A few weeks ago I was asking for advice on the title of the first in my new series of cosy mysteries, and loads of you got involved. It’s been a tough one, because I needed something that would fit the genre but also work with my own ideas about the story. And I had to love it – titles have to resonate with the book’s author because you are the one who will be saying it over and over, and you need to get behind it and believe in the concept totally.

In the end, after going round and round the houses and talking to almost everyone I know about it, and printing out all the possible titles in cool fonts and then shuffling then about for days, I settled on the one I’d started with! Isn’t that always the way? So here it is:

Murder at the Maples

A Flora Lively Mystery: Book 1

Thanks to everyone who commented on my original post – C.B. Wentworth and Kathryn Michaels, this was your favourite too 🙂 Murder at the Maples will be launched at the end of July/beginning of August, and I’ll be sending the final draft out to beta readers in a couple of weeks. I’m still looking for a couple more beta readers (don’t worry if you’ve already contacted me, I’ll be in touch soon), so if you’re interested here’s some more information:

  • You’ll need to be able to read it within a week if possible
  • I can send either the whole book or just the first few chapters
  • You can receive the manuscript in epub, Kindle or pdf format

All you need to do is read it and send me your comments, which can be as detailed or brief as you like. I may ask a couple of questions upfront, things to look out for etc, but generally I’m just interested in your reactions/thoughts about the story and characters. Send me an email at joannegphillips (at) gmail (dot) com and let me know if you’re interested 🙂

Okay! Back to editing for me.

Related articles