Carina Press wants me to change the title of my hockey book(s). I had titled it HARD TO RESIST. The rest of the series would follow the HARD TO ___ pattern. They didn’t like that. They want me to inject more of a sports feel into the titles.
Hm.
I spent hours Thursday and Friday brainstorming. I went to Amazon and Carina Press to look at the hockey romance/sports romance titles that had already been used.
Here’s what I found: Offside, Offsides, Collide, Hat Trick, Taking Shots, Trying to Score, Blue Lines, Empty Net, Off Her Game, Play the Man, Fresh Ice, Face Off of the Heart, Jilted.
Face Off of the Heart amused me.
My goal was to end up with a title idea that could be used for the entire series so that readers could tell the book was part of the Barracuda series, just by looking at the title.
I brainstormed a bunch of words I thought I might be able to use: Play, Ice, Shot, Stick, Score, Win, Skate, Game. Some of them were hockey specific, some were just sports-y.
Then I started really brainstorming. Here’s the list I ended up with on my Evernotes app. I wrote everything down, even the stupid ones.
Playing to Win
At All Costs
Hard Won Victory
Stick Work
Crossing the Line
Game Winner
Power Play
Playing the System
On the Breakaway
Dropping the Gloves
82 Games
Head Up, Stick Down
Home Ice
On the Stick
Tape to Tape
Odd Man Rush
Roughing
__ On Ice
Fear on Ice
Pride on Ice
Love on Ice
Against ____
Against the Odds
Against the Boards
Against the Wall
Against the Glass
Too late to make a long story short, but I ended up liking the idea of using prepositional phrases, with each title adapted to fit that particular story. When I’m introduced to my editor, Melissa Johnson, I will propose that HARD TO RESIST be changed to IN THE ZONE. I’ll also suggest that the next two books be called OUT OF THE GAME and AGAINST THE BOARDS.
I’d love to hear what people think.
