It’s been over two years of blood, sweat and tears, but I’m thrilled to finally announce the launch of my first novel.

WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!

If everyone isn’t standing up right now and throwing roses, I’m going to be very disappointed.

Now that the date is approaching, I’ll be making several book-related posts over the next few weeks, each with announcements and info.

But first things first:

We finally have a title!

You wanna know how difficult this book has been for me? It took WEEKS just to decide on a title.

The initial working title was Camp NO Where – A Healing Home for Gay Kids. I didn’t really think too much about it. The idea appeared in my head one day and I thought it was meant to be. Also, it struck me as kinda catchy.

Little did I know, a synonym for “fate” is often “laziness”.

I knew there was a (terrible) movie called Camp NO Where, starring the robber from Home Alone. That was never a big deal to me – lots of titles already exist out in the world. However, I was talking with someone a couple months ago and he said, “I think there’s a book series called Camp Nowhere.”

I freaked! A few searches revealed my friend was right: the author of Goosebumps (remember that series?) released a book series called Camp NO Where.

Double freak.

Still, I leaned toward just keeping the name. After all, the Goosebumps stuff is pretty old. Then, on a whim, I mentioned all this to writers group and several people said, “We’ve always thought you needed a different title.”

I was all like, “WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THIS?! YOU’VE HAD LIKE A MILLION YEARS!”

The response? “We thought you were tied to the title.”

Booooooooo.

That kicked off…

Title Hunt 2015

I reached out to every person familiar with the book and BEGGED for input. I Facebook messaged people and called people and texted people. I even did focus groups, bringing options to writers group and gathering peoples’ opinions. I was relentless.

When that failed, I began offering gift cards to the winner.

Seriously. I started a little contest offering $25-$50 Starbucks cards.

And it paid off. After announcing the contest, someone had a suggestion that ended up becoming the title.

The result? I lay, sobbing in my bed for hours. OK, maybe I wasn’t that dramatic, but I was so thrilled to finally be done with it.

So after all this buildup, you must be wondering about the title. I feel it needs more buildup, so here are drum roll memes and unveiling memes.

Now that that’s out of the way, I proudly present:

The Gay Teen’s Guide to Defeating a Siren

Now that I’m looking at it, the plain written title kinda pales in comparison to the fun memes. Oh, I know what will help:

There we go. Catchy, eh? If you disagree, SHOOOOSH!! I’ve struggled with this enough. Actually, if that title already exists or something, then please DO let me know.