The Secret Life of Titles

 

Good evening, everyone, we are enjoying the Spring sunshine in the Militiverse this evening, while the corvids are busy building their nests.

Can I offer you some refreshment? I am having a lovely full bodied glass of red wine.

Let me ask you something my friends, when you pick up a book, do you ever wonder about the title? Where it came from or the meaning behind it?

Pull up a seat and get comfy, let’s discuss book titles and the secrets that they hold. 

 

The Music of a Title

The old adage of never judging a book by its cover, is a well known saying. I myself have been guilty of buying a book just based off a very pretty cover. But what of a title? How important is a title for a book, and how does an author choose one?

Sometimes, when I outline a book, I already know what the book will be called, the title is chosen and I am happy with it. When I write under my own name, Anna Daly McCabe, I write contemporary romance, so the titles like Glam Metal just seemed to fit with the tone and language of the book.

Writing gothic crime fantasy with a heavy influence of ancient history gives a different feel. The titles just seem to curl easier on the tongue. I don’t always have a title when I begin one of the fantasy books, but the ones that I do just fit, like the old cliché, like a hand in glove. 

 

The Weight of Ancient Words

When I began writing the Tempus Militibus Series, I wanted the titles to match the tone of the books, the weight of historical epochs that the stories carried. I knew that when it came to the title of the books, I wanted them to be powerful, to carry the lyric of how beautiful the language is.

That’s why when I chose Latin as the language of my titles and series name, it immediately felt right.

Latin carries history in its words. The Romans spoke it, half of the ancient world spoke it, and moving forward through the millennia the language followed, though perhaps not as widely spoken as it had been, but everyone, knew the meaning of words, without even realising it.

When I settled on Tempus Militibus, book 1, the start of the series, it hit me straight away. The Latin title just sings and rolls off the tongue, I don’t believe that using the English translation of Soldiers of Time, or Time Warriors carried the same theme that I wanted to reflect what the story was about. 

 

The Music of Language

I love languages, the sound of certain languages just feels lyrical. Descriptions of love in French just sends the knees quivering. Reading ‘Le Horla’ by Guy de Maupassant in French, the prose is beautiful. I can read a little Italian, not very well but enough to understand some of what I read. I read ‘Il quartiere,’ by Vasco Pratolini, many years ago, while I was learning Italian and the words were just so expressive, they rolled off the tongue. A very beautiful story full of nostalgia of a forgotten era.

The same with Latin, it’s such a beautiful language and the basis for most European languages. 

 

Borrowed Tongues and Lost Languages

As I mentioned earlier, ancient languages add a certain mystery and texture to stories, particularly to Gothic fantasy. My Tempus Militibus Series, weighs in heavily on the ancient world, like Rome, Greece and other civilisations. With that tone, I wanted the books to reflect the eras, and as the research was done, it revealed so many lost languages, and I was enthralled.

It was no surprise that I chose Latin, the characters, Luca, Peo, and Karl, were native speakers, and the world of the Militiverse became grounded in ancient Latin and Greek. 

 

When Meaning Hides Beneath the Surface

The meaning of the title hides beneath the surface and when a reader picks up a book, some readers know without ever wanting to translate the title, it resonates with them, and it feels right.

I had a lovely message from a lady named Gillian, who was new to my books, and she said that she picked up Remy’s book, ‘Tempus Lutetiae’ because the title was so beautiful. She did translate it and was surprised what it meant. Tempus Lutetiae speaks to me, because I was never a fan of Paris, I know crazy, isn’t it? But spending time there some years ago, to finish a book I was working on, made me fall in love with Lutetia. 

 

So, my dear friends, a title isn’t always a label for the book, it is the whisper of what the book is about, the door if you will, to what lies between the pages.

Thank you for sharing this evening with me.

Donec iterum conveniamus, per corridores librorum vagamini, et curiosi manete

Anna