To Name a Thing

News! News, I say!

It’s pretty much nine months until Book 2 of the Lotus War hits bookshelves, which seems all portentous and shit. I read a book I found at a bus shelter once that said daddies and mummies who love each other very much can make a baby in that time, but that intel seems suspect to me, and my parental units would neither confirm nor deny it when queried. Dad would just ruffle the newspaper and grunt “Ask your mother” and my mother would flee the building screaming. But when you consider I started writing book two in January of 2011, nine more months isn’t John Holmes long or anything.

But anyways, on this portentous day, I come bearing gifts. Well, a gift more accurately.

The name of book 2.

Now don’t scroll down to look at it before…. Shit, you scrolled down, I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO THAT.

Let’s just pretend you didn’t and roll on with the show. Don’t make me use the hose again.

It took me a year to come up with this name. I went through about half a dozen front-runners over the course of that time, but none of them really sat right with the story or what I was trying to say. I thought Stormdancer as a title had a vibe that matched the vibe of the book, but book 2 of the Lotus War is a pretty dark affair – I set out to write an Empire Strikes back episode of the story. The episode where you figure things can’t get any worse and then BAM, straight shot to baby-maker, Vader is Luke’s father (Vader is not Yuki’s father, that would make no sense, he’s way too tall). So I needed a title that would invoke that grimmer mood. It wasn’t until I’d started playing around with the concepts of book 3 that I really hit on a book 2 title I could look at, turn up the coat of my leather trenchcoat, put on my Lawrence Fishburne glasses and say “YOU are the ONE.”

Anyways, enough with the foreplay. Here it is.

That’s not official typography or anything. That’s just me on the Photoshops.

I think it’s a name that demands to be yelled, preferably while shaking your fist at some nemesis, or perhaps in some moment of dire peril. It seems (to me at least) to be a name possessed of a certain… angst.

Observe:

Damn you all to hell.

Run, kitteh, run.

Look how hipster I am, all dropping MLP:FIM and shit.

Naturally.

Tetsuoooooooooo…

Yeah, I reckon that works.

It’s a celebration, bitches.

So, to celebrate the name launch, I’m gonna give away an ARC of KINSLAYER. We don’t even have covers yet, so it’ll be a while before I get ARCs to give away. But I’m good for it. I’ve got an honest face.

How to go in the running to win? Pimp my shit, of course.

Link this article in your FB or Twitter or whatever. Make sure you tag my Facebook or Twitter page when you do it, so I know you’re pimpin’.  I hate providing sample tweets – they make me feel like I’m telling you what to say. But a sample pimp tweet might look like:

So @misterkristoff ‘s new book has a title, and it’s <insert expletive/praise here> http://misterkristoff.wordpress.com

Sample Facebook pimpage might include pictures of beautiful naked people or something. Subliminal advertising, man, that stuff works. If you were really keen about pimpin’, you could dress in some platform shoes and a purple fedora with a feather in it. But don’t complain to me if you get arrested.

Worrrd.

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