Blogflog - We have a Title! And Two Winners!

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: We have a Title! And Two Winners!
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.



And we have a winner!

Okay, technically we have two winners, which is even better!

When my editor, Susan, came up with the idea to ask you, the fans, to help give a title to the next hardback Anita Blake novel, I thought, “Okay, that’ll be fun.” I had no idea how enthusiastic your help would be. *laughs* Eight thousand-two-hundred and fifty-four; wait, lets see that in numeral form: 8,254. Six hundred pages, yes you read that right, 600 pages of entries were received. There was a glitch in the spacing and for a bit it was 1,200 pages; wow! Ah, gremlins. Those numbers were just between 2:40pm on Monday, September 8th and 8am on Friday, September 12th, some of you kept posting ideas after that, but in fairness to those that made the deadline, we considered only those that made the time frame as stated. That amazing number doesn’t count how many people gave multiple ideas per each entry. Media Minion Jess estimates it would be well over nine thousand if every idea was counted separately. Thank you to everyone who participated, you are all awesome! I mean that, I am continually floored about how much you love my writing, my characters, and my worlds; thank you.

I personally went through the lists after Jess weeded out repetitions, or things that were inappropriate (you know who you are). She left some in that were just fun, but couldn’t work as the book title. Some of those made me laugh out loud, for real, and some of you wrote essays about why your entry should win, or just your reasoning behind your choice. There were a lot of repeated ideas and in that case the person who got the title in earliest got to be the one that was considered. Some title ideas just didn’t work for this Anita Blake novel, but will go in a file for possible later use. If I use your idea later, I’ll mention it. Some titles will work better for short stories than novels, you can be longer, or more esoteric, when it’s not smacked across the front of the cover. Who knows maybe one of the saved more short story friendly titles will inspire a brand new story, again, if that happens I’ll let you know who got to play muse for me.

Without further ado, here are the winners:

Next Anita Blake hardback novel – Dead Ice.

Thanks to Peter Orca for that one.

Jewelry store creating Anita and Jean-Claude’s rings: Étoile du Soir, which is French for Evening Star, or Star of Evening.

Thanks to Isis Maria Hess for the name.

Étoile du Berger is also listed as a synonym, but it translates to guiding star, so I stuck with the original entry of Étoile du Soir. Anyone who is a native French speaker, particularly France as opposed to Canada, if you find anything incorrect in the above, please say something soon. There is still time to make changes to the actual manuscript, but the title is set today; why?

The first two chapters and a partial chapter three of Dead Ice will be in the back of Jason coming December 2, 2014. Jason went to the printers today, and the Dead Ice excerpt is in the back of it. You get a brand new adventure featuring Jason, with more on stage time for Jade than ever before, in time for the holidays, plus the beginning of the next adventure; how cool is that?

Both our winners will get a signed edition of Dead Ice as soon as I have them in my hot little hands. They will also be listed in the acknowledgements of the book. Thanks again to everyone who participated, you guys rock!

Comments

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Now she's abusing semicolons too.

Dead Ice is a terrible title. I'd never heard the term before, but I looked it up and apparently it has to do with glaciers. I don't see how it can possibly be stretched to be a metaphor for zombie sex or for getting married.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

NGL "Dead Ice" makes me think of "Dead Snow" which is a Norwegian zombie horror-comedy that I love a lot.

"Étoile du Soir" on the other hand, seems like a store I'd avoid on principle because it's pretentious as fuck. But then, I don't get what the appeal of a vampire-run jewellery store would even be? Do people really get dire urges for tennis bracelets in the wee hours of the night and think "shit, the jewellery stores are all closed right now. EXCEPT THAT ONE VAMPIRE ONE, HUZZAH!" Or does this place specialise in genuine antique/heirloom pieces rather than custom/new? Provenance is a really big deal and if the vampires in question are/were jewellers back in the day or knew the Faberges, that'd be handy and interesting. (Which means it's guaranteed not to happen.) Because if it's not doing something like that, it's...just a jewellery store. And one that doesn't keep regular business hours, so I'm not sure how it'd compete with the others in the area. I'm putting way too much thought into this.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I would love it if yetis had their own etsy store for custom jewellery. It can be used to launder money from the zombie scheme or something.

[apep727.livejournal.com]

She manages to both over- and under-punctuate things in the same entry. How does someone manage to make a living as an author for two decades and yet not figure out how punctuation works?

As for the title, "ice" is slang for diamonds, so that kinda works. And since when have the titles of her books had anything to do with the book's "plot"?

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

"Media Minion Jess estimates it would be well over nine thousand if every idea was counted separately."


.....I can't tell if she's trying to make the "IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAND!" meme reference coyly or if this is just coincidental....

[apep727.livejournal.com]

A few thoughts:

Is anyone else surprised that this list is going to be mined for future titles? Didn't think so.

How is a longer title somehow more appropriate for a shorter story? Does she not understand what a subtitle is? Just for example - the full title of Frankenstein is Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus.

Maybe she just likes punchy titles.

The name of the business in English reminds me of "Evenstar", which gets me thinking about watching the Lord of the Rings movies again. I don't care how pretty it sounds, Laurell - rule of thumb for storytelling is to not remind your audience of a better story they could be watching/reading instead.

How is it that this woman has been publishing books for just over two decades now, and yet still fails at punctuation? Sorry to break it to you, Laurell, but you are not too good for an editor. I swear, she manages to both over and under punctuate. How does that happen?

Finally, how much of Dead Ice has actually been written? Wasn't this the book she wanted "finished" by Thanksgiving? Well, she's got ~70 to finish. Might want to get on that.

