Yipppppeeeee! We have renamed book 2, and I love it! Ready?
LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT
Okay, it's so perfect that I've spend most of the day wondering how I didn't think of it. Whereas some of my books simply name themselves, I struggled with one name after another for this one. The editorial team at Sourcebooks came up with this new title, and they did a great job.
The story, in a nutshell, is this: A Baltimore prosecutor set to begin the biggest trial of his career and a hair stylist with a dysfunctional family meet in the airport on their way to visit their significant others in Florida. After they each endure a disastrous weekend, they meet up again on the flight home, striking up an unlikely friendship that leads to love.
I posted Chapter 1 on my website tonight. Another thing I love about this title is how it plays into a change my editor suggested to the opening. In the first rendition, the book opened from my heroine Juliana's point of view when she is running for a flight that ends up delayed. In the final version, we see the opening from Michael's point of view and get to experience his visceral reaction to meeting Juliana. Later, he realizes he fell in love the instant he first saw her. Immersed as he is in a long-time relationship with his fiancee, Michael, a serious, grounded prosecutor, is freaked out by his reaction to Juliana. I love the new opening. I love it even better with this new title.
Renaming books is part of being published. I got lucky with Line of Scrimmage, which was published under the name I gave it. I like LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT much better than the name I gave book 2. However, the process does feel a little like giving birth and then handing over the child to someone else to name. It's grueling for authors. But what I've learned over this last year is that there's a whole team involved with making my book fly (here come the flight puns). They want the same thing I do: to see this book do as well as it possibly can. The name they gave it today definitely helps our cause.
I'll post the new cover when I get it.
