On Turning 30
May 30, 2024
Biographical Historical Fiction
July 30, 2024
What's in a Name?
How I Named My Novel
The Naming
During the writing of this novel, I've birthed three children. It's a sobering and awe-inducing revelation honestly. This "book baby" has been quietly growing in my heart as well as on the page for a decade. I can honestly and somewhat humorously say that I've had a harder time naming this book than I did any of my children. However, like my children, the naming process is a significant task that casts vision and promise. For a book, it embodies everything that the novel is and can be for the reader.
As many of you know last year at about this time, I received the email that changed the trajectory of my publishing career this far. It was from my (former) small-press publisher that informed me that my publishing contract had been terminated due to a disagreement on the cover and an overall staffing issues. I was a debut author with a book that might prove difficult to market and thus I found myself at the bottom of the totem pole, easily dispensed of. Shortly after, I received a debilitating developmental edit that was almost the death of me creatively. It suggested a complete overhaul of my book, that the majority of the story was "implausible" and mocked my vision for writing it in the first place
In theses ashes, I sat. For a long time that's all I did, until I felt like I could begin again. In many ways this last year has been my "dark night of the soul." As I am now approaching the release of this much anticipated novel, which will be published independently, I'm so grateful that I am too, emerging a new person. In this process I learned so many significant truths about not only myself, but my confidence as a writer and more importantly, as a person.
Formerly this novel was titled "The Boy Who Survived The Night," but when I underwent this rewrite I really struggled with the name because my book too, had changed significantly. It was deeper, more compelling and truer to the core. That title no longer fit and it held so many memories of growth through pain that I knew I needed something new. I needed a renaming.
Th "Re-naming"
There is something significant to the "renaming" process. It contains glimpses of the old in some cases, but is also elevated and repurposed.
This reminds me of a biblical truth that I've been pondering. God was constantly renaming individuals in the Bible in both the New and Old Testament at a turning point in their lives. Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Saul and Peter, to name a mere few. I love how God built upon their previous names to cast their vision farther and redefine their calling in life. Such as Abram going from "high father, to Abraham "the father of multitudes." As well as Jacob, which meant "supplanter," to Israel "one who prevails with God."
A name is more than a name, but woven between it is a story and ultimately a destiny.
In many ways the renaming process is the invitation to a new adventure. It's a new wineskins for new wine, the passing away of the old and the invitation into the new, with Him.
This is the heading
So in this instance, I have the ability to co-create with God. The ability to first name and then rename my own little creation.
Except a really important fact remains, this novel was not born purely from my imagination. No, it's rooted in a real person and a real story that is so incredible, so harrowing and so inspirational that I kept remembering the man behind it—Rindy. I couldn't get over how much I loved his name. It's melodic, simple and yet unique. This novel began about Rindy and in the end I wanted it to be about him too.
Plus it reminded me of "A Girl Called Sampson," a recent release by Amy Harmon. As well as the classic "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," the theme of which resonates with my book. Overall, I felt that it will fit well in the Historical Fiction market that I'm launching it towards.
So in the end, I'm scrapping the 400 other names that I conjured up, some more poetic than this, because I kept returning to this one. This name — A Boy Named Rindy.
