What’s In a Name?

Quite a lot it turns out, especially where the name concerned is the book title.

When my story first took shape in my imagination many moons ago, the title of Red Sky Dawn was always there and at the time it seemed to fit very nicely with the story arc I had in mind.

Over the years, however, as I’ve started, stopped and started again the basic plot has remained the same but so many elements have changed that as time wore on, Red Sky Dawn began to feel rather hackneyed. I guess, as I’ve grown older and worked on my writing skills the book has grown with me but it outgrew the title.

I realised, I would be doing the story a massive disservice to keep the original title and it was on my way to work one morning this week that I began throwing titles around.

I commute to Cambridgeshire every day and having only lived in the area for less than a year I still feel rather charmed by the beautiful countryside. Rural England is a part of the country lost in a bygone age where, away from the smog and smoke of big city living, one can truly appreciate beautiful green vistas, endless skies and the most stunning sunrises. It’s a rare morning that doesn’t see the sky awash with pink and orange swathes of soft clouds, where the sun is a bright, golden disc on the horizon bathing the earth in shimmering amber.

That’s when it struck me. Endless skies, infinite horizons with promises of the unknown and thus, Horizon Skies was born and Red Sky Dawn was laid to rest.

This simple change has actually rejuvenated me. I no longer feel I am working on something old and tired but something new and fresh with the real possibility of finally getting it finished!

To finish this book would be the completion of a labour of love that has seen me go through myriad life changes and perhaps the title is also a reflection of a place I was in at the time it first germinated. The new title has a more positive feel and a brightness and I shall take to the remaining blank pages with renewed vigour.