Miranda James on Finding the Right Title

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Miranda James is here today to talk about how writers come up with titles for their books, but first I have to say I was absolutely captivated by the cover of the new Cat in the Stacks novel, REQUIEM FOR A MOUSE, featuring librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel. So captivated, in fact, that when I saw it I immediated emailed Miranda (which is, as you may know, the pen name of my longtime friend Dean James) and said, "Come do a blog for us!

I'm not sure which I love more, Diesel, or that strawberry cheese cake, but the title is wonderful, too. Here's Dean to tell us how it came about!

Finding a Title That Works

By Miranda James

All writers have their own particular, not to say peculiar, quirks. One of mine is that I don’t start writing a book until I know what the title is. Sometimes the publisher likes the titles I come up with, sometimes my editor comes up with a good title, or my agent does. For my latest book, I came up with the title, Requiem for a Mouse. The phrase popped into my head, and fortunately everyone loved it.

I had the title, but then I had to figure out the story. I usually want the plot of the book to have some connection to the title. I had no plans to have murdered, four-legged mice in this book. I’m not sure that Diesel or Ramses actually cares for the taste of mice. They’re more interested in bacon and chicken and roast beef, frankly.

Thus I had to figure out the character of a “human” mouse for this story. Everyone is probably familiar with the mousy person character. In this book, Tara Martin is the mouse. She’s a part-time student at Athena College, and she has a work-study job with Charlie in the archive and rare book room. He finds no fault with her work, but she has no social skills whatsoever. She blurts out things and insults people without realizing what she’s done. She also has a part-time job working at the bistro, where she mostly works behind the scenes and doesn’t deal directly with the customers.

Her appearance is non-descript. Shabby clothes, no sense of style, and so on. When something happens to Tara, Charlie begins to wonder whether Tara was deliberately trying to keep anyone from getting to know her. What was she protecting herself from?

That was the idea behind the title. As usual, I had to let the characters tell me the story as I wrote. I don’t do much advance plotting, but somehow it seems to work for me. I can’t outline. I can sometimes see scenes that will happen at some point in the book, but mostly it’s just me sitting at the keyboard and staring at the screen waiting for the characters to tell me what’s going on.

I know that must sound crazy to people who don’t write fiction. I used to think it was crazy, too, when I would hear writers at conferences say that their characters talked to them. Mine don’t actually talk to me, but somehow they let me know what’s going on. I’m no longer a skeptic. I know it’s my subconscious working things out, and that’s fine with me.

DEBS: It's so interesting how we all have different processes. I like to have a title while I'm writing, too, but while in some way they make sense to me, a connection may not be obvious to the reader. 

Readers, I'm curious--do you try to figure out how books' titles fit with the story?

Miranda James is the pen name of retired medical librarian Dean James, who lives in the Jackson, MS, area with four cats and thousands of books. He grew up on a farm in Mississippi, and, after degrees in history, he moved to Houston, TX, to pursue a Ph.D. He also eventually earned a master's degree in library science. Along the way, he worked for thirty years at Murder by the Book, one of the oldest and largest independent mystery bookstores in the country. His first novel was published in 2000, and since then he has published thirty-one more. Requiem for a Mouse is the latest.

And here's more about Requiem for a Mouse!

At last, Charlie and Helen Louise’s wedding is only a month away. They’re busy preparing for the big day, and the last thing Charlie needs is a new mystery to solve. Enter Tara Martin, a shy, peculiar woman who has recently started working part-time at Helen Louise’s bistro and helping Charlie in the archive. Tara isn’t exactly friendly, and she has an angry outburst at the library that leaves Charlie baffled. And then she abruptly leaves a catered housewarming party Charlie’s son Sean is throwing to celebrate his new home in the middle of her work shift. Before ducking out of the party, Tara looked terrified and Charlie wonders if she’s deliberately trying to escape notice. Is she hiding from someone?

When Tara is viciously attacked and lands in the hospital, Charlie knows his instincts were correct: Tara was in trouble, and someone was after her. With the help of his much beloved cat, Diesel, Charlie digs deeper, and discovers shocking glimpses into Tara’s past that they could never have predicted. Will they catch the villain before Charlie’s own happily ever after with Helen Louise is ruined?