85,000 words and no title

So having blissfully left the horrors of the edit and publication process of a book, and the gratifying glow of it doing well (thanks once again to all my readers) I most move on to my next project.

Which, as the title notes, has 85k of rough draft with a clear and solid plot arc and a solid creative drive; I’m cranking out the words on the steady basis.

The problem is that I still don’t have a title. Completely dead in the water. I plan for a trilogy, and have the concepts for the three books, but none of that matters if I have no book title or trilogy/series name.

I’m far enough along so that I am casting about for a cover image, but without a title.

I never had this problem before. Some, like Sunstone, took half a book before I had the title; City of the Way had a title before I had more than a one-sentence concept of the plot. The Phantom Badger series has a fairly easy naming sequence.

But I am stalled on this project.

I will keep posting ideas and some of the opening pages soon. The story takes place in the aftermath of a civilization-breaking event of unclear origins; the protagonists are unsure how long it has been since the Fall, but they guess 70 years.

The story focuses on a small community raised on the beached hulk of a pre-Fall ship, and their growing realization of the illogical nature of their situation.

I am considering calling the trilogy the Ark Series (the Ark is why they call their ship), and perhaps the individual books The Compass, The Map, and ????. Something navigational for the third one?

Hard to say. However, I am working steadily.