Letting Go

My publisher & editor think it best to drop the subtitle “Small Demons” from my novel and have it simply be “The EVERSTEAM CHRONICLES – Book One”. Not sure how I feel about it. I wanted to argue, to fight but I didn’t. Why? I do Trust them; they know what they are doing. They have been in the business for a longlonglong time. There is a certain sadness I feel, though, being that it was the title of my book for the last five, ohmagawsh, no actually we are heading into SIX years! It’s really hard to let that title go.

It isn’t like I can’t use “Small Demons” in the future. In fact, I think it would be a great title for my Eversteam short story anthology that is currently in the works. Short = Small, Stories = Demons. Yes, little things that prey on our minds, lurk in the corners, spring up at inconvenient times. YouknowwhatI’mtalkingabout, you, there, writer, and you, and YOU! You know exactly what I mean. Some of them even have claws and teeth and stink to high heaven.

Yet, with all that said, I am still melancholic; wheeze, crylikeababy, tongue all blotchy white, queasy tummy, pinkish rash– NOPE… Melancholic! not colic. But like a baby, I have reared and nurtured this story, have cleaned it up several times or more. Stayed up late, sleepless nights, early mornings, too much coffee during the day, liquor in the evening, pulling my hair out, pacing, rocking, pleading, praying-ohIdon’tdothat- but something like it akin to begging the characters to behave.

Small Demons. It’s only a couple of words but I have become quite attached to them. Funny how that is. We writer’s can be so sensitive. You also know what I mean by that. We are artists like any other and we can be over the top, out of control, downright Weird about our work. I know I am.

And I bet you are too.

Dropping the subtitle is a poignant lesson of stepback, getoutoftheway, relinquishcontrol, don’thalttheprocess, trustsomeoneelseforonce, IMPERMANENCE! The biggest lesson of them all. Impermanence.

I am at their mercy. I have no idea how the market works, what people want, what attracts the most people to buy a book. They do. Ol’ Rick & Chuck, my story is in their hands, and I must now… Let Go.