Today, I’m a guest at Boy Meets Boy Reviews. They asked me some questions about writing and books. (I had to pick a dozen favorite Desert-Island-Keeper books. Only a dozen? It was torture. I love my ereader with 1400 books on there…) If you stop by and comment, you can enter a drawing for a free ebook of your choice of any of my backlist.
I’m also trying to find a title for the sequel to “The Rebuilding Year”. 
I’m not great with titles – I almost never decide on one until the book is finished, and sometimes not until it’s in edits. In the past, I’ve asked for reader input. Some of my favorite titles, including “Home Work” and “Learning Curve” were readers’ suggestions. There’s no guarantee with a Samhain book that they’ll keep my title. Both “The Rebuilding Year” and “Sole Support” were my originals, though – they tried to find better titles for both, and in the end they failed. 🙂
So I’m looking for suggestions. This book isn’t big and dramatic. Nothing explodes or burns to the ground. It’s about Ryan, dealing with his dad and brothers. It’s about trying to fit two guys and two teenagers, an ex-wife, a medical education with years yet to complete, and all of their baggage, into an interconnected life that actually works. There are pleasant surprises, and not so pleasant. Some allies, and some not. There’s a lot of family in it, but I want to avoid titles with “Family” in them, because of my “Finding Family” series which uses those. I don’t want confusion. Also no titles starting with “Un…” due to the wolves.
The options I’ve come up with so far include:
Forward Momentum
Life, Some Assembly Required
Fitting Together
Pulling it Together
You can express a preference, or leave me a comment with your inspired, even-better title options. (If I use your title, I’ll reserve a free copy for you, although it’ll be quite a while until release.)
Then don’t forget to stop by Boy Meets Boy Reviews. to check out the interview and comment for a chance to win a backlist book. There are daily posts from other wonderful M/M authors too. Lots of freebies that you could win.
Now I need to go polish up TRY2 and get it out to beta readers…
I am not brilliant with titles… but in building after your property is built you next get the process of settling in.
Having played about with the Thesaurus this gets me to The Adjustment Period… though that also implies there might be a third book…
Or maybe “The Adjustment Season”? Worth putting on the list to consider. Thanks!
I pick LIfe, Some Assembly Required
(I’m really really looking forward to your book)
Thanks for casting a vote. I kind of like that one too.
Life, Some Assembly Required. A great title, my opinion.
🙂 Two votes. Thanks for stopping by.
I like your Life, Some Assembly Required, seeing as you are the wordsmith, I am just a happy reader!
Hm, I like seeing a consensus so far. I’m glad if the reading makes you happy 🙂
I like SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED without “life” preceding it. Can’t wait to read it no matter which title you use.
That’s an idea too, simpler but not quite as specific…
What about a play on the original title? Something along the lines of: ‘Building Lives’ or ‘Lives: Some Assembly Required’? (Though no doubt you’ve already tried that!) Failing that, I’d go for ‘Life Some Assembly Required’.
As others have said, can’t wait for this! Please let us know when it’s due for release – it’s one of my favourites of this genre.
Thanks for the ideas. The plural might be good… I’d originally thought I’d do “Family, Some Assembly Required” but as I said, I don’t want confusion over which series it belongs to. I hope people will enjoy seeing more of these guys and the people in their lives
I like Life, Some Assembly Required. It’s memorable, catchy, ties in with rebuilding, and it made me smile. Some Assembly Required is good, too.
I like Some Assembly Required. I have to say I like all the ideas connected to this title- Family / Life. I can also see Rebuilding Family. Like you said you did not want to use the word Family because of the Wolf book.
Like every one on here can not wait for the follow up.
Thanks to both of you. I’m really pleased that there seems to be a consensus 🙂
Another vote for ‘Life, Some Assembly Required’, although I think it might also work if you swop out ‘life’ with ‘love’. Although that might have a soppier tone than you want.
That’s a thought – it was pointed out that “Life” might make people think of “Life Lessons”. But it is a bit more romantic than would suggest two teens, an ex-wife, two brothers and a career, which compose a lot of the ongoing plot.
Building Life, or Rebuilding Life? Just a thought. I do like Life, Some Assembly Required.
Building Life is possible, it’s simpler and a better match for the first title – but it has many more hits on Amazon, which is a factor I also look at when choosing a title. Thanks for stopping by with the ideas.
The brevity of Building Life doesn’t really encompass the scope of the story. I vote for Life, Some Assembly Required however because this title pretty much tell what your story is about in a nutshell. It is also quirky and funny. 😎
That’s a point; it does kind of mirror the story.
Right – I’m putting “Life, Some Assembly Required” on the title page. 🙂
I like “Life, Some assembly Required” or “Building a Foundation”
Awesome. Life, Some Assembly Required is a great title. Looking forward to reading it. As soon as you know, please let us know when it will be out. Thanks. 😎
Thanks – I’ll definitely be posting the info here.
I like Kate’s idea. I think The Adjustment Period is a great title. Who cares if it assumes a follow-up, even if you chose something else people would ask for another because you wrote such a solid first book and we’re invested in this couple. Only you can decide if you want to make this another series.
Thanks for chiming in. I think I’m going for “Life, Some Assembly Required” when I submit it, but I’ll keep track of the other favorites, in case Samhain doesn’t like that title and wants me to change it (as they sometimes do.)
The book just came back from beta readers, so a few more edits, and we’ll see if Samhain wants it. 🙂
I don’t care what the title is, I’ll read it.
🙂 Thank you .
How about “The Changing Year” or “The Challenging Year” or “The Year of Change”
The Challenging Year is a good title – the only thing is that it’s really still the same year as in book 1, so that might be a bit misleading. Hm. Worth keeping in mind though, thanks 🙂