The Waiting Game

So… for a while now I’ve written largely about stuff not so much related to the writing process as things I’ve been doing and people I’ve met. So I thought I’d take a look at the writing side of things again. Mainly the waiting. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… the publishing process takes a long looooong time. I’m not talking about the writing process, although I’ve had some personal stuff that has slowed that down recently. I won’t get into it here, but let’s just say that it’s a bit overwhelming when folks take the step from saying that they prefer not to read something to declaring it evil and sinful and casting aspersions on the writer personally. It’s Fiction, folks.

But enough about that.

Back to waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

So far, it hasn’t gotten any easier. Sending off the second manuscript evoked the same feelings and fears that the first one did. Will they like it? Will they want to change it? And so on and so forth. At least now that I've been published, there is a reasonable assumption that the second book will at least be opened and read.

I'm a trifle obsessive and I stress about everything... What if the first book isn’t selling well enough for a second book? Even if I had the sales numbers, I wouldn’t know whether they were good or not. What if they want a second book, but they want it to be about cross-dressing penguins? I’d do my best, but I don’t have any cross-dressing penguins plots lying around waiting… (okay, so maybe I have one *now*, but it’s not a necessarily good one).

And I always wonder what I should do while I wait.

Should I keep working on book three? Should I write something else? Both?

Patience appears to be the only answer… patience and perseverance. Which is why I just finished a chapter of the third Void City novel last night in which I give away half of the secret behind Talbot’s parentage and what he really is. By the end of book three, most of the cat will be out of the bag on that one. (Ack! Bad pun!) My other projects are still proceeding as well- because in the end, if you’re a writer, that means you have to write.

The Great Name Blog

The title of my novel has changed multiple times. As a reminder, the initial title was WELCOME TO THE VOID. This was unacceptable to some of the marketing folks, probably because it doesn’t exactly scream "Vampires!" The second title, BITE ME, was also changed, for reasons possibly having to do with it being a little too in your face or too close to Christopher Moore’s YOU SUCK. I am quite pleased with the new title, STAKED, and can only hope that I won’t have to come up with any more options.

In the process of title selection, my friends, family, writers' group and I made a long list of possibilities. To say the least, some of the titles were less than stellar. Having said that, here is a list of some of the worst/most amusing/most utterly unusable title ideas we came up with (in no particular order):

Bite the hand
Bite Back
Blue Collar Fang
Warning: This Book May Bite You
A Different Type of Anger
Vampires do it at Room Temperature
Anything that moves
Six Ways From Sunday
Straight From The Vein
Always Bite Strangers
Gentlemen Prefer O Negative
Eric: The Life and Times of an Undead Bastard
Undead and Unrepentant
Vampires Never Say Sorry
Voided
Welcome to the Nightmare
Cold Blooded
Enter the Void
Even Vampires Get the Blues
Deadly Dancing
Fangs for the Memories
I Love the Night Life
This Never Happened to Dracula
Idle Fangs
The @$$hole’s Guide to Being A Vampire
More Trouble Dead
101 Reasons Not to Make Your Girlfriend Immortal
Rip Me A New One
F*cking Vampires
Dead Men Tell No Tales and Dead Women Won’t Stop Talking
Death Means Never Having To Say You’re Sorry
F is for Vampire
Even Vampires Hate Mondays
Immoral Beloved
Dead men Don’t Dodge Bullets
When You Die, It Gets Worse
Dead Men Don’t Do Dishes
Suck It
When the Night Gets Old
Vampires Suck
Too Much At Stake
Thicker Than Water
The Dark Fangtastic
Fangtasia
Fangtom of the Pollux
Swallow
Ouch! (with sequels: It Still Hurts and See How You Like It)

Feel free to comment and contribute your own terrible titles.

More later!

Jeremy