Laurie R. King

Because what I do for a living often seems like magic—I come up with an idea and *POOF* you have the book in your hand—I thought I might do a series of blog posts about the actual process. (Though rest assured—it’s still pretty magical.)

How do we writers name our babies? The ones on the page, that is, not the ones in diapers. How do I get to a title?

Looking back at this book’s history—I tend to email myself every day’s work, which means I have the record at hand—it started under the enticing title of:

Russell 18

That was during the first part of 2022, when the story was little more than notes and ideas that would either bounce around my brain for a while and then lose their momentum and quietly roll into the corner, or that would bounce around and hit another idea with a spark, and they’d join up like a pair of soap bubbles (a terrible mix of metaphors here, but you get the idea) and wait for another idea to bounce up and join them. By the time I actually began writing, in early December (the process I talked about last week in The Beginning) I knew some key things about it—which I’m not really going to talk about until we get a little closer to the book’s actual date, but I did know enough to give it a working title:

The Image Lamp

I’d thought of Zoetrope, since one of those is central to the book, but 1) since “zoetrope” is pretty firmly associated with Francis Ford Coppola, and 2) I’m not convinced everyone knows exactly what it is, Image Lamp would do. But I went back and forth over the word “lamp” (even though, strictly, it is more accurate than “lantern”) because if felt, er, lumpy, and a little nasal. By the end of January, I was calling it:

The Image Lantern

Bugles and fireworks, right? Well, my editor wasn’t convinced.

Here are some exchanges that took place between mid-December and the first of February, when I was told they absolutely HAD to have a title to put into the catalogue. The HER below is my editor at Penguin Random House:

(12/12/22) HER:  As for title, I do like the idea of using the zoetrope for inspiration, but THE IMAGE LAMP doesn’t feel very dynamic

(1/27)  ME: Since the whole story is constructed around the zoetrope that Russell finds, I really haven’t been able to come up with a better title than Image Lamp or Lantern. Sorry.

You want to have a conversation and see what we can brainstorm?

(1/31/23) HER:

            THE LADY IN THE LANTERN?

            THE LADY AND THE LANTERN?

            I like LANTERN better than LAMP, I think

(1/31) ME:  …except the title makes no sense, because there’s no lady in the lantern.

Also I’m not keen on “lady”.

(2/1) HER:

            SPINNING LANTERNS

            THE SPINNING LANTERN

(2/1) ME: What do you think of the word flickering?

            FLICKERING IMAGES

            THE FLICKERING LANTERN

            …Though the Art Dept would have to take care with the font on the cover so it didn’t look like a Fucking Lantern.

(2/2) She and I decide to have a conversation, for brainstorming the title. From that, we come up with a list:

I decide I like the idea of a dance.

I tell her I could tweak the description a little to play it up.

Then comes the question: with or without the THE?

            We agree we prefer it with the article.

(2/2) HER: We’re going to float THE LANTERN’S DANCE to the team.

(2/2) HER: Big thumbs up for The Lantern’s Dance!

Simple as that, right? Which just leaves me the minor matter of finishing the book…

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Next episode in the saga of Lantern’s Dance: Feeling the Draft(s)

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You can pre-order the end product of all these debates, The Lantern’s Dance, from: Bookshop Santa Cruz (signed); Poisoned Pen Books (signed); Bookshop.org (supporting Indie booksellers); Barnes & Noble; or Amazon.