Time for other folk to make my mind up...

[sheenaghpugh]

I'm working on another collection; it's nowhere near finished yet but I'm trying to decide on a title. It does make some odds to the way you write, and what you might decide to put in or leave out, because it'll say something, hopefully, about the collection's intended focus. I've currently got several possiblities, all with pluses and minuses, and thought I'd try them out on folks. Unfortunately it isn't as easy as just listing them, because all come with baggage like the poem they're from and the cover pic they might generate.

Travelling with Ashes
Travelling with Ashes is a poem title - this poem It was a competition prizewinner, which is good; but it's a poem about death and therefore automatically downbeat as a title. Also I have no cover pic in mind for it. But this collection is going to be fairly haunted by mortality.

Using Glass Like Air
Using Glass Like Air is a phrase from a poem recently published in the magazine Roundyhouse. I like it because it relates to a theme emerging in the collection, of incongruity, people and things doing what isn't normally in their nature, or in unusual relationships. There could easily be a cover pic for it; it relates to this mural

Wedding Night at the Snow Hotel
Wedding Night at the Snow Hotel is the title of a poem soon to be published in the magazine Horizon. I like it because it's upbeat, but that probably makes it a bit unrepresentative of the collection, though it does fit with the theme of incongruity. Possible cover pics here or here

Short Days, Long Shadows
Short Days, Long Shadows - title of poem published in Poetry Scotland - closest of all to the tone of the collection but maybe too downbeat for a title, and no pic, though there soon could be.

Dresden Shepherdesses of 1908
Dresden Shepherdesses of 1908 is the title of a poem published in The New Shetlander. Bit peripheral to the theme, though it does touch on incongruity. Also it references the past, which can be a turn-off for some. But it'd be such a cracking title and this'd be the cover pic...
What do folk think?

Comments

titles-smitles

[bill herbert (from livejournal.com)]

Dear Sheenagh, I empathise, having carried around a pullulating shortlist of titles for my current for some time without being able to put the issue to rest. The Snow Hotel by itself sounds good (too DM Thomas?), as does Dresden Shepherdesses without the date. Best, Bill

[justwolf.livejournal.com]

Obviously, I don't know anything about this kind of thing, but I really like the title "Using Glass Like Air": I find it very striking and evocative.

Thank you for the link to "Travelling with Ahes"--it's wonderful. As a title, though, I don't find it as striking as "Using Glass Like Air".

All of these titles have good things about them, though, so I can easily understand why it's hard to pick!

[http://users.livejournal.com/solo____/]

I love 'Using Glass Like Air', and I also like 'Short Days, Long Shadows'.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Using Glass Like Air.

Unless you're hoping that cricket fans will buy the book in the belief that it's a cycle of poems about stuffing Australia.

[highfantastical.livejournal.com]

I'd go for 'Using Glass Like Air', probably - it's hard, because they're all obviously suitable and striking, but I think that's my favourite.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Another vote for Using Glass Like Air, though I'm not your target audience.

[jekesta]

I like both of the first two. I see Using Glass Like Air is getting a lot of votes, and I do love it, but I really like Travelling with Ashes too. I suppose which one I would go with would depend on which one you think is most telling of the collection. Which is no help at all. But there we are.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Using Glass Like Air really leaped out at me. If I was walking past a display of books, that title would make me pick it up out of curiosity alone.

[fantasyenabler.livejournal.com]

Put me down as another vote for "Using Glass Like Air." Some of the others are catchy as well, but if that's the one that's closest to your theme, I said go with what's going to set up the proper expectations in your readers.

[firefly1311.livejournal.com]

Sadly the link to the first poem is broken,
the third title gives me the shivers,
"Short Days, Long Shadows" sounds depressing,
"Dresden Shepherdesses of 1908" is adorable and would tempt me for sure to pick it up
and "Using Glass like Air" is really intriguingly - also my choice, but keep in mind the last quotation on your side panel... :-)

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

I like Wedding Night at the Snow Hotel very much... but I tend to go with the majority on choosing Using Glass Like Air... it's simple, wonderfully evocative and definitely catches the eye, ear and mind.

(Mind you, speaks the person who cannot come up with a titles for a 200 word fanficlet without pain...)