What's In A Name...

I suck at titles. Most of my books ended up renamed because the working title just didn't cut it. Or someone else already had first dibs. Or marketing objected.

For instance, the first book in my vampire series, The Cost of Eternity. The original title was Eternal Darkness. The main reason for the change was the publisher had too many titles with Eternal or Darkness. Smart marketing attempts to keep the titles from being too similar or readers may see something that looks familiar and assume they've already read it when they hadn't.

The change was good on another front as well. Someone had kindly pointed out that in the promo world, authors often abbreviate their titles to the initials. Eternal Darkness = ED. Back in 2006/2007, the phrase erectile dysfunction was all over the airwaves and it too had been shortened to "ED". An erotic romance really doesn't need that kind of association. *cackle*

My first Tennessee Cop story, Hidden Force, ended up with the same marketing issues. The original title--which I loved--was Hidden Heat. So many things about the book played into the title. Things hidden--a closeted cop, an undercover operation. Heat--a lot of the theme circled around hot and cold. The relationship between the two heroes was hot; the one guy's inability to commit was cold. I thought I'd really come up with the perfect title. Except once again, the word Heat had been overused. Hence the final name of Hidden Force.

The second TN Cop story, A Helping Hand, ended up with it's original working title. I actually submitted it under Secret Needs because one of my critique partners didn't think the working title was sexy enough. Unfortunately, Secret was an overused word. So I tossed the original title out to my editor and she really liked it. Go figure... *cackle*

With my latest book, Consensual Infidelity, the title came before the book. Very unusual for me. My friend, Delilah Devlin, amazes me with her ability to take a title and write an entire story around it. I usually can't think of one until the story is finished. For example, the WIP I'm working on today is titled "SK New MM Short". *cackle*

Consensual Infidelity was born from a conversation thread on one of my RWA loops. The topic of the definition of a romance reared its head for the gazillionth time. It usually comes up once or twice a year. Someone said they didn't classify a menage a trois as a romance because--to them--infidelity, even if consensual, wasn't romantic. I disagree but everyone is allowed their opinion. And I got a rather cool title out of it! LOL

CONSENSUAL INFIDELITY

BLURB:

Denise Wilder never thought the idea of a man having sex with a man would be so intriguing but when her hot hunk of a Memphis cop boyfriend admits he’d do a guy, her mind and body go into lust-filled overdrive.

When Brady Jameson reveals his attraction to men, his girlfriend proposes a deal. She’ll help him make his fantasy come true. A night with her and her gay best friend Jay sounds like a serious slice of heaven.

But will consensual infidelity take their budding romance to new heights or end it completely?

Now available! 

Amazon.com	Amazon UK	Amazon DE
AllRomanceEbooks	Barnes and Noble	Smashwords

Long Time, No Blogging...

The last few weeks have been exhausting. The evil day job has consumed me--body and soul. But I have a plan! I'm back to full staff so I can start moving some job duties around. Except I need to catch up first! It's a vicious cycle that has had me working the last eighteen days straight. Fortunately, I can work from home on nights and weekends!

I shouldn't complain. The crazy weather has made life much more difficult for so many across the South. At least I have a place to live and work. There but for the grace of God... Tornadoes came close but thankfully, I had no damage and none of my friends or relatives have had serious losses or injuries. So many lost so much. And still will with the rising floodwaters.

Writing has taken a backseat to everything else. Unfortunately. I have several stories in process but nothing close to finishing. Well, maybe a short story I might could finish if I had a little bit of time. I'm hoping to get some writing in this weekend. If I get the EDJ caught up. *crosses fingers*

I really should have gone back to bed instead of blogging. I was rudely awakened at 4AM by the cats having a hissy fit. Literally. Evidently, a strange cat came in the cat door and invited himself to an early breakfast. Rusty and TomTom banded together to run the poor thing off. Not often those two cooperate on anything.

I think it was the same cat who came in a couple of weeks ago. He ended up in my bedroom in the bottom shelf of a book case. Scared to death! You'd think he'd have learned the natives aren't friendly. LOL Then again, he may be hungry enough to brave the wrath of my critters. The dog just lay there watching the fun.

My first experiment in self-publishing has been interesting. CONSENSUAL INFIDELITY is selling pretty good for the first month. It available at multiple distributors and that seems to help. I blogged about my experience at Passionate Reads a couple of weeks ago. I haven't decided if I'll self-publish again. I thought about doing some short stories because I just don't have time to write much. At least keep my name out there so ya'll don't think I feel off the face of the earth! *cackle*

CONSENSUAL INFIDELITY

Blurb:

Denise Wilder never thought the idea of a man having sex with a man would be so intriguing but when her hot hunk of a Memphis cop boyfriend admits he’d do a guy, her mind and body go into lust-filled overdrive.

When Brady Jameson reveals his attraction to men, his girlfriend proposes a deal. She’ll help him make his fantasy come true. A night with her and her gay best friend Jay sounds like a serious slice of heaven.

But will consensual infidelity take their budding romance to new heights or end it completely?

Available at:

Amazon.com	Amazon UK	Amazon DE
AllRomanceEbooks	Barnes & Noble	Smashwords