Long before I published, I wrote the second book. It ended up ranging between Chicago and The Salt Lake and Yellowstone; I had a lot of fun writing that book, titled at the time Quest to Become Whole.
Shortly after I finished that book, Quest to Become King made the trip to the publisher who's editor advised me to change the title. Well, there went my 'Quest' collection, but I didn't really realize how much trouble that simple change would cause.
Book 2 could no longer be called Quest to Become Whole - In an effort to keep with the rhythm of King by Right of Blood and Might, I changed the title of my second book to To Become Whole in Land and Soul. I don't really care for it but it sorta matches.
That all led up to the yet unwritten third book. What I've come up with so far is, A King Gathers from Land, Sea and Heart. I do believe this is one of the reasons the third book is being so stubborn. Currently, I have three ideas to plug under this title, or at least in this world, which is the main thing holding these three books in a collection.
Recently I learned that it was possible to unpublish from AuthorHouse, and if I did so, I could go back to my original title(s), which would make my third book Quest to go Home. It fits so well with one of my ideas where two of it's main characters have been cast out of their separate homes. It lacks the 'Become' in the other titles, but it's close enough. Plus, somewhere down the line, when books are listed under my name it might look like this:
The Quest Collection
- Quest to Become King
- Quest to Become Whole
- Quest to go Home
- Prince in Hiding
- White Star
- Mage-King
Other Works by Anna L. Walls
- The Speed of Dreams
- The Fortunes of Magic
- The Guardian
- The Trials of the Youngest Princess
- What Future, Slave
- To Reclaim the Throne
- Lord of the Land
- Are You Brave Enough, A Book of Short Stories
I kinda like the look of that, don't you?
4 comments:
I really like the 'Quest' idea. From what I understand, getting out of your contract with Author House will be difficult, but I very much like the series theme.
(PS - it can still be the 'Quest' series without having quest in the titles)
I don't see why not. In my book of short stories, I lumped them all together because they were mostly all about someone doing something outside their normal comfort zone. Are You Brave Enough is the title of the first one, and I plan to keep it the first story in the book, but other than that, the titles of the rest of the stories are all different.
Quest To Become Whole is indeed a good choice for a title to draw attention to your works.
Glad you think so, Mattias. At the time, I just liked the idea of a quest. I knew nothing more about writing than to tell a story.
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