THE STORY COLLECTION TITLE DEBATE

Hello Everyone!

I am just about finished negotiating the details of my contract with the publisher for the story collection, we have come to agreement on everything except the title. The working title was (is) "Random Kid in a Black Hole" named for one of the 14 stories, but the publisher says he is "sick of black holes." I have this ongoing list of titles to try on and last night at my poet friend's reading at the Stories, Books, Cafe bookstore in Echo Park, I asked the poets and writers gathered  there and at the bar afterward celebrating our beloved colleague, what they thought of the original title, as well as this one above, which is a riff on Rumi's line "The Lover Whirls About Him."  "Him" of course refers to God and the Lover is a Whirling Dervish, and I say I am "riffing" by trying on "Them" so that the pronoun refers to either gender and/or is non-binary and brings the love to the human, in the same way that Jesus said, The Kingdom of Heaven is Within. Which I take to mean that God is within. And aside from any religious definitions, it can simply mean one's lover is whirling about him or her. And the stories do feature lovers of many kinds. The poet  last night looked at this and with his fingers covered "The Lover Whirls" and said, "How about this title: ABOUT THEM." He thought that could be it. But when I think about it, I find it as cold and ironic as "Random Kid in a Black Hole" which brings me back to the original affection for that title. Black Holes contain the event horizon, which to me is about all possilbilities, and I do not actually believe in anything or anyone being "random" and see "Random Kid" as tongue-in-cheek. 

At the bookstore last night, I was thrilled to see my books on the shelves. Heat Signature isn't there but the hardcover and paperback of Dive as well as the paperback of Glow in the Dark are there, as you can see in the photograph. And by the way, if you would like to get Heat Signature from me, rather than Amazon or whatever, I am happy to send you a signed copy.

I hope I am not overthinking this title thing. Ocean Vuong's title "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" is one of the most gorgeous titles for some gorgeous writing that I can think of from the decades of my own many bookshelves but, other than in Vuong's case, you can't judge a book by its cover.

LOVE!