Book 2 Title and Release Date News!

It's official! SKY JUMPERS book 2 has a title! And a release date!

***Drum roll for the title****

Which, I've gotta say, makes me pretty happy. You see, most books I write don't have a title for a very long time. But back when Sky Jumpers was called Through the Bomb's Breath (which was its title for a very long time), I came up with a title for book 2 that would go along with it-- Across the Forbidden Flats. And that was BEFORE I EVEN STARTED WRITING IT. I know. It shocked me, too. So to have the final, official title have three of the four original words (especially considering what it took to get Sky Jumpers' title just right), is downright magical.

***Drum roll for the release date***

One day shy of a year after book one. The closest Tuesday to being exactly a year. Awesome, no?

And guess what? The paperback of Sky Jumpers comes out that same day!

No, I don't have a cover to share. No, I haven't even seen it myself. But the illustrator doing it is the same one that created the cover for book 1 so YES! I am dying to see what he comes up with! I have visions of waking up Christmas morning to an email with the cover image attached.

photo credit: erin m via photopin cc

Maybe I'll have my daughter wrap up my laptop the night before and place it under the tree. My boys don't care at all if they know what they're getting for Christmas, but my daughter is a big believer in being surprised on Christmas morning. Plus, she still believes in Santa, so with her on my side, I just might get my wish. ;)

What do you have visions of waking up Christmas morning to?

Title change, cover news, and The League

Hi, everyone! I have tons of news that I'm all kinds of happy that I can share!

First off, let's talk title. Mine has officially changed. Remember this post where I announced that the series title is SKY JUMPERS? Well, we've decided that it's such a great name, that we are going to give the first book the same as the series title. So my book is now officially called...

SKY JUMPERS!

The change came at the eleventh hour, just as the finishing touches are being made to my cover. I am thrilled with having the single name on the cover! I think it's making it look and feel and sound exactly the way it's supposed to be. Exactly right. Not to mention how awesome it looks.

Speaking of the look of my cover, I got to peek at it! Oh my gosh, you guys. It's so awesome, you're going to die. I am in love with it! I canNOT wait to show you. I'll give you a hint: green. An homage to the green bombs of WWIII that wiped out nearly all the earth's population.

But more than giving you a hint, I can finally share with you who this amazing cover illustrator is!

Owen Richardson

He is the third illustrator that Random House hired to create my cover, and as soon as I got word it was him (and then spent forever ogling his portfolio), I knew he was the one. The one who was going to make the perfect cover. When my editor sent his color sketch, I nearly died of happiness. Yep! Definitely the one.

Because, come on. Feast your eyes upon some of the art he's created for book covers.

Isn't he just beyond incredible? You can check out more of his portfolio here: Shannon Associates-- Owen Richardson (And of course, all these images are copyrighted, and shown by permission from the artist.)

Go ahead and just stare for a while. I don't blame you one bit.

Done? Okay, my last bit of news. The League of Extraordinary Writers has asked me to join their ranks! And in case you were wondering, I totally fan-girled when I got the invitation accepted the invitation in a very professional manner. My first post at The League will be my intro post next week.

And since it's Friday--- a day when I normally do a Quotes and Cookies post, I'll leave you with this: a cookie recipe that Owen Richardson sent after seeing my blog. (How thoughtful is that?! It made me tear up. :'o)) This recipe is an original from his famous chef wife, Amy. Enjoy!

Peppered Ginger Cookies

Recipe by Amy Richardson

3/4 cup Sugar, plus additional for coating

3/4 cup Butter, softened

1 large Egg

1/4 cup Molasses

2 cups Flour

2 tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1 tsp. Powdered Ginger

1/2 tsp. Allspice

1 tsp. Ground Black Pepper

1/3 cup Crystallized Ginger, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar together, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg and then add molasses. Combine flour and other dry ingredients, then add to the creamed butter and sugar mixture and mix.

Form into 2 inch balls and roll in sugar. Place 2" apart on an un-greased cookie sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes.

Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!

Choosing a title, and my brand-new official one.

My hubby and I watched the movie SKYFALL on Friday. As I was walking out of the theater, wanna know what struck me the most in the movie? The ability to breathe new life into a 50 year old franchise? That it had the biggest 007 opening of all time? *Gasp* Who died?

Nope. It was THE TITLE. (Which may or may not have been a direct result of me recently focusing so much on title.)

SKYFALL is not just a great title-- it's INCREDIBLE. Memorable. Intriguing. Pulls you in.

What is interesting about the title, is WHAT was called Skyfall. It wasn't the name of the secret plan. It wasn't the name of the bad guy. It wasn't the name of the object they needed. It was the name of his childhood home. It could've been named a million things that would've fit the look of the home better, but Skyfall fit the mood of the movie better. It even fit the theme.

