What's in a Name?

Now that we've released the title for book one in The Keeper Chronicles, I thought I'd jot down a little note on the process of how I go about naming a work of fiction. It may seem strange, but often-times the title is the first thing to come to me. This was the case with my last novel, The Lazy Postman. I thought of the title and wondered what that book would be about, and then curiosity got the best of me, so I wrote it. Other times the title comes later, but is easy to pick; it just seems to work. Sometimes, however, the title can be tricky. That is the way it was with Playing with Fire. It took ages to come up with a title that was factually and thematically relevant to the story, the characters, and the series as a whole. In the end, it was a suggestion from a friend that finally broke through, and I'm very excited to announce the title once and for all!
In my upcoming short story collection, Fictions of Questionable Length, there is a final chapter that discusses the history of each of the stories; how they were inspired, why they were written, how they were titled, etc., so if you enjoy "Behind the Scenes" insights into the creation of what you read, be sure to watch out for it in early 2014!
Playing with Fire will be released in September, 2013.
J.R. Vikse