I need to change my title
"Sun, Gold, and Black Velvet" is a title I've become very attached to, and I think it fits the story very well:
The sun represents warmth and safety. Gold, or wealth, is the reason the evil teacher wants to charm the protagonist. Black velvet gives you the visual of something luxurious, but maybe mysterious and dark. Velvet is a heavy fabric. My protagonist spends a lot of time in a place that is dark, and very sexual, and it will take a long time for her to work through what happens to her.
Unfortunately, when you refer to it by initials, it will turn you back around to "Sexual and Gender Based Violence", which, I mean, I can't lie, that's excellent for the first chapter/book, but other things happen in the story.
So even if I drop the "main" title to a subtitle, I still need a title. Since so much of the action either takes place at the school, or perhaps if there is a later, some of it will have to do with the descendants of the founder of the school, I've started mentally tumbling the title "The Fortune of Aveley-Mastden".
Book one's title would be quite a mouthful.
The Fortune of Aveley-Mastden: Sun, Gold and Black Velvet.
Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. But most people would probably refer to most of the books by the series name.
Really, I think I was reaching. I just want an excuse to make chapter covers tarot cards. At the same time, the very first book is essentially about a mythical/literal fortune that Charles Mastden of Aveley Vale is said to have passed down to his descendants, and after the first book, it becomes fortune as in luck, of a particular handful of Charles' descendants from either of his daughters' lineages. Charles had two daughters, the younger of whom bitterly loathed and resented her older sister for being born in the school and having talents she felt their mother denied her. I think that's what it was. It's been a few years since I wrote the lore, but the younger one is the antagonist; I remember that distinctly. I think it was a subtle pull from my own life, before my own younger sister, mother of my nieces, became frankly, paranoid, when the relationship between us was merely competitive because she felt neglected by our father. Anyway. That's a tangent I'll explore when I'm bothered more by it.
I think I can apply the subtitle in a quiet way, maybe it'll be kind of a quiet Easter egg.
Yeah, you didn't know the Fortune of Aveley-Mastden was broken into books? Yeah. You didn't know the first book was subtitled Sun, Gold and Black Velvet? Oh yeah, bonus fact; SGBV refers to sexual and gender based violence!
I think the artist of TwoKinds names his chapters, but I couldn't tell you what they are without looking, because I hate trying to remember the title of the chapter while I'm reading. I know it's not graphic novels, but Harry Potter's chapters were all titled. The titles were all short for short chapters. But the title of my first book to this possible series is just a little longer than longest Harry Potter title.
It's certainly shorter than the over a thousand words of the longest title of a book, so maybe I should stop worrying that it's too long.
If I give the book two long titles, should I title the chapters? Do chapters need names? Can I just call them "one, two, three, four"? I guess I could even call them like "the fool, nine of swords, the world, page of wands".
It could be really cool to try to figure out the right card for each chapter, but I also wonder if it might not get confusing. Actually, I can't think of a way to use tarot cards that isn't confusing. If you use all the zeros, then throw in an extra major arcana, I think every two numbers or so, it gets confusing. If you go through the whole suit and start over with a new suit, it's kind of confusing. If you blend the suits zero one two three, it gets confusing.
Does anyone actually pay attention to chapter covers? Would it be worth the confusion to use a new card to describe each chapter? I don't want to spend all my majors at the beginning of the book. I don't want to come to another chapter where that card would've been perfect, but I already used it. What happens if I have more than seventy-eight chapters? Just start over? Make new designs for the same suit? Actually, that could be cool. As the story moves on, new designs could be fitting for the cards. Also, some cards, I have a handful of ideas for already. Definitely the minor arcana would be gratifying to redesign for each use.
I think I'm going do all the zeros, all the ones, etc., and maybe, instead of, for example, using the high priestess for two, and using the empress as my 'skip', I'll use, for example, Temperance or the World, which wouldn't have its own group with the minors. I'll get around to figuring out the exact order later. Right now, I'm trying to properly get into this fourth ATC.
