Help with titles

[Ireth]

I'm having trouble coming up with a title for the second book of my fantasy duology, and trying to figure out a title for the duology as a whole. The first book is called Winter's Queen; it focuses on a human girl named Ariel Hawk, who is kidnapped from 21st century Earth into pseudo-medieval Faerie by a Fae prince, who wishes to marry her and make her the titular Queen of the Winter Court; meanwhile Ariel's father and uncle enter Faerie on their own to find and rescue her, and they all encounter friends and foes along the way.

The second book begins four months after the end of the first; after harboring a Fae fugitive (a friend they met in the previous book) in their house, the Hawk family is arrested for crimes they all allegedly committed in the first book, and brought by force into Faerie again. The two Kings of Faerie sentence them to search through the land to find a second fugitive (also a friend of the Hawks) and bring her to justice, with the fugitive they had harbored acting as their guide.

I had originally come up with the title Summer's Blood for the second book, but I recently found out it's already the name of a movie with a totally unrelated plot and characters. Summer's Quest is another possibility, but I don't like it quite as much, even though it does match up nicely with the first book's title, being a five-letter word that starts with Q. The titular Quest is not really something belonging to the Summer Court, as the Queen was intended to be; it's actually the Winter King who comes up with the idea, and the Summer King ends up agreeing with it.

I want to keep the words "summer" and "winter" in the book titles since those are the two Fae Courts the protagonists have to deal with, and the times in which the stories take place (going by the old Celtic calendar, in which winter begins on November 1 [midnight on Samhain/Halloween] and summer begins on May 1). As for the duology as a whole, I'm pretty stumped. I kind of want a two-word title like each of the books has, maybe something like "Faerie's ______" (insert appropriate noun here). Thoughts on this?

 

[Mindfire]

Well, for starters, I'd recommend changing the title of the first book to The Winter Queen. It's better without the apostrophe IMO. For the second book... hmm... Summer Quest is ok. How about The Summer Court or The Summer Knight? There probably aren't any knights in your story, but it sounds cool!

 

[Ireth]

I really prefer the title with the apostrophe. And The Winter Queen and Summer Knight are already the title of books published long before mine. I'm hesitant to go with The Summer Court, as the book isn't so much about the Court itself as the quest the Hawks and their guide go on. I could just as easily call the first book The Winter Court, which I'm not incredibly partial to either.

 

[Mindfire]

Summer Hawks?

Also, I wouldn't much worry about titling your book The Winter Queen for two reasons:
1. Lots of books have the same title.
2. The book you linked to was in Russian, so I doubt anyone will confuse it with yours.

 

[Ireth]

Summer Hawks?

Maybe... or something like Summer('s) Hunt could work, perhaps. I could use "Hawks" in the title of the duology as a whole.

Also, I wouldn't much worry about titling your book The Winter Queen for two reasons:
1. Lots of books have the same title.
2. The book you linked to was in Russian, so I doubt anyone will confuse it with yours.

Your point 1 kinda proves the opposite of point 2. Sure, my book may not be confused with that one Russian book, but it might be confused with any of the others (presumably in English) with the same title. It's a lose/lose situation.

I still need a title for the whole duology too. Something about Hawks and/or Faerie, most likely... "Faerie's Hawks", probably not.

Alternately, as much as I love the summer/winter titles, I could go a completely different route and focus on the driving force behind each story. "The Captive Queen" works alright for the first, and the second could be "The Kings' Command" or similar. Does that dive too much into Generic Fantasy title territory? I was hoping to subvert that a bit with the winter/summer titles, just so not every word in the titles are generic sounding. "Winter" and "summer" at least leave something for people to wonder about until they read the back cover blurb.

 

[The Din]

Summer's blood sounds like it's that time of the month for old Summer... If you must have summer in the title, I'd try something a little subtler, ie:
-A sonnet to Summer
-Summer's serendipity
-Summer's toll
etc.

 

[Mindfire]

Your point 1 kinda proves the opposite of point 2. Sure, my book may not be confused with that one Russian book, but it might be confused with any of the others (presumably in English) with the same title. It's a lose/lose situation.

You misunderstood. Lol. What I meant was that there are lots of books out there that have the same title as OTHER books. Not the same title as yours.

And I like the winter/summer dualism. It'd be a shame to give it up.

 

[Ireth]

Sonnet and serendipity are both really too cheerful for the plot of the story. Toll is quite appropriate though. Thanks!

@Mindfire -- ah, good point. ^^; Yeah, my mistake.

 

[Rullenzar]

Caged Winter / Imprisoned Winter

Summer's Demand / Summer's Ultimatum

The Land of Faerie / Faerie's Dilemma / Hawk Dynasty / The Hawk That Flew to Faerie / The Faerie Who met the Hawk
Faerie's Tantrum / Bipolar Faerie / Life on Faerie / The Story of The Hawk and The Faerie

 

[Ireth]

Caged Winter / Imprisoned Winter

Summer's Demand / Summer's Ultimatum

The Land of Faerie / Faerie's Dilemma / Hawk Dynasty / The Hawk That Flew to Faerie / The Faerie Who met the Hawk
Faerie's Tantrum / Bipolar Faerie / Life on Faerie / The Story of The Hawk and The Faerie

I think your winter titles are a bit misleading: they give images of winter itself or the Winter Court being the one imprisoned or caged, while it's really the Winter Court and its trickery that IS the cage for the female lead. "Winter's Cage" or "Winter's Prison" would work, though. I like Summer's Demand; Ultimatum seems a bit long. I'm aiming for short, snappy titles with ideally two-syllable words at the longest.

Same with the duology titles; less is more, and I generally prefer the shorter ones. Of your suggestions, I think Faerie's Dilemma is my favorite, even though there's not really a dilemma in the story as such. Hawk Dynasty doesn't really fit, as the Hawks are only a small family, not a long line spanning hundreds of years. I'm sure their name DOES go back a long way, but I'm not concerned with more than two generations. And Bipolar doesn't really fit the fantastical tone of the stories; it's something you'd find in a medical textbook.

 

[Ireth]

Thinking about titles again... I've gone with Winter's Queen for the first book, and now I'm debating going with Summer's Pawn for the second. It fits completely with the plot -- the main characters are basically sent out to do the villain's dirty work for him, and thus are "pawns" -- but I'm not sure I like the inevitable chess imagery it conjures, especially in conjunction with the first book's title. For one, the story only mentions chess once, and not as an important theme; for two, chess is rapidly becoming an overused metaphor in itself.

 

[ThinkerX]

For the series as a whole:

'Seaons of the Fey' OR 'Fey Seasons'

For the second book

'Summer's Court'