I want to introduce you to Melissa Blue, my wonderful, amazing critique partner and best friend. She's my guest blogger today, so everyone be extra nice...
Registered Nurse by night, Melissa battles the stresses of life and illness by enjoying uplifting tales of love and romance. A firm believer in true love united with an enduring fascination with history has prompted her pursuit of romance writing. She lives in beautiful Big Sky Country Montana with her husband and children.

Creating Peeerrrfect Titles...
Book titles tend to be an author’s white elephant… the elusive horned unicorn that we chase after, toiling for hours over the perfect twist of phrase that will hook readers and ferry the book to the New York Times Best Seller list. No matter how incredible the writing in a story may be if the title is ho hum it will probably be passed over for a title that leaps off the cover and screams to passersby, “Read me!”

What makes a good title?

Key elements that draw me to a title as a reader are:

· Is the wording unique or is it yet another boring seduction-type of title.

· Does the wording fit with the genre of book I’m looking for?

· Does the title tell me a little something about the book?

· Writers create pictures with words. What images does the title provoke?

· Does the title match the back cover blurb? Nothing drives me more crazy than a gripping title that does not seem to match the book in anyway.

Titles are my least favorite thing to write—third only to synopsis and pitch writing—but the title of my latest release Angel and the Unforgiven from Champagne Books is one of my absolute favorites.



How do I come about developing titles like the one for Angel? To be perfectly honest partly by accident. The original title of this book was Angels (with an S) and the Unforgiven. The cover artist goofed and dropped the ‘S’ at which point my publisher and I said, “Ahhh, I think it’s better without the plural.”

Melissa’s keys for developing fitting yet intriguing titles:

· Slap a working title on your story. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate just a name for your work while you get it rolling. Even something like Ghost Story will do.

· Once you reach a point in your writing when certain plot points begin to stand out take note of those elements because they may be great fodder for a title later.

 * i.e. The title of my latest finished project Forget Me Not stems from the Forget-me-not flower the hero gives the heroine. The title is also a clever twist on a double meaning within the story.

· When the time comes and your manuscript is polished and it’s time to polish the title too, develop a few and then run them past a few people.


Now tell me, what is the best book title you’ve seen lately? Mine is Lessons from a Scarlet Lady.

When you read the title Angel and the Unforgiven what image does that provoke in your mind?

Does the back cover blurb match the title?

When murder suspect Cadence Jamison disguises herself as a boy and stows aboard the Heavenly Mistress Captain Curtis Langston may find his two past occasions for rescuing her more than he bargained for.

Bitter and Cynical after service in the Confederate Army, Curtis believes himself no more deserving of another’s love than capable of returning it. Content to drift through life free of emotional and therefore romantic complications the once carefree and mischievous rogue may be forever gone. But when Cadence appears in his life Curtis finds himself smiling again, smiling and dreaming and feeling more like himself than he has in five years. Drawn with almost unnatural force to the sweet and innocent goodness Cadence offers, Curtis blunders again and again to resist the pull of what a life with her could be.

Can Cadence show this wounded soul how to love again? Or is he doomed to be forever unforgiven, haunted by the ghosts of his past?

Happy Reading!

Melissa
Find me online at http://www.melissalynneblue.com/

Angel and the Unforgiven E-book:

http://store.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b108240/Angel-And-The-Unforgiven/Melissa-Blue/?si=52

Print:

http://champagne.vstore.ca/product_info.php/pName/angel-the-unforgiven/osCsid/7c5197766d94a640f8bfd879c46440c7