Anyone want to help me pick a title for the work-in-progress? I've been calling it Anna and the Sergeant, to parallel its prequel, Lucy and Mr. Wright. I like the Lucy title. While it's not an old-school traditional Regency, it has much the feel of one--it's just 20,000 words too long and a little too sexy. So I think the retro title works well. But Anna's story is very different. Where Lucy is a comedy of manners taking place at a house party in pastoral English countryside, Anna is a gritty war story with death and sex and forbidden passion across the class divide. So I feel like the existing title doesn't fit. Now, I know publishers often change titles, but I want to make sure my title fits, A) to make it easier to market it and B) to increase the odds of the publisher keeping it and not saddling my poor book with some generic, forgettable title like Dangerous Passion or Forbidden Ecstasy.

Which is all a longwinded way of asking if I should keep my current title or go with something like The Sergeant's Lady.

Debet, that was a nice, easy, very charming way to slide on in.

Liese, we need to exchange tapes. Nic's supposed to be uploading our old band tapes (including a legendary afternoon called the Saturday Sessions) up, for transference to CD. Soon.

Susan, when my brain is working, will think more about that.

A Lady's Sergeant comes down harder on the side of the class divide focus for me. Something that sold the divide, like The Countess and The Sergeant would have more of a bang … If there was a Countess. "Lady" does not immediately go to 'noble', on a glance.

GUS!

Drabble something, babe. Go for it. How are you? Since I no longer hangt out in Natter at all?

Drabble something, babe.

Word says the last post was 49 words. Are 51 words enough to tell you that I am well, that I now reside in Switzerland, that I have made an alliance of the heart with a South Korean woman who makes my aged heart thump?

Yes. Word says they are.

"Lady" does not immediately go to 'noble', on a glance.

Well, in this case, it shouldn't--she's a lady in the sense she's rich and part of the gentry, but she doesn't have a title. But I like The Lady's Sergeant, too. Must ponder.

Susan, I really like The Lady and the Sergeant. It has a nice ring and rhythm to it. Plus it has a barely detectible but influential callback to "Lady and the Tramp" which, maybe only in my fevered brain, helps define that social divide.

Liese, knockout lyrics. And everyone's doing lovely drabbles.

The Lady and the Sergeant

... for the reasons Bev gave. If, that is, the Lady and the Tramp allusion is not too on the nose.

t has a moment where he imagines cute puppies slurping spaghetti and rubbing noses

t regrets the "on the nose" thing he wrote above

Bev, I like the rhythm, but I'm afraid its too cute. I'm trying really hard to avoid the cute on this one.

I'm not really a fan of "The Lady and the Sergeant." One problem is the word sergeant, which can mean too many things. Also, I'm afraid it makes me think of a '40s movie with Mae West. Random brainstorming: A Soldier's Lady. An Unsuitable Alliance. The Last Campaign. Anna's Honor. Anna's War. A Separate Truce.