Title Week: Micki Yamada

Here’s Micki Yamada’s title request. For convenience sake, here’s a repeat of title advice from the last post:

Things to remember about titles:

• One word titles are generally not memorable; you need at least two words because the juice is in the relationship between the words, the spark that jumps between them. Temptation is a lousy title; Welcome to Temptation is one of the best of my books.

• Familiar titles, aka songs and movies, generally make your book sound run of the mill, not to mention hard to google. Maybe This Time, my book, comes up fourth on an google search after “Maybe This Time,” the song, you tube video, lyrics, and Wikipedia entry. Welcome to Temptation is the first google entry.

• If possible, the title should should like something one of your characters would say, or at least be in her or his voice. (Phin says, “Welcome to Temptation” when he meets Sophie. Nobody says, “Maybe this time” in the book.)

• If possible, the title should reflect the crackle of the conflict or the romantic juice of the story, anything that strikes a spark when you read it. This is even more important in the digital age when you often don’t have a cover, or at least a cover bigger than an inch, to draw the reader in.

• Avoid theme at all costs. Nobody ever picked up a novel and said, “I can’t wait to find out about the theme.”

• Keep it clean if you want it in a lot of stores.

And now, here’s Micki.

The story begins with a triangle of suspicion. The young djini Hadiz is sent to administer a backwater, multi-cultural district after failing to follow orders to murder a dozen oil workers in Baghdad. George Diaz, a dying developer out to cement his reputation and rescue the small town of Evanston with a fabulous eco-mall, knocks a hole into the Goblin King’s chambers. Perz Jones, a paranormal plumber, doesn’t trust either party until an accidental love spell puts her firmly, irrevocably in Hadiz’s camp – the night of passion triggers a geas that compels her to be Hadiz’s bride. Perz and Hadiz team up to save the town and the caves while figuring out their complicated relationship.

By the way, the caves are in Missouri, just outside of Kansas City (they really do have a cave/industrial complex going on there!). Besides djinn and goblins, I’ve got orcs, dwarves and gnomes with speaking parts, and imps who do a fly-in. I could use a really good word for the collective supernatural beings — I’ve been using underground Folk. The major theme is that interspecies cooperation is better for everyone than flying off the handle and attacking anything that looks different. The working title is now International Bureau of Caves.

I really appreciate everyone’s help. Thank you!

Micki