A couple of weeks ago I posted about a competition to find a title for my collection of romantic suspense stories. Thank you so much to everyone who commented or who contacted me afterwards. I was really touched and excited by the ideas you came up with, and the imagination and creativity behind all of them. I found your answers inspiring, they made me dig deep into my own stories, and they have sparked off some new ideas – so thank you very much!
I’m very excited to say that I have my new title, and a new cover, and my book is now available on pre-order. Hooray!
As I mentioned in my original post, I was struggling to find a title suitable for all three romantic suspense books in the collection. The stories are set in very different locations. They run from summer in the Mediterranean, to autumn in the streets of Edinburgh, to an icy Hogmanay procession at midnight.
People came up with some really inventive ideas. Some of the titles focused on the mystery and the heroine, Lizzie. Some of them mentioned the idea of deception, which I thought was great, as the stories revolve around trickery. The most popular comments dealt with the contrasting settings – “Ice and Fire”, for example, which I loved (it’s a shame George R.R. Martin has already taken that one!) – and with the concept of the diamond.
There was one suggestion I loved that encompassed all of these ideas of contrast, mystery, deception, and the fact that the stories take place through the seasons. And here it is, in my beautiful cover designed by Charlotte Volnek:
What do you think? I was really excited by this title, and I love that Charlotte has played with the idea of having the shadows of the hero and heroine against the backdrop of the palace. It’s perfect!
Many thanks to Carol Sherrard, who follows my newsletter and who replied to my call-out. I’m so glad I set my newsletter up! (If you haven’t already subscribed, I fill my newsletter with more personal news than on my blog here – photos, news of events I’ve been attending, useful websites, plus books I’ve been reading and loved, etc. You can subscribe here and receive the first story in the anthology free. If you want to subscribe and you’ve already read Palace of Deception, let me know and I’ll send you another story from my collection. I don’t send the newsletter out very often, so you certainly won’t be spammed!)
Thanks very much again to everyone who got in touch. I really appreciate the help.
A Year of Light and Shadows is now available on pre-order on Amazon, and on Kobo, and will shortly be in all the other major e-tailers, with a print version due very soon!
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What do you think of my new title? And do you like Charlotte Volnek’s artwork? Do you think they are appealing and give a good indication of what the reader can find inside the anthology?
If you have any comments at all, I’d love to hear from you!
Helena Fairfax 
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