Help Please! My series title sucks

[Hannah F]

Who the F in Fairhaven

Fairhaven Fractures

Fairhaven Forbid

 

[Peyton Stafford]

@Jason L. Lots of replies. Still thinking here.

 

[Jason L.]

It seems to me that the stories are built around Fairhaven, and changing the name of the town and university does kind of change things, quite a bit. So, without changing anything about what you've completed, and staying aware of the genre, it seems you need something descriptive, fun, catchy and unique.
So, you know, just do that...

Thank you, Matt. 'Preesh.

 

[Nikky Lee]

What about taking a well known saying or title that matches your gay, angsty, romance requirements and substituting Fairhaven into it? (Or even just something that's just well known).

Some thrown together examples to illustrate what I mean:
All's Fair in Love and War Fairhaven
Better late than never Fairhaven
Red, White & Royal Blue -> Red, White and [descriptor] Fairhaven

Otherwise you could following the format? (e.g. Sense and Sensibility = Fair and something with 5 syllables)

These probably work better for book titles, but throwing it in here in case it helps.

 

[BrianY]

The full movie and possibly all the episodes of the TV series are on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. More important is the book (in print until at least 2011).

Peyton Place

When Grace Metalious's debut novel about the dark underside of a small, respectable New England town was published in 1956, it quickly soared to the top of the bestseller lists. A landmark in twentieth-century American popular culture, Peyton Place spawned a successful feature film and a...

www.google.com

 

[Jason L.]

I read Peyton Place years ago and it stuck with me. The opening lines were magic.

 

[Jason L.]

I read Peyton Place years ago and it stuck with me. The opening lines were magic.

What about Cockburn? I am joking. Or am I?

 

[Pamela Jo]

What about Cockburn? I am joking. Or am I?

That might be a tad too long. It's a mouthful.

 

[Jason L.]

Something to do with foxes?

We don't have ravens in America so I can't use those.

 

[Jason L.]

Something to do with foxes?

We don't have ravens in America so I can't use those.

 

[Jason L.]

How 'bout Foxhollow as a place/uni name?
Fractured Follow for the series name?

 

[Pamela Jo]

How 'bout Foxhollow as a place/uni name?
Fractured Follow for the series name?

Not a clue what that would be about. And like matt says you need a series title that promises emotionally complex gay romance with a cloak of edge and intrigue. So do that.

 

[MattScho]

Not a clue what that would be about. And like matt says you need a series title that promises emotionally complex gay romance with a cloak of edge and intrigue. So do that.

It's so much easier when it's someone else's project, isn't it? BTW, I think I'm the only one who got your rather wicked joke

 

[Pamela Jo]

It's so much easier when it's someone else's project, isn't it? BTW, I think I'm the only one who got your rather wicked joke

WHO? Moi? Wicked?

Demanding the impossible never seemed to bother my editors.... " Make the political angle interesting to all demographics, but not controversial or divisive." "Uh, right, Baas."

 

[Ed Simnett]

Something to do with foxes?

We don't have ravens in America so I can't use those.

I think you got lots of Ravens in North America? Wikipedia sez New England, Appalachians, and the whole of the West? And also 50 or 60 in Baltimore every other Sunday in the Fall ;-) ...

 

[MattScho]

I think you got lots of Ravens in North America? Wikipedia sez New England, Appalachians, and the whole of the West? And also 50 or 60 in Baltimore every other Sunday in the Fall ;-) ...

And they're always bugging folks who are nearly napping.

 

[Pamela Jo]

And they're always bugging folks who are nearly napping.

But then they did so Nevermore...

Just watched Netflix, The House of Usher. Boot stomping, two finger whistling GOOD. How do you mix social message with story? THAT"S HOW!!!

 

[Pamela Jo]

Grey's Landing, Va.
GreyPort
Grey'sHarbour
Grey's Ford
Greyfell Liberal Arts. (There is a capital management firm in Fla. called Greyfell.)

 

[MattScho]

Grey's Landing, Va.
GreyPort
Grey'sHarbour
Grey's Ford
Greyfell Liberal Arts. (There is a capital management firm in Fla. called Greyfell.)

Because they're aging? Or are you on a Shonda kick?

 

[LJ Beck]

I like Fairhaven or Fairhaven U. Is there something that comes into the stories like the colours of the school, or a school chant or a significant landmark? It could add something? Like Fairhaven Blue, or Fairhaven Falls or Fairhaven Rising (heehee)

 

[Pamela Jo]

Because they're aging? Or are you on a Shonda kick?

Grey is British sounding and that area between right and wrong.

 

[Trey]

Claire, you and I both hit on it.
Thornhaven.
Boom.
That works.

I emailed you. Forgot about this post. I wondered about something completely different, e.g.,
Entangled

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I like Fractured. (I live near a part of Lytham St Annes called Fairhaven...Victorian- by- the- sea, or rather, the Ribble estuary)

There are other books out there also called Fractured. This isn't a problem, necessarily, but for gothic gravitas it could always be The Fracture or The Fracturing.

(It also makes me think of the San Andreas fault and associated geological metaphors. The Fault line. Crossing the Fault line.
Aka RUPTURE.)

 

[Jason L.]

Also, rupture, given the realities of gay sex, conjures some rather bleak possibilities.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Also, rupture, given the realities of gay sex, conjures some rather bleak possibilities.

Indeed. Stark. Bleak, brutal. Multilayered, multi dimensional.

 

[Jason L.]

Possibly fatal with a lot of blood and an agonizing death. Let's skip that, if you please.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Well, no, that won't do, Jason, absolutely not, if that's the association that comes to mind. "Fractured", I would read as entirely metaphorical, no bone shattering, suggestive of an emotionally seismic disturbance/rupture in your MC's life/community, as with that novel by Coetzee, "Disgrace".

Foxfield as a possible place name or institutional name has the assonance thing going on, and a suggestion of hunting and the hunted.

So difficult, but you'll know it when it comes to you.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

Sorry if I have been away for a few days, but I liked Fairhaven. There seems to be a divide between those of us in the USA, who look at a series titles, such as Fairhaven, and expect it to provide the opposite, and the UK contingent, who read it as misleading and cheerful.

My thought is to stay with your largest market and let the world adjust.

 

[CarolMS]

A few thoughts to play with . . . (as if you don't have enough already).
The Fairhaven Affairs
Fairhaven: Behind Hallowed Walls
Or to up the angst + factor -- Raw Desire at Fairhaven
So, for example: Hushed: The Fairhaven Affairs Book #---
And one further thought -- There is, as I'm sure you know, a difference between naming a novel and a series that includes multiple novels. Some of the suggested words feel more fitting for novel than series titles, at least to me. Could be just me. (The "Raw Desire" idea is in this probably in this category.)
Good luck with this!

 

[MattScho]

Lots of great input. I never watched Peyton Place (too young) but I know about it and this reminds me of that. Small town/secrets/everyone screwing one another....

Fairhaven: Boys will be boys (or similar subtitle)

or. along those lines (boys):
Boys Are Back
B.A.B.
Back in Town (or riffing)
Back in Fairhaven
Where the Boys Are
Etc, pretty much every song with the word boys in the title, I guess