Thank you all for weighing in on the difficult title conundrum! I appreciate it. It’s interesting that the two phrases taken from the same poem as the original titles got multiple votes and I may well use one or the other of those. To remind you, those were My Sun Renew and This Hour My Vigil. However, another thought occurred to me about titles in this series which I’ll share with you below, so I’m still not completely sure.
Kim commented that either of these two titles could work depending on the themes of the story. This Hour My Vigil implies more work on the part of the person needing redemption; My Sun Renew implies more external grace/forgiveness.
This is quite true, and the fact is, both of those factors are important and therefore either title could work. Of the two, my personal preference is for This Hour My Vigil. Not only that, but I happened to use the word “vigil” twice in the story. Both of you who have read the story pointed to This Hour My Vigil as one of your top choices, and I’m not surprised because this is clearly a thematically appropriate title.
The four I like best myself are:
- My Sun Renew
- This Hour My Vigil
- ‘Tis Late to Ask
- Shines Now, and Heretofore
And there is one possible reason to pick Shine Now, and Heretofore rather than any of the others.
It’s occurred to me that if I do eventually go on with this series, any title that doesn’t get used for Kuomat’s story right now will remain available for later books. Here are all the possible titles in an order that sound good to me:
- The Year’s Midnight
- Of Absence, Darkness
- As Shadow, A Light
- Shines Now, and Heretofore
- This Hour My Vigil
- ‘Tis Late to Ask
- My Sun Renew
My Sun Renew sounds to me like a title that could work well as a finale. So that’s yet another consideration, and one that I hadn’t thought of previously.
How likely is it that I’ll actually write another story in this world and therefore need two or three more titles? Hard to say. I have a pretty clear idea of how to go on; several pages of notes with clear plot arcs for important characters; some scenes I like a lot.
On the other other hand, obviously I could come up with different titles if I wanted to, including for the eventual finale.
So, hmm, still thinking. But I have a lot more clarity about this choice than I did a few days ago, and thank you very much for all your comments.
Please Feel Free to Share:
I really like how the titles poem reads. Love it that the last book is the My Sun Renew!
Of course, what’s really fun is when you have a title and write a story and then realize that the title won’t work.
Mary, that’s never happened to me because I’ve never had a title that early! But I bet if I plan to use the titles, that *will* happen.
It’s only happened once or twice. And I wrote “Jewel of the Tiger” because I had the title and lo and behold, it fit.