grammar. Can I risk this? If not, I’d have to consider changing
it to: This Most Remarkable of Days and whilst I’ve been spinning this around in
my head, the more I think about it, the more I like the quirkiness of the winning
title of this competition. For now, it stays and I’ll keep you posted on that.
By the way, if you have a view on this dilemma, please do share!
Meanwhile, here’s to a version of This Remarkable of Days
making it to a book shop near you some time before too very long and that,
aided by a stellar cover, not only will you feel compelled to read the blurb
and later the book, you’ll stick with it (almost) to the end, when you’ll see
where I was coming from when I slipped Meatballs into the list 😊
