How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Sara Donati's website.
I have never had much luck naming my own novels. Editors and marketing people have more control than I like. I wanted to call this newest novel Little Birds -- and I admit it would give the reader no real sense of the story. The Sweet Blue Distance does provide some insight. This is a novel about moving west and into a new life, and thus far it seems that readers agree that the title evokes the images I was hoping for.
What's in a name?
Character names are a universe to themselves. I have a total of ten historical novels in print, and the same families feature in most of them. This provides an anchor, of a sort -- the first and primary couple are Elizabeth and Nathaniel. As their universe grew (children, children-in-law, grandchildren) I found it harder and harder to find compelling names, almost certainly because...[read on]
The Page 69 Test: The Gilded Hour.
Q&A with Sara Donati.
--Marshal Zeringue
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