I imagine that as they were brainstorming names for this movie that didn't have a plan / object they could go to for a great name, they started looking at word combinations that fit the movie, and then found a place to put it. In this case, a location. And it worked. I can't say I totally bought that his childhood home was named Skyfall, but the name definitely made me want to see the movie. And that's what really matters, right?

I guess my point is, when you're brainstorming titles, don't limit yourself. Look into things outside of the obvious in your book. Heck, even look outside of what's in your book! If it truly fits the feel of your book, it will work in your book.

Now, a little update on my own title.

My book has been named THROUGH THE BOMB'S BREATH for as long as it's had a title. At one point, the cover team thought that something wasn't quite right. All the pieces weren't quite falling into place. So they asked for alternate titles. It was hard enough to title it the first time! How in the world was I supposed to come up with even more?! I sent.... maybe eight. After a couple of weeks, they decided to keep my title. I was so relieved!

I knew it might come up again. I was with a bunch of writers having a write night, and mentioned how hard titling my book was. They said they bet that we could brainstorm 100 titles. I think I actually snorted. We set to work, and stopped at... you guessed it! 100. The difference? We looked outside of the box.

Then my book got to marketing, and they decided something wasn't all the way right with the title. They worried that it wouldn't be seen in the right context, and people would think it was a darker book than it was.When they asked for us to look at titles, I narrowed that list of 100 down to 40 and sent it to my editor. She gave me a list of probably 20-30 more. I came up with about 20 more. Then we narrowed it down to a dozen.

I'm not gonna lie. I've told my title to hundreds of people in the past year and a half, and I've seen their reactions. I know it's a good title because of the look on people's faces when I tell them. So I was a little (okay, a lot) afraid to change to an untested title. And since we only had about 48 hours to come up with a new one, there wasn't much time. I emailed everyone I could think of who had MG aged kids and begged them to have their kids vote for their favorite of the twelve. I took ballots to my local elementary school's 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classes. A sweet author / teacher in Ohio took it to 5 classes at her elementary school. In the end, I had votes from 460 kids, and titles that showed very clear winners.

I gave that info to my editor, who then shared it with marketing, and I FELT GOOD. It no longer mattered to me which of them was chosen. I now had tested titles.

Marketing, sales, my cover team, my editor-- everyone fell in love with the same title. Oh my gosh. I'm getting goose bumps writing this. The one they fell in love with, when used as SERIES TITLE, fixed everything. It was the missing piece. The book title WAS exactly right-- it was just missing the series title. Without further ado, I present to you my brand-spakin' new title.

SKY JUMPERS book 1: THROUGH THE BOMB'S BREATH

It makes me giddy to see my title! Every time I look at it, everything feels exactly, completely, finally right.

T is for Tata to Titular Tribulations!

Note: This post should be taken none too seriously.

I'll just go ahead and say it. It's hard to come up with a good title. It just is. But never fear! I have a surefire way of coming up with a title THAT REALLY WORKS.

I show, as evidence A and evidence B, the following two movies:

What's so great about these titles, might you ask? I'll tell you. They are a TITLE and an ELEVATOR PITCH all in one. This is incredibly desirable, people. You know how it is: You see a movie trailer once, then someone asks you to go see that movie, and you can't remember what the heck it's about, because the title didn't remind you AT ALL.

Not the case with movies named like these two.

"Hey, wanna go see Snakes on a Plane?"
"What's that one about?"
"Dude. It's about snakes on a plane."
"Oh, yeah! Let's go."

See? Those middle two lines don't even need to be there when you have an elevator pitch title.

"Hey, wanna go see Man on a Ledge?"
"Sure!"

Makes life all kinds of easier. With a title like that, people won't need to remember if they've heard what your book is about. The title will tell them everything. Just in case you need some more convincing (as if!), I have taken the liberty of changing the titles and altering the book covers of some well known books to one that fits the SNAKES ON A PLANE / MAN ON A LEDGE naming convention.

I present to you, the elevator pitch titles:

Hehe. Now isn't that easier? Your title doesn't have to be a thing to stress over for months. Thirty seconds, max, and you've got it.

You're welcome. ;o)

I'm thinking of renaming THROUGH THE BOMB'S BREATH to BANDITS INVADE A TOWN. Effective, no?



Fine Print: No book covers were harmed in the making of this post. (And for the record, though 99% of this post was done in jest and meant to be humorous, I do actually think that SNAKES ON A PLANE and MAN ON A LEDGE were aptly named. However, unless it works with your book, I am not actually advocating renaming your book with this method! Except in the comments. I definitely think you should rename it in the comments, if for no other reason than to keep us entertained.)