How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Ron Corbett's website.
This is an interesting question because Cape Rage was not the working title for this book. It had a longer, more literary title, and I’m not going to tell you what it was. I’ll see if you can guess it. I believe you can. There are enough clues in the book. It’s a line from a Bob Dylan song – from "Brownsville Girl" – and the line is right in the book. I thought it was a powerful line, what a person will do in the name of revenge, and the book started with that title, the very first thing, that freaking title, so when my publisher said, Ron, uh umm, don’t know how to say this, but, we, how do we say this politely, -- we hate it – I was shocked. Who was it that gave that writing advice -- the first thing you need to do is kill your babies? I thought I understood that expression, but I really didn’t. Not until the debate over the title of this book. In the end, I came to understand the only people that would truly understand the original title would be me, and people who had finished reading the book. But that’s not the purpose of a title. A good title should tell you something about what you’re going to read. And Cape Rage does a much better job of that. It tells you that...[read on]
Q&A with Ron Corbett.
--Marshal Zeringue
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