Your Name Here

Hank Phillippi Ryan: Sue Grafton says she did it with intent: she chose her alphabet titles are insurance that she'd need to write 26 books.  There's the John D. MacDonald colors,  and James Patterson's nursery rhymes, and Janet Evanovich's numbers. 


THE OTHER WOMAN was the only title I ever had for my new book. But PRIME TIME was the third one I thought of. (And that was only after I thought of FACE TIME.) I was so happy with the triple meaning of  "On The House," my first short story, that I confess I stood up at my desk and applauded. Happily, I was alone.


Susan Oleksiw was the first publisher of On the House (now available as an e-story from Forge!).. 


(Her new book is THE WRATH OF SHIVA. Which is pretty perfect, right?)


And she says she thinks a lot about titles.
Do you?







We'll Call It...
by Susan Oleksiw


I've been thinking a lot about titles lately. I'm one of those people who love to browse in bookstores; I pick up any book that has an interesting title. I don't usually buy everything I pick up, but titles get me far faster than cover designs. I'm curious about the promise of those few words.

Ernest Hemingway thought F. Scott Fitzgerald got titles just about perfect, and I agree that Tender Is the Night is truly evocative. I think To Kill a Mockingbird is also nearly perfect.

Crime fiction writers consistently come up with the best titles, and when someone gets it right, the titles are loads of fun or eternally memorable. A good title will have multiple meanings as the reader moves through the book, and by the end the reader should be able to look at that title page and think, yes, that title is true in so many ways. A good example is Double Indemnity. When I think of that title the entire story comes back; the many meanings in it unfold one after the other. That title was sheer genius.

Anyone who latches onto a repetitive series title solves lots of problems with those few opening words (chief of which is those sleepless nights when I lie there inventing and discarding one lame idea after another). Arthur Conan Doyle took this route with "The Adventure of . . ." titles for many of his short stories.  He still had the problem of pulling out of the story the essential feature to use in the title (the speckled band, copper beeches, etc.), but he had half the problem solved.


 I especially like these repetitive titles (The Body in . . . or Murder on/by/in . . .) because for some reason I have less trouble remembering which ones I've read. I look at the reverse of the title page and just go down the list and know which ones I should buy (or borrow from the library).

When I began writing about titles it occurred to me that crime fiction titles almost always work on some level--I've never come across a real dud. Perhaps that's due in part to editors, but I think crime fiction somehow militates against flabby titles. I love the humorous titles, but these are a lot harder to create than we might think. A favorite is The Affair of the Blood-stained Egg Cosy by James Anderson, and another is The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters.

Both titles, as light-hearted as they are, convey precisely what kind of story the reader is getting, and this is one of the virtues of titles in this genre--they work exactly the way a title is supposed to work--they tell you the genre and the nature of the story. When you pick up Anderson's book, you know you're getting a well-written kindly spoof of the genre. Peters's book is a bit more arch but also with a bit more danger. Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun promises something quite different.

When I was looking for a particular title to talk about here because I couldn't remember all of it I googled the title and came across various sites for humorous titles. Most of them have an edge that wouldn't work in crime fiction but a couple showed great potential. Does this one conjure up a story: Reusing Old Graves: A Report on Popular British Attitudes (a legitimate academic title), or how about If You Can't Live Without Me, Why Aren't You Dead Yet? Now that one deserves serious consideration.

Despite all this work I did not find the one title that I really hope to be able to use one day. Look for this title on the shelves of your favorite bookstore some time in the future (if someone else doesn't beat me to it): Death by Donuts.

Do you have favorite titles, or titles that you think are perfect for their story? 


HANK: I wish I had thought of The President's Vampire.  And Mars Needs Moms. (I've always thought that was such a terrific pert tile. Too bad the movie was silly.)  The new Mark Helprin book is IN SUNLIGHT AND IN SHADOW. I figure that out only because I couldn't understand why my brain was singing "Danny BOy." And then, I did.


How about you?




*************

Susan Oleksiw writes the Anita Ray series featuring Indian American photographer Anita Ray in two books, Under the Eye of Kali (2010) and The Wrath of Shiva (2012). She also writes the Mellingham series featuring Chief of Police Joe Silva (A Murderous Innocence), now on Kindle. Oleksiw compiled A Reader’s Guide to the Classic British Mystery (1988), and was consulting editor for The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing (1999). Oleksiw was a co-founder of Level Best Books and The Larcom Press.

In a starred review from Library Journal for The Wrath of Shiva:

"Traditional beliefs, cultural expectations, and old-fashioned detecting make for a captivating cozy not to be missed. Beguiling Anita Ray winningly returns after her first entry, Under the Eye of Kali."

About of The Wrath of Shiva:

Anita Ray's family eagerly awaits the visit of Anita's cousin despite a servant's predictions that she will never arrive. When the prediction turns out to be true, Anita turns her attention to the maidservant, the astrologer urging the family matriarch to have an exorcism to end the servant's trances, and missing family antiques. Set in a tropical paradise, The Wrath of Shiva pulls back the curtain on traditional culture overwhelmed by the modern world.