Liz Taylorson

I’m thrilled to have the lovely Liz Taylorson, not only as a critique buddy, but as a guest on my blog. Liz is a real talent and her debut novel, out on 23 November, promises to be the start of a flourishing writing career. Liz was kind enough to raid her knicker-drawer and drop by to chat about one of the overlooked-but-tough tasks an author faces – choosing that perfect title. Over to you, Liz!

Titles are really difficult.

I’ve lost count of the number of fellow writers who have expressed to me the difficulty of finding that perfect, succinct instantly memorable, totally fitting title which should effortlessly conjure up atmosphere, setting and genre for their novel all in one go. We all seem to struggle.

I had this idea for a Christmas novel set in a seaside village. My heroine, a vicar, has never slept with a man because she doesn’t believe in sex before marriage. My hero has a well-deserved reputation as a ladies’ man, but they find themselves attracted to each other despite all the odds. All through the early drafting stages, the novel had a working title. And that working title was … The Vicar’s Knickers.

It was, after all, going to be the story of how our handsome hero charmed his way into them and it had a very pleasing ring to it as far as I was concerned, even though it was a bit silly. I realised that I needed to think of a slightly more sensible, conventional alternative, so I turned to my writing buddies.

‘What do you think I should call my book?’ I asked them. ‘Do you think I should stick with the knickers thing, or something else?’

‘Stick with the knickers’ said most of them, very unhelpfully. Once you’ve given something a title, it’s hard to find an alternative that suits it quite as well …

We considered genre. Cupcakes, ice cream, cafes, Cornwall, cosiness and seaside are all popular themes in my genre … but I have managed to write the only romantic women’s fiction novel in the whole world that does not have a single cupcake in it, and it’s not set in Cornwall. After we had collectively disregarded The cosy little vintage café of cupcakes by the sea in Cornwall we threw around some more sensible ideas.

My writing friends came up with suggestions based on northern lights, and stars and winter and Christmas and all the other principal elements of my book that had nothing to do with knickers. Someone suggested looking at quotes, and then, inspired, I came up with the perfect title. The stars in the bright sky – it was Christmassy, pretty, religious and linked in with several key scenes in the book set at night. I could even see the cover in my mind’s eye:

The only problem was, when (as one of my writing friends suggested) I checked on Amazon, there was already a book with that title …

It looked like it was back to square one, it was going to have to be the return of the knickers – well, it was memorable – but I couldn’t do it. I looked around at all the books mine would have to sit next to on the shelves if it was ever published, and I knew that there was only one sensible way to go, and my buddies had unwittingly come up with the answer already. I may not have cupcakes or cosy Cornish cafes, but I did have quite a lot of sea in my story. The Little Church by the Sea it was. After all the joking, I realised that we had been onto something as a group – there was a reason why all those titles are popular – they succinctly give you atmosphere, setting and genre all in one go.

Though I suspect a couple of my friends still haven’t quite forgiven me for ditching The Vicar’s Knickers …

The Vicar’s Knickers … I mean, The Little Church by the Sea will be published by Manatee Books on 23^rd November 2017. You can pre-order it on Amazon here

Biography

Liz has always surrounded herself with books. 
As a child, she was always to be found with her head in one and she still has a bookcase full of her childhood favourites to this day. (She once read The Lord of the Rings thirteen times in a row, cover to cover!). All through childhood and adolescence she wrote – mainly historical romances involving impossibly perfect heroes! All this reading and writing led to a degree in English Literature (and another book-case full of books) and then a job as a cataloguer of early printed books for a major University Library.

Children (and then cats and chickens) interrupted her bibliographic career, and having given up library work Liz started writing fiction and hasn’t stopped since, joining the UK Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme to try to learn how to write novels properly in 2015. She has also written some short stories, with one “The Second Princess” winning a competition in Writing Magazine which led her to think that maybe publication wasn’t a pipe dream after all.

The publication of her first novel, “The Little Church by the Sea” published by Manatee Books in November 2017 is a dream come true.