I had another good day working on The Buried King. I’ve pretty much stopped fretting about word count and daily goals–at this point I make note of the page I’m on when I start a session and the page I’m on when I stop. What the hell, right? Keeping careful records wasn’t getting the book done, so I’m not going to bother.
And with the release date for GAME OF CAGES coming up, I have a crazy load of writing to do. That means it’s time for a list! Here are all of the projects I have to complete by at least the middle of August (in no particular order).
- A Big Idea piece for John Scalzi’s blog to promote Game of Cages.
- Another chapter of The Buried King so my agent can send it to publishers.
- A thorough, careful revision of the opening chapters of The Buried King.
- A “shot list” or “shooting script” for the trailer for book 3, which is still called Man Bites World.
- A selling synopsis for The Buried King.
- Clean up chapters 2 and 3 of Game of Cages to post on the blog.
- A write up of the next Kolchak episode.
- A quick polish of an old project I can’t talk about.
And so on. I know there are a lot of writers who could do that in a couple of afternoons, but I’m slow slow slow. This will take me quite a little while to do, but I’m hoping to steal some time this weekend to cross some of these items off my list (and the Kolchak is pretty far down the list of priorities–Sorry to anyone who has been enjoying those).
On top of that, I’m expecting the copyedit for MBW at any time.
Back to the day job.
Man Bites World title ideas (if this is werewolf-ish one):
Tide of Rage
Sea of Rage
Cycle of ??
was thinking of stuff tying into moon/tidal/cyclic forces without using the word “moon”
Though actually I like *Man Bites World*.
It’s fun and kicky and has and undercurrent of viciousness.
The similar title structure doesn’t strike me as a big marketing benefit anyways, unless it clearly highlights the brand, like X of Gor or Conan the X.
I never realized that the Butcher novels were all two-word thingies and seeing a two word title like White Knight wouldn’t twig me to it being a Dresden novel and more than, say, Red Dawn.
Book three is not werewolf-related at all, I’m afraid. I’m pretty sure we have a final title, but it’s not final enough for me to spread it around publicly.
As for the marketing of the similar titles, I just accept what they’re telling me. There must be some segment of the reading population that responds to it. And I don’t mind (although Man Bites World really is a good title, I think).