I'm just putting the final touches on my manuscript to get it ready for submission now. When I say now, I don't mean NOW because I'm blogging of course, but I do have two windows open. I'm currently writing the big ENDING, the final scene or the happily ever after (HEA) as we in the bizz like to call it, and am having the usual trouble. Endings are so difficult to write because they're so final. I mean, this is it, saying goodbye to the characters and leaving readers, hopefully, with a positive impression of your book, not a headache from all the eye rolling they have to do to get through it.

The trouble with this one is my heroine (Abby) has to apologise. I mean, she said a really nasty thing to my hero (Julian) last night, really broke his heart so she's got to mean it. But she's started grovelling, and she's not a groveller. So I've got to backtrack and find a way for her to say sorry, mean it and not come off like a desperate damsel who can't bear to lose her man. It's proving a little difficult so I've come here to take a break from that and bitch about the other problem I have.

The title.

I had it all set. This is one of those books that has had so many working titles my desktop is cluttered with the different incarnations. Then a couple of months ago a title popped into my head in the middle of the night that I thought was so perfect I shot out of bed to write it down. Here it is.

In Charm's Way.

I loved it. I decided to look for titles no further. Then hubby asked me what the book was called and when I told him he said:

Hubby: "I don't get it."

Me: "It's a play on the old phrase in harm's way. Because he's really charming and it's harmful to her common sense which tells her to stay away from him because he's like her cheating lying ex-husband. There's also a subplot where a girl is in danger that ties in with that as well." etc.

Hubby: "I still don't get it. It doesn't say what the book is about."

So I ask you romance reading women out there - do you get it? Is this title obscure, or is this one of those cases that underscores the fact men just don't think the way that women do? Because my husband reads books that are written for men, that tell you exactly what they're about on the front cover, like Matthew Reilly's. "Ice Station" I belive takes place on an ice station. "The Contest" is about, you guessed it, a big intergalactic contest. All of James A Michener's stuff is entitled after the country where it takes place - all pretty simplified. I won't even start on how many Science Fiction books about Mars have the word Mars in the title.

I did like my title but now I'm not so sure. Other than In Charm's Way I have Inventing Abby, one of the working titles that I thought sounded a little blah.

Opinions would be much appreciated. Now I hear Princess Two waking crankily from her nap. The non-grovelling apology will have to wait until later. For the moment Play School might be enough of a mental challenge for me (it is really hard to chose a window when they all promise such great things...).

Sami