Developing a Title, Guest post by B.K. Walker

First, let me apologize for the tardiness of this blog post. A dear friend of mine passed away over the weekend, and I've been somewhat mired in grief over that. 

Secondly, I have 2 e-copies of B.K. Walker's Night Secrets to give away! Anyone who comments on this post, follows me publicly on Google Follow, votes in my poll, follows me on Twitter, and retweets the contest will be eligible. Please leave one comment per entry! In addition, each person who comments will be entered in a contest to win a free Kindle! Check out www.vbtcafe.com for more information and for an expanded schedule of the Romancing Your Dark Side book tour!

  

I think this has to be the second worst thing in writing, editing being the first. Title creation does take some time and creative thinking. We want the title to be catchy, to make a reader think "What's this about?" If you were looking to buy a book, the first thing you look at is the cover, the second thing the title. If a title said something like, "The Life of Copper Dugan", that isn't so interesting, but if it read, "The Life and Times of Copper Dugan" or "Would the Real Copper Dugan Please Stand Up", now that's more likely to have the reader turning the book over to find out more.

So how do we authors come up with titles? It's a process, and sometimes we have the title before we even write the story, but that's a rare occasion, at least for me. Usually the title will come to us in an "Ahh hah" moment during the writing process. Other times, we have to work it out, sit down and really think about our story, what does it tell, what words would represent it best. Sometimes it's easy to come up with a title, other times it's mind boggling. For Night Secrets, it was easy to come up with the title as Night Secrets, a club in the story plays a significant role in the storyline. This is where a lot of the action takes place, not to mention that it's also a secret underground where vampires seek sanctuary. This making it the basis of all of the Night Secret books, it was an easy decision.

For Near Suicide, the main character was in such a turmoil that her entire life she thought about committing suicide, and when I revised this I just needed to think of something that also represented being Near Suicide, and with the cover I developed, Death Upon Me was what became close to tell what the story was.

Immortyl Kisses is based on the kiss of an immortal, and just to change it up a bit I changed the spelling.

Dares And Dreams, again was based on a bar in the book, where a lot of the action takes place. I have a tendency to lean towards a specific name in my storyline that I can create a decent title from.

I usually find something in my story that I can base a title on though. An overall theme that is both intriguing and telling of what the book is about. I will admit too, that I've even used a Title Generator. These are fun because it just randomly generates a title, and if I see one I like, and many times I do, I can pick one that best fits my story. The trick is for me, if it makes me want to find out more from a book, then most likely a reader would too.

Find BK Walker:

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1831525609

Twitter - @bk36

www.vbtcafe.com

http://authorbkwalker.blogspot.com

http://www.immortylcafe.com

www.bkwalkerbooks.com

BK Bio:

BK Walker currently lives in Central Pennsylvania with her three children, Brittney, Hunter and Danny, her dogs Rancid, Sadie and Haven, a cat named Whiskers and a goldfish named Fat Albert. She has always had a love for reading and writing, even as a child she created stories reading them to her stuffed animals. With a love for vampires and werewolves, you will not be disappointed with her writing as she mixes up the paranormal juice. Aside from writing, BK also supports Indie Authors organizing virtual book tours, helping them to market and promote their work. Her book review site, BWB Reviews, is just another small way she contributes to the reading world. With many stories floating around in her head, she writes when she gets the time between working as a Pediatric Home Care Nurse, being a single mother, and continuing her college education in Graphic Art Design. When BK's not fighting with her muse, Mouthy Mary, who has much to say way too often, you will find her at a baseball game with her children, or relaxing with a good book in her hand.

Night Secrets Blurb:

Keara Crosby had the perfect life. Her family was not hurting for anything. When her parents are suddenly killed, Keara must learn to live without them. After mourning their death for two months, Keara starts to live again. She follows her favorite band, hangs with her best friend Jared, and falls for the new kid on the block.

When her favorite band is playing at Night Secrets, a new club downtown, she takes her first outing since her parents death and finds this mysterious boy watching her. Mesmerized by his lapus blue eyes, she can't help but feel drawn to him. Her body responds to him in ways she never thought possible, and she needs to figure out why. What is it about Channing that has her yearning for his touch?

Not only is Keara drawn to Channing, but the owner of Night Secrets seems to be drawn to her. Giving her special treatment, she can't help but wonder what he's hiding, and the sense she's seen him before. When she's attacked in the parking lot, her world turns inside out, literally. Keara will soon learn that secrets of the night, just may be the death of her.

Excerpt:

     Tonight was the night ‘Shot In The Dark 357’ would be

playing at Night Secrets. I wasn’t exactly sure where it

was downtown, so I drove around earlier today to see if I

could find it.

     It was on the south side of town, in what used to be an

old abandoned, run down factory. Pretty much in the

middle of nowhere, I wondered how they thought they

would make any business out here. They did fix it up nice

though with the outside being black, with a shiny exterior

that reflected like a mirror around the entire building.

Painted on the left corner of the front, were the words

‘Night Secrets’, angled in a white ghostly script that

dripped beneath each letter like wet paint from a paint

brush.

     I couldn’t help but think how perfect the name was, as

the whole place put off a secretive, seductive effect.

Tonight would be their grand opening. No wonder

Buddha seemed so excited, they were the band chosen

for the grand opening.

     I rummaged through my closet looking for the perfect

outfit. It would have to be black, to match the theme of

the club. That seems to be all I wear anymore anyways.

Black.

     I settled for black jeans with a baby tee that sported

‘SITD 357’ in florescent green, with my new Buddha

hoodie. I straightened my hair, pulled money from my

wallet along with my ID to place in my back pocket.

Doing a quick turn around in the mirror, satisfied, I

headed to the club.

