So, I was asked to make a post about the origin of my book titles. I have done this a little, but not in depth. Then, I realized that I’m not that subtle when it comes to these things. I figured I’d list all of them here with the cover and a quick explanation. Click on a cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.
This one appeared right out of the gate. Legends of Windemere: Beginning of a Hero is where Luke Callindor’s path to being a hero begins. It’s also the one that I started my author career on, so there’s a real life association too.
Nyx is a magical prodigy. Nyx lives in Rainbow Tower. I said I wasn’t very subtle here since this was her debut book. Although, I will say that this was originally called ‘Running the Gauntlet’ because of all the obstacles. Glad I changed it.
This one actually took me a little longer than I would like to admit. At first, I was focused on Luke Callindor returning home. Then, I switched to how Sari debuts and she was an ‘alluring’ character to others in the book. Until that point, it was a blank page.
This was originally ‘Behind the Curtain’. I switched it when I did the final outline and realized how important the Tri-Rune was.
Another title change from ‘Touch of Destiny’ to focusing on the object that will kick off the Champion Prophecy.
This is a rarity where the original title stayed. As you can tell, a curse called the Dark Wind causes trouble for our heroes.
Originally called the ‘Temple of Power’, I changed to the debut of Dariana. The temple in question was Helgard, but that’s the last act. I found it easier to focus when I named it after the new arrival.
This wasn’t one of the original stories and I came up with it later on when I realized that one character needed to get more development. This was Yola Biggs the Chaos Goddess, but I named it after the gnome who would end up being the door to the trouble. Mostly, I really liked saying ‘Nevra Coil’ and felt it was title worthy.
This was another addition after I looked over my outlines. Delvin Cunningham shared a debut book with Timoran Wrath, but he came in near the end. After that, I never gave him a moment to shine or a real origin story. He did have a fancy title, which was perfect for his big adventure.
The original here was really lame with ‘Barbarian Honor’. It’s about Timoran Wrath and his honor, but there wasn’t any punch to it. Once I gave a solid name to his tribe, I thought it deserved on a cover. A lot of the story connects to the history of the tribe and Timoran as well, so it fit.
I was paying more attention to the Nyx/Delvin relationship and named it ‘Love of a Warrior Mage’. Of course, this was before I started using the term ‘caster’. Either way, it didn’t work and I wanted it to be about the adventure. The high use of mental manipulation and the introduction of the Feykin gave me this idea.
‘Lost Temple of Souls’ . . . Not that much of a change since I simply renamed the location ‘The Spirit Well’. You can see I tend to make titles over locations, characters, or story specific events. Isn’t that normal though?
I wanted to focus on the rescue of Luke Callindor here, so I went through ‘Where is Luke?’, ‘Fallen Hero’, and ‘Breaking of the Callindor’. Far too meh in my opinion. I decided to name it after the ritual that would be used once I changed the story around to include such a thing.
Another addition after I wrote a little into the series because I really liked Trinity. The title came last after I added a few more former enemies to the mix. The overall adventure really is the path of redemption of several characters. Can you still call it that if not all of them go hero?
The grand finale! I wanted to make it big and choose the epicenter of the whole thing. So, I wrote ‘Blood of Heroes’ and then ‘Age of Heroes’. Those really weren’t the crux of the entire series when I thought about it. Baron Arthuru Kernaghan was the driving force of evil behind it all. Figure the guy deserved a title.
Kira Grasdon was emotionally, physically, and mentally wounded in the main series. It left her looking for purpose or death. She needed a quest and I kept coming back to her emotional state. It does sound a little like a romance story, but I like how that’s kind of a swerve.
This is a collection of short stories, so I wanted a title that kind of showed that. It also has this casualness that fits the character. There’s also a humorous slide to it as well when you consider these are all epic action adventures.
We’re going to be getting briefer here. Cassidy and Lloyd Tenay live in a chaotic land that they need to get across. Pretty on the nose and it began the trend of these stories always being two words with ‘Bedlam’ as #2. (Why is Lloyd giggling in my head?)
Instead of simply going across a region, Cassidy and Lloyd Tenay were going after an old enemy. It was definitely a big chase full of destruction and chaos.
And here we come to the newest series. Each book is a single word that is at the core of each story. Questions of loyalty push the plot in the opener, so that is what I went with.
This is probably the most on the nose title of the series. I think. I named it after the introduction of Lost who throws the new world out of whack. Yet, I noticed that many characters are lost in some fashion because they’re trying to figure out where they fit in the ongoing war and new Dawn Fang society.
War of Nytefall: Rivalry is the newest one and goes straight to the point. There is a big feud at the core of the story. I don’t remember what the original titles were for this series and I can’t find the right notebook. Maybe that will be in the future. Sorry that the origins of the titles aren’t more exciting, but clarity can be more useful.
I think your titles are good, Charles.
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Thanks. 😁
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Terrific post, Charles. It is like a chronicle of the last five years. 😀
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Thanks. Definitely covers a lot of . . . I can’t believe I accidentally wrote that pun.
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
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Thanks for the reblog. Happy Easter.
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Happy Passover, Charles 😎
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Thanks. *eats his twentieth piece of Matzah* This is going to get old fast.
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Interesting to see how you came up with your titles. I’m struggling with one at the moment. I love your covers, too.
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Sometimes a stand in title can work. Then a real one appears while writing.
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I like your titles and covers. Mine come from all over the place. Sometimes I have one before the first word gets written, others don’t come to me until the end. I don’t seem to have a rhyme or reason behind it.
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I prefer to have some title first. It helps guide me since it denotes the plot. Doesn’t mean it stays the same. I was surprised how often I changed titles.
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You make good choices.
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Thanks.
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I have to have the title pretty early, because I always Tweet about my progress. It’s boring to be mentioning “my WIP” or something. That also lets me use the title over and over, to see if it holds up to repetition.
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Have you ever changed a title late in the process? I’ve had to do that once or twice.
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I study them intensely after the first draft is complete. I do searches to see if a similar title has been used. I search also for key objects and places in the story. So hopefully that is when I change the title. When I go into another round of revisions, and I’m tweeting about it, I can switch to the new title before I get anywhere near publication.
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Yay!!! Thank you for this! So fascinating! I love how authors come up with titles. It’s a weird fascination that I have. It’s part of wanting to know an author’s process.
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You’re welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.
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I always struggle with my titles.
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They’re almost as hard as blurbs and bios.
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Yes.
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A walk down memory lane, indeed.
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This post took longer to research than expected. Definitely a delving into the past.
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I am very much impressed by all the books you have written! Best in all! 🙂
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Thanks. I always forget how big the list is.
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