After a whole lot of trepidation, I finally took my editor and manager's advice and renamed 'Wild Open Faces'. It isn't that I don't love the title, because I do. But when your editor tells you she doesn't connect the title to the book, or that the title doesn't connect with her after spending a bazillion hours with it, it's probably good to listen. After running a poll on my FB author site, Twitter, Instagram, in my many writing groups and on my publishing consultant's FB page, 'Between Wild and Ruin' seems to be the winner. So, I'm pleased to introduce you to my upcoming YA novel, due September 2019, 'Between Wild and Ruin.'
I like 'Between Wild and Ruin' a lot. But it was hard to let go of 'Wild Open Faces.' I wrote 'Wild' some time back and over the last ten years, as you might expect, I'd gotten pretty cozy with those three words. In a way they're like my best friends. I even love the book's nickname WOF. Essentially, WOF has been with me through thick and thin and so the title took on a ton of internal meaning that I had to learn to separate from the heart of the story. But Between Wild and Ruin works to and I'm fast on my way to loving it.
The good news is, all is not lost. 'Wild Open Faces' is now the name of 'Between Wild and Ruin's' sequel. And it's equally relevant if not more fitting for the part. So I, and some of you who really love WOF, don't have to mourn it entirely.
