Friday, August 28, 2015

I Need a Title

I’m writing a novella featuring John and Sarah’s wedding (they’re the couple in Bite Me, I’m Yours). Actually, a lot of this story was written in my second book, Sarah’s Turn, but I ended up revising Bite Me so much, it made Sarah’s Turn obsolete. Still, it had this nice wedding scene (and another event) I wanted to keep.

Of course, now that I’m reading Sarah’s Turn, I see what utter crap it really is (okay, maybe not utter crap—just plain old crappy). My writing has improved tremendously since I wrote that story. I’d like to think I’m making Sarah’s Turn a whole bunch better (not just shorter).

However, I’m stuck with a title. I can’t use the title of Sarah’s Turn, because that event has already been revealed in Bite Me. I’m currently calling it Vampire Wedding, but it just doesn’t sound good enough. Someone suggested Dark Nuptials. I kind of like the Nuptials part, but it’s not really Dark. Although the wedding does take place in Vegas.

Perry is in this novella (I love writing him, he definitely keeps it from being dark), and there’s this bachelor party scene that includes an accidental ingestion of Viagra. I’m hoping I write it as funny as it is in my head.

I tell you, coming up with a short paranormal title for this novella is really frustrating me. Every time I think of an appropriate title, it sounds more contemporary than paranormal. If you have any suggestions, lay ’em on me. I could use all the help I can get.

*******

Learned something recently about gift cards. We’ve had two incidences in two different restaurants, so I’m guessing it’s probably the same in all. So BEWARE:

If you run your gift card under $1.00, you’ll most likely lose whatever cents are left on it.

Even though we had the receipt showing we had 70 cents on the card, when the waitress ran it, the balance showed zero.

I know, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but it was MY 70 cents! And they took it. It doesn’t seem right. Why would it drop? I can see it dropping if the card wasn’t used in a year or something, but this had only been a week. The thieves!

From now on we’ll make sure not to run our cards down to less than $1.00 (or at least give the money as part of a tip).

High School football starts here tonight. And yes, we’re going to the game even though our youngest graduated 12 years ago. Days are just flying by now. Flying by!!

So… Do you use gift cards? Have you ever noticed balances of less than $1.00 drop off?
 
Stacy

9 comments:

Maria Zannini said...

Somehow the only thing I could think of was: Vampires in Vegas.
:)

re: gift cards
Thanks for the head's up. I didn't know they swiped anything under a dollar.

Stacy McKitrick said...

Maria - When two different restaurants did that to us (telling us our gift card was empty when we knew he had more than 50 cents on it), we figure it's probably something all places do. I'm certainly not going to go and test a third place!

re: Vampires in Vegas. I like the title, but it doesn't reflect my story (only a small portion). And that's what I've been doing to myself all week. Finding great titles that don't fit. Argh!

Michael Seese said...

'Til Death Don't Us Part


I'll think of a few more and post later.

dolorah said...

Titles are hard for me to come up with. And I've noticed my writing has vastly improved since writing that first (unpublished) trilogy. I still practice on it occasionally.

When I use a gift card, I use it ALL up, so I never noticed a balance dropping off. I usually have to add cash to the purchase :)

Stacy McKitrick said...

Michael - My vampires aren't "undead." But that is a cute title! :)

Donna - We usually have so many coupons and/or deals, that our meals are less than the gift card. And we buy gift cards because it gets us cents off our gas purchase. We've got rewards programs out the wazoo! :)

JeffO said...

I have a gift card but haven't run it down quite so low. I'm surprised they didn't add surcharges in it to make it so that YOU owe THEM money!

Stacy McKitrick said...

Jeff - If gift cards started adding surcharges (or maybe I should say, "go back to adding surcharges," because they used to do that a lot!), then we wouldn't use them anymore. But I do like using them, especially in restaurants. No one can swipe our VISA number that way!

The Happy Whisk said...

Not sure about the title, those are sometimes tricky but I bet you'll get it sorted. I am no help.

Interesting about the gift cards. Our Barnes gives us the 70p in change when we get that low. Kind of sucks that the ones you had, didn't do that. What crap.

Stacy McKitrick said...

Ivy - I'll have to see if they'll give the change back. Never thought about asking! :)