     Jamison met me at the bottom of the stairs, holding

my keys. “Thank you Jamison.”

     “Anytime Miss Keara.” He grinned.

     I smiled and kissed his cheek. “Don’t wait up.”

     Pulling into the club I couldn’t believe all the people

surrounding the building. The parking lot was full, people

lined up from the door of the club, down to the street

corner. It was going to take forever to get inside.

     I drove around in circles for fifteen minutes before I

finally found a parking space and pulled in, centering my

car perfectly between two others. Turning off the Jeep,

nervousness swarmed me. I wished Jared could have

come. Jared had made plans to go to dinner with Russell

though and he was going to try and stop in before the

night was over.

     I anxiously looked around the parking lot, pausing on

my rear view mirror. ‘Him’. What is he doing here? Our

eyes locked in my mirror. His eyes seemed to glow even

brighter than before in the moonlight and again I couldn’t

bring myself to look away. He was beautiful.

     Demanding my eyes to blink, which took extreme

effort it was almost like being hypnotized by ‘him’. When I

reopened my eyes, he was gone. I took a steadying

breath wondering if I imagined it, then departed from my

car to wait in that dreadful line.

     There was a lot of excited chatter in the long line.

Everyone was waiting in anticipation, not knowing what

to expect once they got inside and a lot of talk on how

great it looked from the outside.

     I stood there listening in to a couple of girls, watching

their reflections through the building. Feeling someone

grab my arm I turned sharply to see who it was, meeting

dark eyes.

     “I’m sorry. I thought you were my girlfriend.” He was

my height with long dark brown hair, a go tee, and silver

hoops in his ears. His voice was deep, mysterious with

an edge to it.

     “It’s okay.” I answered, eyes wide with surprise.

     After several seconds, he loosened his grip on my

arm, looking around in search of his girlfriend. Watching

him walk away, feeling bad he had lost her in this

treacherous line, I noticed he kept glancing back at me

causing a bit of unease in my gut. Why does he keep

looking at me? He already established I wasn’t her.

     “Keara!” I heard my name being called. I looked to

see where Buddha was, already recognizing the Irish

tone.

     “Hey Buddha.” I yelled back, raising my hand.

     “Aye. Come on girl. Yer comin’ wit me.” He grabbed

my hand and led me inside. “Wait till ya see this place. It

so grand.” He said with enthusiasm.

     Following behind him, I realized I’d probably follow

Buddha to the ends of the earth. As long as he had his

drums.

     We walked past a bouncer checking ID’s at the door.

Very very tall, an obvious well built body builder his arms

were huge, the muscles bulging from under the sleeves

of his tee. He was wearing dark glasses and I wondered

how he could see in this darkness. He gave Buddha a

nod as we passed by.

     “He didn’t even ask to see my ID Buddha.” I

whispered.

     “He'd be a weird one. I 've not ’eard em speak much.”

Buddha whispered back.

     We walked through the main doors into an entry way

coming to a narrow hall, coat racks lining each side.

There were several doors on either side of the hall after

the coat racks, with tinted double glass doors at the end.

That’s where we were heading.

     Buddha opened the door and stood off to the side

waiting for me to pass. I smiled at him, “Thank you.”

“It’s me pleasure. Wait till ya see this bloody place

Keara.”

     I couldn’t believe it. This place was beautiful. You

would never know it was an old factory the way it looks

now. As soon as you walked through the doors, you

could hear music playing. A mild classic rock, not too

loud, yet not too low you couldn’t hear it at all. In the

very front of the room, just past the doors, were a set of

stairs, leading to a circular bar. The bar was shiny and

black, and sat about five feet off the ground floor. The

platform that surrounded the bar was big enough to have

five people standing next to each other with their arms

outstretched and was full of people.

     There were tables on the ground floor, all stationed to

be able to see the stage that was off to the back. The

floors were glossy black, with the words Night Secrets in

the center with the ghostly dripping effect as on the

outside of the building. The stage too was black, with the

white letters again against the back wall.

     This was just the ground level. As I looked up, there

were three more levels of floors, all able to overlook the

stage. It was almost like a cell block, without the cells.

Each level had a railing to keep patrons from falling, and

there were people hanging on them looking down to the

ground floor. Large screen televisions hung on the wall

and from the ceiling, displaying the video to the song that

was playing.

     I was in complete awe. It was beautiful, shiny and

new. “It’s amazing.” I managed after realizing Buddha

was staring at me.

     “I told ya. Ya wer n’t gonna believe this here place. It’s

purdy awesome eh?”

     “I don’t think there are words to describe it Buddha. It

must have cost a fortune!”

     “I’m sure it did. I ‘ave n’t met tha owner yet, but I ‘ear

he’s purdy extravagant.”

     I continued to look around. This place was just too

amazing. I have never seen anything so….amazing.

Wow. Just wow.

     Buddha excused himself to go get sound checked.

Wandering around like a kid in a candy store, wanting to

see everything they had, I went up the first flight of stairs

to the next level. The stairs were cement, but had black

carpet lining them. At the top of the stairs, the walls were

of that mirrored black like outside. A bar centered in the

middle, in the shape of a horseshoe and the floors were

shaped in a half moon, with stairs at each end. There

were several doors again off the back wall, and tables

lined up in between the doors. Black stools lined the bar.

Again the bar was shiny black, and this time I could

see that Night Secrets was engraved in the wood of the

bar, which was stained black, the letters stained white,

and a clear lacquer finish on top. Behind the bar were

mirrors, and in front of the mirrors were shelves lined with

liquor.

     The bartender here was built, much like the bouncer

at the door. His hair was black, his skin was pale, and

he too wore dark sunglasses. What was up with the

sunglasses? How can they see? It’s just as dark in here

as it is outside. Weird.