Paris Keys, August's Letters and the agonizing search for book titles
August's Paris Letter is in the shop. It's about all the fancy keys you'll find in an old broad of a town like Paris.A few keys I found at the flea market...
And a few key chains for those keys from the souvenir shop...
This is a recent key I received for an apartment stay in Paris...
Featured alongside the famed Uni-Ball Vision Micro pen in black for scale. This pen is my main pal during most of my writing sessions. I like its grip, its flow, its nib and its wide availability. In the USA, one pen is about $1.50, in Canada it's about $2, and in Paris, one pen is about $5, so stock up before you head to Paris.If you're on a colouring kick, here's the original sketch of the key... sketched with a pencil, then outlined with the aforementioned Uni-Ball Vision Micro.
Click it or drag it or do whatever your computer or device does to grab the image, then colour at will.There is a book about Paris' keys, aptly called THE PARIS KEY.
A nice quote from the book:
Blackwell also has a book coming out this autumn called LETTERS FROM PARIS. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but hey, the key is to stay ahead of the rest. Pun intended.
I had Letters from Paris as one of my title options, but I just loathed the word "from." Writers are odd about words. Well, some writers anyway. I found that the word from didn't feel good to say. It's a mouthful of a word. From. Try it. From. fr-auh-m. I had this discussion with my sister, who thought I was nuts for thinking from was an issue. So she said, "Then just get rid of it, gawd!" So that's what happened, along with a slight word shuffle:
Much better.Recently, I had a similar issue with my new book, which I was calling PARIS YEAR. Two words. Doesn't muck up the layout, easy to say, goes with the first, but the editor bristled. She thought it needed more, and suggested A PARIS YEAR.
Mulling ensued. Meetings were booked. Emails were lobbied back and forth.
Over a one letter word: A.In the end, I came around and began to like how A PARIS YEAR rolled off the tongue. And it's much better than another option, THE PARIS YEAR, which might sound good to some, but THE sounds like ZE when Christophe says it and I cannot hear ZE PARIS YEAR in my house until the end of time. It makes me bristle for a myriad of reasons. ZE isn't as bad as FROM but it's also not as good as A.See how the writer's mind works? It's madness living with this noggin. So in the end, the final title is:
A PARIS YEARMy day to day adventures in the most romantic city in the world
Rather exiting, non? You can pre-order it here. It will be delivered June 2017. A few pages:
The book moves from January to December, taking the reader though the seasons and the discoveries I made in my strolls around Paris.
Inspired by the wealth of positive feedback from this post back in January. Thanks!
And one piece of negative feedback from Mme Nasty, who has always nipped at my heels. Her feedback helped me decide to fully go for it. Thanks!The book also includes details about my ghostly meetings with Hemingway:
Everyone has a ghost in Paris.
The catalog copy reads:
"An illustrated love letter to the City of Light. Part memoir, and part visual journey through the streets of modern-day Paris, A Paris Year chronicles, day by day, one woman's sojourn in the world's most beautiful city. Beginning on her first day in Paris, Janice MacLeod, the author of the best-selling book, Paris Letters, began a journal recording in illustrations and words, nearly every sight, smell, taste, and thought she experienced in the City of Light. The end result is more than a diary: it's a detailed and colorful love letter to one of the most romantic and historically rich cities on earth. Combining personal observations and anecdotes with stories and facts about famous figures in Parisian history, this visual tale of discovery, through the eyes of an artist, is sure to delight, inspire and charm."
And the bio reads:
"JANICE MacLEOD, the illustrator and author of the New York Times best-selling book Paris Letters, was born in Canada and worked in advertising for many years until she decided to slip away from corporate drudgery and spend time abroad. During her time in Paris, she painted letters about her travels and mailed them to friends, who encouraged her to sell the personalized illustrated letters on Etsy. Since then, MacLeod has sent out thousands of letters to fans worldwide."I love how it seems like I just slipped away from the daily grind. If only it were that easy.Pre-order it here:Barnes & NobleAmazon (US)Amazon (UK)IndigoBooks-A-MillionIndieBoundApple