[duamuteffe.livejournal.com]

So...book's going to be 90% wedding, isn't it? :/ I'm going to need a lot of JD for the spork.

[cryptaknight.livejournal.com]

Eight thousand some-odd entries and Dead Ice is the winner? I'd love to see the list of top ten contenders or something, lol.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

I am disappointed that the vampire jewellery store isn't called Dead Ice to be honest.

[collectively.livejournal.com]

Me too! I totally thought when I first read it that Dead Ice was the vampire jewelry store and I thought that was pretty hilarious. So disappointing that it got that bullshit French name instead.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Ditto. I have half a bottle of black label left and have been trying to save it for better times.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

YESSSSS. Goblins trauling Craigslist for free stuff to tinker into really cool contraptions or art. Lesser fae doing repairs for cheap. Imagine the YouTube paranormal channels! "Hey guys, this week we're going to meet a Banshee. Say hi, Siobhan!" [UNGODLY SHRIEKING] And then there's that one website that's just DO YOU WANT TO SEE A GHOST?

Yetis can make the jewellery and launder money through Etsy in exchange for a head's up whenever some nosy cryptozoologist is tracking them so they can move their operations. And maybe bait some trolls into the area.

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

I can buy Dead Ice as the name of vampire-run jewelers (even though I think that idea itself is dumb, unless she just means vampire-owned, not fully staffed by vampires and therefore closed all day), but for the book itself? It doesn't appear to tie into zombie porn at all...unless...maybe...the zombies are...kept in freezers to preserve them between films? IDK, help me out here?

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

Of course the vampire jewellery store has a French name. Because FRANCE! The only place where culture and fashion has ever come from! FRAAAAAANNNNNCCCCEEEEE!

Wouldn't a French inspired vampire jewellery store make more sense in Canada or New Orleans?

[duamuteffe.livejournal.com]

I hear you. I usually get a bottle for Giftmas, so I'll be saving that for summer (or whenever the hell the book gets released.)

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I think it'll be out summer 2015? Jason will be out before Christmas, which is seems a perfect accompaniment to Giftmas booze. (I used to live next door to a liquor store so basically every day was Giftmas if I wanted.)

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's because the book is about zombies - dead - but also engagement - ice! RIGHT? RIGHT?

I don't think it's the WORST name in the world but it's not exactly making me think about zombies. Not unless the zombies are in fact controlled by some sort of magickal diamond that will be the stone in Anita's engagement ring or something.

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

It's a shame she didn't save Kiss the Dead for this book, really.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Slightly OT but there's totally a vampire roommate movie from NZ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv568AzZ-i8).

Wicker Man turns out to be a documentary! Tilda Swinton may well be an otherworldy being whose ice bucket challenge really was strolling out of a glacial lake wearing a gown of seaweed and she challenged Poseidon! Imagine a siren taking out American Idol. Though I think Eurovision wouldn't be too different to how it is now. Except maybe instead of adorable Russian grans in a band, there'd be adorable Russian gnomes dancing around on stage.

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

Werewolf sitcoms.

'Uncle Zeke, did you dig this hole in the back yard? You've burst the water pipe for the whole neighbourhood!'

It'd be like the Big Bang Theory. Just as ubiquitous and never going away. Nothing to compare with G.H.O.U.L.S.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Law & Order: RIP - In the criminal justice system, preternatural crimes are especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad, known as the Regional Investigative Preternatural squad . These are their stories. DONK-DONK.

And this is why RPIT gets so much shit all the time, not because they're the departmental screw ups with zero funding, but because this show has lasted fifteen goddamned seasons and has all the cool tv gadgets which don't exist in this universe, so they only seem like a massive disappointment. Cultural osmosis is haaaarsh.

Then there'd be CSI New Orleans which has an actual Voudun priest/ess on the team to help them solve crime. Also a good relationship with a vampire hunter, one that refused the Federal Marshall gig in favour of sticking around town to fight the good fight. Good thing Anita never watches tv or else she'd be screeching about how this isn't how it works or she'd do it better etc.

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's cashing on Jean-Claude's kitschy faux-French ambiance. Like, because Anita doesn't get out much, we don't know that Anitaverse!St. Louis has actually become the French-worshipping equivalent of Weeaboo Central. All the trendy teens walk around in faux Louis-XIV-era costuming and spout execrable French at people, there are la pâtée rapide escargot et frog-leg des tas d'ordures (bad French intentional, translation WHOLLY intentional), and all the shops for hipsters carry AUTHENTIC made-in-France merchandise...

So it's not surprising that Jean-Claude goes to one of these tacky joints. He's just appreciating the influence he's had as Master of the City.

[jamoche]

I would watch the hell out of those :)

But not CSI Miami - seriously, does Horatio Caine have to make an undead pun in every single cold open?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I LIVE FOR THE PUNS. Imagine the Obligatory Werewolf Episode with all the "Looks like he was in a ~~hairy situation~~" (YEEEEEAAAAHHHH!!! (http://mirrors.rit.edu/instantCSI/)) only it turns out it's humans being werewolf groupies and one of them murdered someone to prove they're totally ready to be changed for real.

[duamuteffe.livejournal.com]

That would be very convenient for spork weeks!

[duamuteffe.livejournal.com]

Now I'm imagining that one Blackadder episode with the Scarlet Pimpernel taking place in St. Louis and it's about a hundred times as entertaining as any given AB novel.

[poolnaiad.livejournal.com]

Sense? Anitaverse has no sense, Anitaverse needs no sense!

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

IDK, I love Horatio Caine. He has such girlie mannerisms it cracks me up, pursing his lips and looking over the top of his sunglasses.