Fed up of calling my latest book, book 3, I decided it was time to knuckle down and figure out a name.

It was pretty quiet at my event in Hungerford at the weekend (although I did manage a small profit), so I started writing bullet points on my phone highlighting the keys stages of the plot. I then pulled out keywords for the themes of the book and played around with a few titles. The following day I decided that on my Sunday morning run I wouldn’t listen to music and instead would focus on the title.

I run for just under thirty minutes (5km, for those who are interested) and I spent the first ten minutes concentrating but ended up discarded all the ideas. It wasn’t long before distraction got the better of me and my mind wandered elsewhere. With five minutes to go, it hit me. Shattered Ambition.

I often think about things book related when I run and come up with good plot ideas and solutions to problems, but the trouble is I can often forget them by the time I get back home. If I want to remember something I have to say it over and over until I get home, then write it down as soon as I get in the door, whilst trying not to smudge the writing. I sweat a lot when I exercise!

So I got home and wrote the title idea down, then showered, cooked breakfast and got on with my Sunday chores. By midday I sat down and looked at it again. I wrote it down in line with the other names and I felt it wasn’t right. It was close, but not quite there.

Opening my laptop I searched through loads of synonyms for different words and wrote a list of a ideas. Here’s what I came up with.

• Shattered Ambition
• Destiny’s End
• End of Destiny
• False Destiny
• Destiny’s Lie
• Destiny Forsaken
• Forsaken Destiny
• Destiny Abandoned
• Forsaken
• Forsaken Ambition
• Abandoned
• Terminal Destiny
• Final Destiny

None of these worked and I left it alone. A couple of hours later I went over it again and ended up with what I hoped would be the one. Despite having a good feeling about it, I decided to leave it for a day. After sleeping, I still thought it worked. I then posted in my zombie group and on Facebook and the response was great. Now, I’m ready to declare what I’ve chosen.

Shattered Destiny.

As you can see it’s not too far from the first title I came up with on my run. It’s an active title and I think it portrays the main theme of the book and the series, plus it relates in a nice way to the first book title. Fate’s Ambition.

I hope you enjoyed this little insight as to how I came up with the title, but before I leave you for this week, here’s a quick round up of what’s gone on in the last seven days.

As I said, Hungerford was pretty quiet, but FATE’S AMBITION sold well, and I sold two copies of THEIR RIGHT TO VENGEANCE as well, which is amazing. I think if I’d had SHATTERED DESTINY (I need to get used to writing that) then I would have sold the complete set twice over. The next event is Thame in a week as this Saturday we’re on a family road trip to see our first born at university. My wife has cooked a few meals for her freezer and a batch of brownies, and we’re taking her for a lunch and then shopping.

My Facebook ads tailed off after two and a half weeks so I’ve copied and refreshed them again this week. I have a few new things I want to try, including making a landing page instead of sending clickers straight to Amazon, plus I want to test out more targeting options.

I need to think about strategies to get FATE’S AMBITION’S reviews up, but I’ve decided not to do that until I the complete series is out, that way I will get the best bang for my advertising buck. I plan to do Facebook ads, mailing list swaps and paid mailing list advertising.

I’ve been researching which genre the series fits in, and I might need to do some more as it’s possible it could be better described as low fantasy, or even techno-fantasy. More deep diving is required.

With less than ten chapters to go on processing SHATTERED DESTINY through ProWritingAid, next week I should make good progress on the final read-through before it goes to the editor.

Right, that’s it for this week. Comments and suggestions welcomed as always.