Count Down to Publication III

Gone Home?

My Name is Tara?

Bye Bye Blackbird?

With New Eyes?

All the way up to our sale to Seal Press in September 2010, I had no idea what to call the true sequel to Blackbird. In fact, I didn't even know if could include that part of the title in the title because technically Still Waters was the true sequel (according to Simon & Schuster).


By way of background, I wrote Still Waters under great duress. The success of Blackbird demanded a sequel and I jumped at the offer to write a follow up, likely even suggested it, not because I considered the follow up a "satisfying conclusion" but because there was more story to tell.

Somehow, along the line of negotiations, it was determined that I would create a "satisfying conclusion." Of course, I couldn't do such a thing because it didn't exist.

Still Waters became the hardest book to write because I felt I was being dishonest to myself and to my fans. I just didn't have the answers to questions that so many people were asking and I certainly didn't feel happy in the way that my publisher insisted I needed to feel at the end of the book. There were still so many questions.

In the end, I did my best for Simon & Schuster, for my then editor and for the fans but I did not write that "satisfying conclusion." Ironically, as I write this post and study the cover of Still Waters, I must note that is doesn't read "sequal" anywhere. Nor does it read "satisfying conclusion." In fact, it's Publishers Weekly that calls the book a "satisfying sequel," which is a real relief.

When I was finishing Found, I knew I had all the answers to the questions that fans had been asking ten years earlier. More important, I had my own answers and felt at peace in myself. I also knew I had my ending and the true sequel.

Miraculously this is how Seal saw this book too and were delighted to promote to booksellers in that way.

But what to call the darn thing?

Choosing a title was a lot harder than you might think. No one title seemed just right. The issue of mother was really important, as was my adoption at birth, as was the journey into Tibetan Buddhism, but to refer to mother or adoption or even Buddhism in the title felt odd and confusing.

So many title options flew around and then I suggested "Found." I don't know how it came out. I suppose I was thinking about my friend Cheryl Strayed, who has a new memoir with Knopf (which releases next year) and it's titled Wild. I liked the one word and I loved the "true sequel to Blackbird" subtitle. So I suggested Found and it clicked with Seal.

We did a title search and there were no books, like mine, with that title! In looking into the actual book, I discovered I had a chapter called Found as well. Just the one word and it had been there all along, like an overlooked pearl.

I love the title Found, it's calming and grounding and provocative.

When I think about the title for Blackbird, the same thing happened. I had initially titled that book Jennifer Juniper but then the publisher and booksellers rejected it. Sent back to the drawing board, I realized that the song Blackbird was there in a chapter and I liked that title a lot. Could I use it? Afterall, it was a Beatles title and what if they owned it?

But, alas, I could use it! Voila. We had our name.

Next week: A New Publishing World!