"What's the title?"

For as many years as I've been writing my book and, believe me, it's been quite a few, the one thing that has bugged me is a working title.  Okay, a working title is just that, something to put on my wall, if not yet on a front cover.  I can imagine many a working title gets changed, either as the writing process unfolds, or on the editor's mahogany desk.  But, without one, I feel like I'm at the tiller of a drifting ship. As with many other things that you'll come to learn about me, I like to have my i's dotted and my t's crossed.  Things need to look right on the outside.  A title, for me, is the big carpet bag that carries the story.  Without one, the 100,000 words or so I'm working towards are both drab and lifeless.

You can't talk about a book without knowing it's name.  Okay, once it's a best seller, maybe the opening line might give it away.  Do you know any of these?

"Call me Ishmael." 

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

Any guesses?

Moby Dick; 1984; A Tale of Two Cities.

There are others, of course, personal favourites for each of us, but these are the exceptional ones.  Even the most widely read authors over the centuries, though they usually have gripping openings and story lines that'll keep you up late, all their work has a title that makes you reach for it on the shelf.  Without it, you'd be looking along a row of books with blank spines with nothing to separate one from another.

So, back to my particular drawing board.  I've had one that I've run with for as long as I've been putting pen to paper or finger to keyboard, but it has been, well, a bit obvious.  It's done it's job, a bit like a supermarket carrier bag.  Good for bringing your groceries home, but not something you'd take on a day out.  What I am about to reveal is, to me, my literary version of a leather and brass man-bag, the sort you might get from Fossil or some similar quality shop.  Here it is...

"The Chrysalis and the Cross."

Now, feel free to play around with this in your mind's eye, or suck on it like a juicy fruit pastille.  Only I know, at this stage, how much meaning there is in those five words.  What you'll discover, if you stay with me to the end, is just how poignant they are, even if I say so myself!

Well, I must nip out and get the fish 'n' chips in.  We have no working kitchen tonight as the electricians are here doing some preparatory work before we have our new kitchen fitted over the next week or so... But, the good news is that I've all of next week off, so plenty of time to crack on with the novel, so long as I can stop sharing craic with the builders.  Heck, I've got my own building to do!

See you next time!

Footnote:  After a think through with a friend today, I've changed the working title to The Chrysalis Conundrum.  See, put it out in the ether and already things are moving!