My editor has just returned the Nim's Island sequel manuscript with her comments and suggestions for some little changes. It's good to see that there aren't too many - and some of them I knew I hadn't got quite right yet anyway. (I was hoping I was wrong and she'd say, not that's perfect! But she noticed, and so did the lovely grade 2-3 class in Vancouver who read it.)
But the other thing that I've been hoping would magicallly appear and fix itself is the title. The working title - what I called it to myself while I was working on it, and what my publishing contract says - is Nim's New York. I've never wanted that to be the real title, partly because it's not right: the story is more about the journey there. Besides, I don't want it sound like a guide book!
So, for a month or two, every time I walk the dog on my own I go over different titles in my head. Sometimes it gets quite silly as I'm walking along looking at different things, but mostly I keep going over the same type of things: Nim's Journey, Nim and the Sealnappers, Nim's Voyage, Nim's Troppo Tour. I've reread the manuscript a couple of times just looking at words to jump out at me; I meditate in the morning before I get up, trying to let the idea float free and come up with a wonderful title...
Maybe today will be the day.
