Creative Reviews discussion

Howdy folks -- my third novel for adults is off with editors, and I'm talking with a cover designer, so it's time to decide on the title.

My working title has been What We Found. Without knowing anything else, does that catch your attention? Does it give you any specific expectations?

Here's a somewhat rambling, off the top of my head synopsis:

Audra goes back to her small hometown after college, just wanting to fit in, work hard, and protect her 12-year-old brother from their overbearing mother. Everything changes when she goes for a walk in the woods with a former crush, Jay, and finds a dead body. Worse, Jay insists they don't report the find. Worst of all, the dead woman was murdered, and someone starts targeting Audra with vicious tricks. She has to stand up for herself in order to stand up for the murder victim, and in the process finds love. (The book also involves falconry, but I haven't figured out how to work that into the description yet.)

It's basically a romantic suspense, or mystery with strong romantic elements.

Any thoughts?

"What we found" is good. Here is my suggestions
"Vague Discovery!", " Walk in the Woods".

Do the woods have a name?

"The Secret of Woods" comes to mind.

Doc

Thanks for the feedback! We are designing the cover now, and I'm trying to get something that is a bit spooky or ominous, which will help balance the potential sentimental interpretation of What We Found. One advantage of that title is I only found one other thing with that exact title listed on Amazon. When I chose the title for my second romantic suspense, Whispers in the Dark, there were a couple of other options, but nothing recent. By the time I actually published it, I think there were a dozen others with that title. In a way that could help, because people searching for any of the others could find yours... but on the other hand, it would be nice if someone who heard about mine found it on the first page!

What we found - a bit childlike to me and not worrying enough.

Do we know the dead woman's name? Something like "Unearthing Rita" (or whoever)?
The Find?

Well....I'll stop there as those all seem a bit naff and you can't really suggest stuff for someone else very well without having read it but a lot rests on the cover.
JAC
JAC

I'm not so keen on 'what we found'. I would do something like 'Cross my heart'; sort of mixes the romance angle plus the secret aspect. It also has the other bit (and hope to die) which could add a little tension.

"Secrets the forest never tells"
"Forest of Secrets"
"Love after Death"
"Talons of Death and Love" (for the falconry angle)
"Barriers to Love"

Not quite sure. Really there's so many options since I don't know the full story.

Go with your gut. I'm sure you thought of "What we Found" for a reason, and besides literally finding a dead body, it sounds as if they find love, so it would fit either way.

I like J.A's idea of "Unearthing Rita" but you could always change it to be "Unearthing Audra", since by the sounds of it, Audra goes through quite a lot and this may describe her struggle.

Thanks, everyone, for your feedback! FYI, I had a recent guest post on "The Mustard Seed" blog, talking about the real story behind this book, the writing life, and my best advice for beginning writers.

http://joannetroppello.weebly.com/1/p...

Chris, I don't know if you're still looking for a title but I think you should have the word "body" in the title as opposed to focusing on "found." What comes to my mind immediately is to play on the word "nobody" by using:

No Body Found

OR playing on the phrase "lost and found" use:

Lost Body Found

but that sounds a lot like "Last Body Found" which immeidately makes me think more of the "Last" than the "body" (as in "last man standing" kinds of expressions, and there are several like that, using "last")

I see your link to your blog post but did you decide on a title or just want to post a link to your blog? :)

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks