In Which The Spouse Gets My Goat, And The Bob Novella Gets A New Name

[dr_pretentious]

I was trying to describe the location of a Korean restaurant I want to try.

Me:
It's in the strip mall with the vitamin emporium and the women-only gym. The restaurant's a hole in the wall right between them.

Dan:
What? There's a hole in the wall at the women-only gym?!




In entirely unrelated news, I finally have a permanent title for The Novella Formerly Known As Bob and the Black Head of Atho.

The old working title was fun, but completely misleading. I wish I could take credit for having come up with "Shopping Toward Shambala." I lamented to my critique group that I still didn't have a title I liked. (Well, I had liked "Ash for Roses," but Google informed me that there was a young adult novel called Ashes of Roses and an anthology of Middle Eastern poetry called Between Ashes and Roses. So much for that.) One of my groupmates sent me a list of possible titles, and "Shopping Toward Shambala" clicked into place. It's whimsical, it's euphonious, and it points just obliquely enough to the central problem in the story.

The only problem is that so many chick lit titles have the word shopping in them. I tried to imagine what kind of chick lit novel would be called "Shopping Toward Shambala," and ended up with a story about a Buddhist nun who leaves Zen Mountain Monastery in the Hudson Valley for the stricter, more savage disciplines of the Manhattan fashion scene. Now you see why I don't write chick lit.

Comments

[dragonlaire.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that titles can't be protected by copywrite. I wouldn't worry about using a title with an obscure previous history. I'm sure it happens all the time. Why not give it some currency, particularly if it's a good title like "Ash and Roses."

Are you going to update your post Nano advice this year?

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of posting the post-Nano advice, but now that you mention it, I probably should.

[dragonlaire.livejournal.com]

One year, the Rutgers Alumni Association sent me a baseball cap emblazoned with a large red 'R.' A neighbor of mine wanted to know if 'R' stood for 'redneck.' I wasn't sure. Do you think they're synonymous? I thought of you as soon as her question crossed the auditory distance between us.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

No, definitely not redneck, since so many of the students these days are from crumbling inner city neighborhoods. And not red state, that's for sure. Reification? Reductionism? Or maybe Rasputin, since this is a university whose budget has been chained, drowned, shot, and beaten, and yet it refuses to die. If at any point evidence arises that the university has been sleeping with the Tsarina, we'll know for sure.

Indeed.

[leapfaith.livejournal.com]

Titles are not, in fact, copyrightable. However, although there is no legal reason why you cannot title your book, Charlotte's Web (or even A Name of the Rose), publishers naturally don't want to publish works that will be confused with other well-known books. I think you should go with whatever title you like the best (they're all good), and not worry; if a publisher is evaluating it, you can always mention that you are waffling on titles, and wouldn't mind advice on what title is most salable. As for Dan, be grateful he didn't go all the way, and ask, "There's a hole in the wall at the women-only gym - in the strip mall?!"

How Did I Not See That Coming?

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Oh, the low pun. The low, low pun. You got me to snort my soup with that one.

"Ash for Roses" captures the melancholy of the protagonist's bereavement, but "Shopping Toward Shambala" captures the combination of absurdity, longing for transcendence, and menace that mark his parents' adventures in the afterlife. (I seem to remember sending you an earlier draft of Bob. Did I?)

[shakti-lemaris.livejournal.com]

Call it what you like my dear; in my heart, it will always be Bob and the Black Head of Atho. I just can't let go.

HEy. I did not leave ZMM to go shopping

[(Anonymous)]

I only did a little bit of shopping. Then came back.
Sorry to hear about your friend. Your blog is interesting.
Anne

Re: HEy. I did not leave ZMM to go shopping

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Good to see you here! You'd make an fabulous protagonist, but I don't see you in a chick lit novel. Where could a Buddhist doctor be most heroic? I'd put you on Mars, I think. Besides, the girls would enjoy the lighter gravity there.

So, can cthulhia and I interest you in a blogging addiction?

use this if nessesary!

[(Anonymous)]

http://tramadol-sqllt.blogspot.com/
Good Luck!