Title (Second) Week: Kay Keppler

Here’s Kay Keppler’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 Kay.

Phoebe Renfrew needs to get her job back at the CIA, or she’ll owe the agency a ton of money for her college education. When she hears two Koreans talking about guns, she knows something’s wrong—and maybe, if she can figure out what they’re up to, she can get reinstated. Chase Bonaventure is a retired—not by choice—professional football player who’s building a new career in a startup electric car company. He’s got a good product, but he needs the Swedish investors to help him ramp up production. When the Swedes turn out to speak Korean, Chase needs Phoebe to seal the deal he needs for his firm. And Phoebe needs time to figure out what the terrorists are up to. With the help of the Las Vegas All-Elvis Revue, Phoebe saves the day, Chase signs his deal, and together, they demonstrate that what happens in Vegas really can stay in Vegas.