I’ve been kicking around possible titles that might be more…pronounceable…than The House of Arkhangel’sk. While I’m kicking, I thought I’d share some imagery of various places and events that occur in the book. First, the current title: The House of Arkhangel’sk represents both the family name of the celestial Supernal Family and stands for the house in the city of Arkhangel’sk in which an important part of the story takes place. Below is a dacha similar to the one I had in mind for this second “house of Arkhangel’sk,” along with some interior views of an Arkhangel’sk dacha.
And here are some possible alternative titles I’ve come up with:
City of Archangel – the former English name of the city of Arkhangel’sk. At left is a photo of Arkhangel’sk at night.
The Malachite Room – after an infamous room in the Winter Palace in which Russia’s provisional government set up its administrative headquarters in 1917 and from which they briefly held off the Bolsheviks who stormed the Winter Palace to overthrow them during the October Revolution. It’s also the scene of a bloody massacre and a crucial part of the climax in the celestial version of the Winter Palace.
Flower of the Fern – the mythical tsvetok paporotnika, a fiery flower that blooms only at midnight on the eve of Ivan Kupala (Midsummer Night), and which my heroine stumbles upon. I can’t, of course, provide a picture of a fern flower, but at right is an image of one of the Ivan Kupala traditions in which my heroine takes part. Girls wear garlands of flowers in their hair and then float them out to sea with a candle in the center to carry their wishes. (It’s after this that young men and women traipse off into the woods to, ahem, “look for the flower.”)
And the last option, Prince of Tricks, simply refers to Belphagor’s nickname. ;)
Which do you prefer? Have another suggestion?
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Comments
11 responses to “What’s in a name?”
I really like the title you currently have (the one no one can pronounce, not even you ;-) but I voted as if you were going to go with something else. I was torn between The Malachite Room and Flower of the Fern. There is something about The Malachite Room that draws me to it, and gives me a flavor of what is going to be between the covers, but Flower of the Fern captured my imagination. That being said, none of the other titles truly capture the story like The House of Arkhangel’sk (and City of Archangel is a pale substitute).
My concern with Flower of the Fern is that the title might be misleading.
Oh, and can you tell? Titling is not my forte.
LK
I think my big worry about THOA is that I’ll make an ass of myself trying to pronounce my own title. Whenever I make the attempt when someone asks what the name of my book is, their eyes go all fuzzy and they say, “Huh?”…like I’ve just spoken to them in Russian. ;) I suppose I could just give it the English pronunciation and stop being a dork.
I like how The Malachite Room sounds with the other two in the trilogy: The Fallen Queen and The Midnight Court. Of course, Flower of the Fern actually fits with the theme of those other two titles, which all have to do with the Unseen World of the slavic fairies.
(And you know what I don’t like? How this stupid WP template doesn’t pick up line breaks in the comments. I’m going to have to figure out where that is in the CSS and fix it before I go mad.)
I like Flower of the Fern b/c it sounds very fairy like. And the Malachite Room is also very evocative. As a reader I always find it hard to have a word that I have no idea how to pronounce that comes up often. And if it’s in the title that makes it less accessible.
I think you have to decide whether you want readers to focus on the Room or the Flower as they read the book. I feel that the title leads my attention and frames the way I navigate through the work.
Hilarious that the current vote favors the original title. I’ve been pronouncing it wrong for 6 months now and I’m the agent. *sheesh* *silly me*
still love that title. But, I stand by my suggestion: FALL OF THE HOUSE OF ARCHANGEL. I do love THE CITY OF ARCHANGEL too though. hmmm…
All of the titles are evocative for me, but the only one that I don’t already associate with something is The Malachite Room. I already have mental associations with Archangels, flowers, ferns, tricks… So yes, The Malachite Room is the one that stirs me up to thinking, “Hmm . . . I wonder what that’s about?” and leaves me no room for assumption making.
Hey, I pronounced it wrong for 3 years and I wrote the darn thing! Lol.
Ooo, I like Sara’s suggestion as well.
Jane, you seem to like your title but worry about mispronunciation, so why not just use the English? House of Archangel. The harder hurdle, I think, is that people may not realize that’s a real Russian city and presume it to be religious fiction. I know I scoffed the first time I heard of it until I saw it on a map.
I had some other ideas (Fires of Midsummer, A Bloom at Midnight, et al.) but I think Sara’s is a superior suggestion to anything I came up with.
My first thought was “The House of the Archangel” but if the falling bit is useful:
“Fallen: The House of Archangel” or use the original, mispronouncable name…
Firstly, I feel the need to say that I love “The House of Arkhangel’sk” as a title and that pronunciation is overrated.If I have to pick another one though, I’m going to confuse you further by saying that I love the “Prince of Tricks”.
I think it goes well with the “regal theme” the other titles have.
However, I’m fairly new to your blog and I haven’t read a full synopsis of the trilogy, maybe Belphagor is not a main character in the book. Or he may be a main character, but the heroine related to the Fern Flower fable (alliteration for the win!) is the protagonist and it would be more fitting to name the book in her honour.
This is all so confusing!
No wonder my manuscripts remain unnamed until way, way too late. I am currently revising the first book in a fantasy novel trilogy and it’s title is Fading Lights Trilogy: Book 1. I simply cannot decide on a title for it.
Thanks for all the great comments and votes. :) To be ornery, I’m now leaning toward the original title again. LOL. I do love Prince of Tricks, but while Belphagor is, in my mind, the actual protagonist, Anazakia is the main character, so I think it could be confusing. I do want to use it for something someday, though.
It would be interesting to see a poll that lets us rank the titles instead of picking just one!
I like the original title, because it gets the Russian aspect across right away. But the next favorite would be The Malachite Room. That would also make a great cover!
It’s hard to pick a really superb title without reading the book, because there are so many nuances that might make one title or another more prevalent.