AlanP

Control or to warn?

And I suppose that’s another thing…. we all choose the stories we want to hear!!

I’ve also come to realise that themes / controlling ideas are basically the reason why human beings have always told, written and read stories.

We are all trying to understand how the world works and how best to live our lives within it.

Maybe it’s something as simple (elegant) as “when desire burns too hot, it destroys”?

I think mine is: “only when culpability is deeply acknowledged can true reconciliation occur.”

Thanks guys! I’m going to try and draw up a shortlist for Sarah today…

I really appreciate all the help

I LOVE the sound of this book!!

How about…. (London’s) Queen of Time and Shadow

Exactly 🙂

In the Nick of Time
Lost in Time
A Voice in Time

Tangled Web (A, The, What a, Weaving a,)
Untangled Web

Time is sometimes described as a fourth dimension, so:
Fourth Dimension
The Fourth Dimension
Into the, From the, Out of the, Attack of the. (last one was a joke).

The time between?
Between times?
The Time Snatcher of London Towns?
A shadow of time… (working on from Jonathan’s suggestions)
A shadow in time?

I really hate titles sometimes!;)

Oh my goodness, guys, what great suggestions! I will check out those links too.

@Squidge, I’d love to take a look at your exercise if you can send it?

The focus for the book is about whether and how a family can truly reconcile after such a trauma, and what level of culpability a family must ultimately shoulder. Much time in the book is spent in…[Read more]

Hi Philippa, ‘Lost and Found?’ with or without the question mark, popped into my mind, I think because of the railway scene in your story. Perhaps if you simply included a question mark in your current title it would convey that the abduction is still haunting the family. Also, I really like Jonathan’s idea of using the number seven in the title.

I haven’t either, Sandra! Though in my writing I try to adhere to the RUE rule and thus probably don’t explain enough.

I like the ‘Here Ends…’, but what to say is ending.

…the Seven Years of Pain
…the Seven Years of Separation.
Why not something like Seven Years Apart or The seven years of separation. The End Begins Here…? Just playing now!

I also wonder if some of the other themes are more relevant to the title? There are an awful lot of themes going…[Read more]

During the abduction, she believed her family had abandoned her. Now that she has returned, she doesn’t know whom to trust, or where her “real” home is. She clings to cousin Jess, she mistrusts the adults, in the end she turns on her cousin too (bit of an all-is-lost moment there, before the end).