Vessel: Title or Something Else?

Truth be told, Vessel was not my first choice for a title. Shocked? Don’t be. Titles rank near the bottom of creative things that I obsess over when working on a story and I was pressed to come up with something other than “Untitled SF/Adventure Story”.

Why Vessel then?

I wanted something catchy that would grab a reader’s attention. Let’s face it, I don’t have the budget to make splashy covers so I have to put the emphasis on creative wordage. Vessel is a story about spaceships, aliens, and crime so it made a cockeyed sort of sense to draw on the idea of the main characters being the ‘vessel’ to take the reader from one point in the story to the next.

Make sense? Doesn’t have to. In the end, the title worked for the story and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Although, I have adopted a more selective approach in title naming for future stories.

Have a great day and much love. 🙂

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The Three Safeties: What does it mean?

The Three Safeties’ title was a small departure from my usual title naming habit of picking one-word titles. Why? Because the story demanded that I go with my gut and pick a title that not only caught the eye but made potential readers ponder its significance.

Without going into too much detail, the title is a direct spotlight on a scene that takes place in the story. Does it have any other special meaning? Sure it does and I’ll give you this little spoiler-like definition.

On a .45 caliber automatic handgun, there are three safeties. One is a selector switch, the second is a half-cock where the firing hammer at the end of the slide is placed in a position where it cannot strike the back of the bullet, and finally the third is located at the pistol’s muzzle. Press that in and the weapon will not be able to fire due to something with the action.

There you go, mystery solved.

Corona: What’s In a Name?

While I consider book titles significant, I place them at the end of the creation process. Let’s face it, of all the things that we writers put ourselves through to write a story, slapping a name on it is by and far the easiest part of it all.

I considered a lot of potential titles when I was finishing up the story. Some were much longer, much more involved, but when I got to the name Corona I knew that it had to be the title. To me, the title was synonymous with Aura, that theoretical manifestation of our life force that is supposed to surround us from head to toe and can be seen under certain circumstances. Obviously, Aura was too spiritual for this story so I went with Corona instead. Plus, it seemed catchy and I wanted something that would stick out among the many titles floating around out there. Whether I was successful or not remains to be seen.

In any case, if the effort results in interest in it, then I’ve done my job correctly. If not, then I’ve still done my job correctly.