How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Catriona McPherson's website.
The title I’ve ended up with does a great job of telling the reader what kind of book they’re considering. Deep Beneath Us and the jacket image combined say: dread, threat, secrets. While I was writing I called the book Hiskith, the name of the reservoir and the flooded village at the bottom of it, and also a pun on “his kith”, evoking the centrality of a character who, Rebecca- like, starts out already dead and telling us the book is about his family.
But I knew, even as I wrote the drafts with “Hiskith” in my mind, that it was a disaster of a title from a marketing point of view. I let it go without a backward glance.
What’s in a name?
I love naming characters, even when it’s difficult. It was...[read on]
The Page 69 Test: Go to My Grave.
Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (November 2018).
My Book, The Movie: The Turning Tide.
The Page 69 Test: The Turning Tide.
My Book, The Movie: A Gingerbread House.
The Page 69 Test: Hop Scot.
The Page 69 Test: Deep Beneath Us.
Q&A with Catriona McPherson.
--Marshal Zeringue