Of miracles and book titles

Two miracles down, one more to go. People are awed by the courage of the divers, but the courage and composure of those youngsters is remarkable, too. We desperately need a happy ending—for the boys and their families, but for the rest of the world, too. Here is a link to an interesting column about why a crisis like this one rivets the attention of people all over the planet. The story of those trapped Chilean miners is a prime example. Numerous stories of children who’d fallen into wells. Even the fate of those three whales trapped in the ice mesmerized most of us; I still remember the joy when a Russian ice-breaker was able to cut an escape route for them. And of course every day there are people who risk their lives to save others in peril.
Did I ever explain why my new book’s title suffered a sea change, from Outremer to The Land Beyond the Sea? Outremer was my first choice, but after a conversation with my then-British editor, who sadly is no longer with Macmillan, I agreed to accept The Land Beyond the Sea; she explained that their sales department was uneasy with Outremer. Writers learn to pick our battles and I did see her point. A few friends who had no knowledge of French had confessed they did not know how to pronounce Outremer, calling it Out-Reamer! Only once did a publisher seriously object to one of my titles; my British publisher for Here de Dragons wanted to change it for reasons that made no sense to me. So, there I drew a line in the sand, but I did agree to a compromise of sorts—that my middle initial would be deep-sixed on their side of the Atlantic. And that is why I am known as Sharon Kay Penman in the US and as Sharon Penman in the UK.
End of digression. Here is the link to the story about the Thai cave rescue.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/08/opinio...