Stick a pin in a list?

Of course that isn't how the title came about. Unlike many children who are named by the second scan this baby remained untitled for much of its creation, but then one dark and wet Sunday evening I, Lorraine (the Bateman of batemanandcole) decided it was time to focus on the challenge of the title.

Meditation had failed to bring it through, seeking ideas from book shelves had drawn a blank, re-reading the manuscript itself, still nothing, so it was time to put a different type of effort behind it. Google research taught me that book titles are often extracts from quotes and then inspiration struck. Straight to my bookshelves and copies of First World War poetry (have you learnt of my passionate interest in IWW yet?) and the pages were scoured. Who needs novels about the war when these poets tell it all with such power and evocation?

Okay, there is some truth in the question above, I did create a list of some 60 quotes which I whittled down to 5 and within these had my 2 firm favourites. Enter Paul(the Cole of batemanandcole) to review the long and the short list and pick his favourites, which luckily mirrored mine (more on collaborative writing later!) Both ideas were tested and both proved popular, so as it was considered me that had carried this baby for so long I could choose and "At Midnight in a Flaming Town" was named. It's where the novel starts, it's the story on the cover and we hope it will remain a memorable read.

The title came from a line in the poem 'A Rendezvous with Death' by Alan Seeger, an American who was born in New York in 1888. He happened to be conducting some research at the British Museum when war was declared and, of a bohemian nature, he signed up with the French Foreign Legion. He died fighting in France in 1916. He kept his own rendezvous with death.

The title of the sequel (currently underway) 'Blue Days and Fair' is also a line from the same poem. We pick up the lives of many of the characters after the war, when, as Seeger wrote: ' spring brings back blue days and fair.'

We cannot live without hope and sunshine.