Guesting on Alyson Reuben's blog, giveaway

I'm a guest on Alyson Reuben's blog today. Stop by to have a chance to win an ecopy of Montana Belle!

http://abiteofreubensandwich.blogspot.com/2012/05/guest-author-linda-morris-by-hook-or-by.html

Title Trials and Tribulations

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that naming a book is almost as difficult as naming a baby! I'm working on my second draft of my latest work in progress. I've had a working title in mind (Meeting Mr. Wrong), but I'm growing rapidly disenchanted with it. I chose it because the H/H are at first blush an odd couple. But one strike against it is that a couple of other books, some old out and of print, have the same or similar title. But more importantly, I don't really think the title reflects what the book is about. My book is kind of a sexy romantic suspense with a wacky sensibility thrown in. It features a lot of colorful elements like Vegas, the mob, medieval manuscripts, ultimate fighting, and snowstorms. (Well, of course. Doesn't every book?)
As I've contemplated this problem, I've weighed several different types of titles. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but here are the main types I seem to see a lot. I'm referring mostly to contemporary or historical romance or romantic suspense, not erotica, inspirational, or paranormal as I don't read widely in those subgenres:

• Meaningless but romantic: "Love's Sweet Passionate Savage Treason" or whatever. This type seems to be losing popularity.
• Sexy puns: Puns involving mouths, lips, bodies, binding, etc. Seemingly never goes out of style.
• Flower titles: "Wild Red Rose" or similar. 
• Practically anything that works in kisses, love, brides, bachelors, marriage, engagement. For romantic suspense, these key phrases are often combined with some word that signals danger, such as Deadly Kisses, Fatal Passion, etc.
• Plays on songs or movie titles or song lyrics.
• To signal a Regency, a title often contains scandal or some mention of dukes, earls, princes, etc.
• Then there are more vague titles that play on some element of the story to hint what it's about. My story "Montana Belle" works in Montana to let readers know that it's a western. My forthcoming story "Forget-Me-Not" is an example of a flower title, but also hints at the story's amnesia plot.

So those are the types of titles I see most often. Which have I forgotten? For you authors out there, what is your strategy when naming your novel? For readers, what kind of title makes you want to pick up a book and learn more?
Note: I'm giving away an ebook copy of Montana Belle to one lucky commenter. Leave a comment by the end of day Wednesday the 26th of January to get your name in the hat!

Six Sentence Sunday

Here's something new for me: I'm participating in Six Sentence Sunday, the brainchild of Sara Brookes. Check out the following six-sentence excerpt from my current release, Montana Belle, a western romance:

He paused, his eyes warm on hers in a gaze that filled her with ebullience. All her despair was forgotten now. "I’m willing to give the matter some consideration.” He came closer, backing her to the corner of the stable until she felt the wooden wall behind her. He lowered his head and claimed her lips in a kiss of such sweet intensity she had to fight to keep the tears from rising again. Gently, he moved his lips across her face, kissing the track of each tear.

Buy Montana Belle at http://thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=176_146&products_id=4353.

Check out other Six Sentence Sunday authors: http://www.sixsunday.blogspot.com/.

Guest blogging at Joanna Aislinn's site

Hi, all:

Come over and join me at Joanna's blog, where I talk about the books that made me want to become a writer, and my unbelievable fortune at being married to a great critique partner:

http://joannaaislinn.wordpress.com/

Inspiration for "Montana Belle": Conrad Kohrs, Cattle King of Montana

I knew right away that I wanted my upcoming Western release Montana Belle to be something of a fish out of water story. My heroine, Augusta Springer, is the neglected daughter of a cattle baron who has no time for his family after the death of his wife. He shuttles his young daughter off to school back in Boston, where she thrives. She's none too pleased, then, when he summons her home as a young woman, determined to make her marry a neighbor and longtime friend to ensure the succession of his beloved ranch. Augusta finds herself torn: She's always had feelings for Joshua Bradley, but she doesn't want to leave behind the life she's built for herself back in Boston.
To give realism to the story, I researched the cattle barons of Montana. In the process, I came across an interesting character: Conrad Kohrs. Kohrs was a German immigrant who kicked around Canada and the American west before settling in Montana. Originally lured west by the promise of the gold rush, he discovered he was a much better cattle rancher than miner. He made his wealth selling beef to the miners in the gold camps.
He bought a ranch from Canadian fur trader Johnny Grant and used it as a seed for his empire. At one point, he owned 50,000 head of cattle and his animals ranged over 10 million acres. He and his half-brother, John Bielenberg, managed the ranch together. After the brutal winter of 1886-1887, during which tens of thousands of cattle died from exposure and starvation, the two men were responsible for introducing many modern ranching methods to the Montana cattle business, including using purebred ranching stock and growing and storing feed, rather than moving the cattle freely from pasture to pasture.
I also took great pleasure in reading about Kohr's wife, Augusta. (And yes, I stole her first name for my heroine, although there is little other resemblance.) Augusta moved to Montana as a young bride from the comparative civilization of Iowa. She was stunned by the primitive conditions that the formerly bachelor rancher and his employees had been living in and faced a lifetime of hard work to create a home for her family. She succeeded beautifully, and fortunately for us, it's all been preserved. The Korhs ranch is now a National Historic Site operated by the National Park Services. To see photos of the ranch house and its furnishings, and to see more about the history of the ranch, see here.
The NPS site here offers details of the National Historic Site if you're interested in planning a visit.

Why a western?

My upcoming story, Montana Belle, is a western set in (obviously) Montana, in this case, 1880s Montana. Why did I decide to write a western? It's not a thriving genre nowadays. As a standalone genre, westerns per se have practically disappeared from the bookstores. Even as a romantic subgenre, they're relatively uncommon. In a genre dominated by werewolves, vampires, shapeshifters, Regency-set historicals, and suspense, westerns are a distant contender for most popular subgenre. Yet they endure. Why? I have a few theories.
The appeal of the wild west or pioneer days is never-ending. The wild west was a time of few rules and boundless opportunity. Social mores were loose, at least for the time period. Settlers could come from nothing, and, with a little luck and a lot of hard work and endurance, reshuffle their spot in the social order, something that wasn't possible back east. (Montana Belle involves a hero who does just that.) The landscape, wild, rugged, and dangerous, is without a doubt a character in most westerns. The setting is also rife with opportunities for conflict: Rancher versus farmer. Native Americans versus white settlers. Outlaws versus law enforcement. Miners versus miners, and miners versus the elusive metals and minerals they set out to find, often with heartbreaking results.
In addition, the wild west doesn't present the difficulties some other historical settings do. Civil War romances have fallen out of vogue partly because of the difficulty of dealing with slavery, although I still think that the right writer can mine that setting for a great story too. We're more used to seeing movies set in the wild west than say, colonial times, so there is a natural reader familiarity and comfort level with the time period. When you consider the natural opportunity for drama and the unique place these stories have in our American national character, it's no wonder westerns have endured.