A Rose By Any Other Name

Earlier this week, myself, along with the hordes of PAN and PRO RWA members, rushed to the website to sign up for editor and agent appointments for the conference in Dallas. Aside from some glitches due to server overload, I was pleased with the results. I snagged the last appointment for my agent of choice and got a group appointment for an editor that I just want to talk with. Now every single appointment is filled. If anyone ever questioned the value of PRO, they need to be one of the non-PRO members wanting an appointment that won’t be there by the time they’re able to register. Of course, if they’re pitching, they should have a finished book and if they have a finished book, they should be PRO.

Anyway, now the frenzy begins. Not that my life isn’t screwed up enough right now, but now the pressure of getting my book together in time is looming. Recently, I’ve noticed I have a couple minor issues to address. For one, it has no title. I call my book PIMPs, but that is a wholly unsuitable title to submit to contests or pitch to an agent or editor. So I need that. I’ve also been working on a high concept pitch line. And of course, there’s also the actual pitch. Oh, and writing the last 150 pages of the book. Need to do that too. At least I know what happens. That’s half the battle.

I know the title isn’t really important because if it sold, marketing would change it anyway, but I want something snappy enough that when I pitch it, people go “Hmm...” (in a good way.)

So I’m trying to think of something, maybe y’all can help. It’s the story of four very different women working together to solve paranormal mysteries. A sort of a Ghostbusters meets Sex in the City scenario. It’s set in Savannah, Georgia. The heroine is a sarcastic, spunky PI who doesn’t believe in ghosts. (Boy, is she in for it.) Although it’s a paranormal, it’s more of a funny, contemporary single title mystery. Could we throw a few more genres in there? Special snowflake...anyway...Someone mentioned if the hero or heroine isn’t a ghost/vamp/shape-shifter, etc., it isn’t really paranormal in the traditional sense. My twosome are both very real humans, although everything else going on around them is in the paranormal realm – ghosts of a dead partner, mother, etc.

So words in the title might be...

Paranormal Element: Haunted, Ghost, Spirits, Dead, Spook
Private Investigators: Guns, Detectives, Hunters, PI
Southern: Belles, South/ern, Georgia, B&B

I want it to be funny, but not in a campy, chick-lit sort of way. At the same time, I don’t want it to be too serious, like Deadly Whispers or something. It’d also be cool if I could work in the subtitle “: A PIMPS Mystery.” Maybe it could start like a Perry Mason movie – The Case of the Meddling (Dead) Mother-In-Law. Something where follow-on books could follow the pattern. Dead Mothers Do Tell Tales: A PIMPS Mystery.

Something like...Ghosts, Guns and Gucci Bags? Maybe for Erin’s book, she’s more of a Gucci girl. Some Like It Spooky. I don’t know. They all stink when I say them out loud. I’ve set a tall order for myself. I keep drawing a blank, which is weird cause my titles usually come pretty easily. I always sit in awe when I see clever titles like The Givinchy Code or The Good, The Bad & The Undead.

Ugh. You try. If I pick your title, you get a book of your choice. One less thing to pack!

SP