Thankfully averted. Because, oh noes, woe to us, there was NO INTERNET for about 12 hours. It was a horrible ordeal and I have already blocked out most of it from my mind. But now it is working again and I can breathe. I think next week the new book might be going on sub (assuming I get agent approval), and if there was no internet then, I think my brain would short out.

The new book used to be called DEAD ROMANS, as of a few days ago, but my agent said it might be too funny, so I took a poll. Because I had no idea it sounded funny, and several people had told me they loved it. Anyway, an alarming majority of people asked did indeed think it was funny. Some people then admitted they loved the title because it made them laugh.

And, er, that would be great if this was a comedy. It definitely has funny moments and lots of snark, but is not, overall, a comedy, and a title that makes most people laugh wasn’t going to work. (Though I’m still keeping it in mind for a backup title if somewhere down the road I have to change it again.) Anyway, coming up with titles is NOT my specialty. (Even if you think secretly maybe it is, because you like my titles, I assure you it’s not.) So you can imagine my devastation when I realized Dead Romans wasn’t going to cut it. Well, okay, in the beginning I wasn’t that devastated. I was like, okay, a creative challenge! I can handle that! It will be, dare I say it, FUN.

And then that wore off and I wanted to cry and beat my head against the wall, except not really because I’m not a fan of head pain. But you know that feeling. Anyway, it was about then that I broke down and started a discussion on twitter about it, and lots of people offered up suggestions and were really helpful. And it was while I was looking up Latin words for ghosts that I got the idea for shades. Shades as in ghosts.

And then I thought SHADES OF ROME. It seemed to good to be true–I couldn’t have actually just figured out something cool, because it was all feeling kind of bleak at this point. But I considered it for a minute and thought, no, wait, maybe it IS cool. Because even if you don’t realize it means shades as in ghosts, it still means something. It still sets the feel for the book and you can guess it’s about/set in Rome. And then if you get the ghosts part, then it’s even cooler.

So ANYWAY, what all that was actually leading up to was I wanted to tell you I rearranged some of my books. I still had all my research books for Shades of Rome sprawled all over, and I didn’t really want to put them away downstairs where I will never actually read them. They’re, like, the books I actually use the most, and yet I put them the farthest away from me. (Does this make sense? No, it does not.) So I switched some things around and now I have all my Latin and Rome books nearby, and as an added bonus, they’re even on a shelf instead of gathering hair and spilled sunflower seeds on the floor. And there was even enough space to put my ARC of The Rise of Renegade X on the shelf! So yay.