I just thought you might be interested to know that SOMEONE FOR SARAH, my January 2011 Love Inspired Historical, is now officially THE DOCTOR TAKES A WIFE. As I told you in my 1/14 blog, I knew the previous title was going to go. So I submitted several titles to the editors but they didn’t like them. I think the best titles included the word “Yankee” in them, for the hero, a doctor from Maine, but I’m guessing they thought it would sound like a Civil War novel and wanted to stay away from that. I wanted to stay away from titles that would make it sound like a 1950’s medical romance in which the ordinary girl becomes a Cinderella/great success if life simply because she managed to snag herself a doctor to marry. My editors suggested more titles. I didn’t like them, so I came back with a few more. THE DOCTOR TAKES A WIFE was one of the ones I suggested, and this time they decided they liked it. It does sound a little medical romancy, but not too much. I like the way it plays off the old nursery rhyme, “The Farmer in the Dell”–”the farmer takes a wife, the farmer takes a wife, hi-ho the dairy-o, the farmer takes a wife. (Apologies to those who now have that song stuck in their heads…) It’s a title that’s been used on books before, but not recently. I’d hate having a title that had been used many times before–I remember back in the early days of romance titles when DAWN OF DESIRE was done to death, and the year that there were three–count ‘em three–FORTUNE’S LADY’s.
It was a difficult book to title, as I may have said before. How do you sound western and Christian fiction and mention at least one of the characters and maybe a theme? So I’m fairly happy with this title after so many suggestions. This title was suggested by that great mistress of titles, Cheryl St. John, who also writes for Love Inspired Historicals as well as Harlequin Historicals. Thanks, Cheryl! She came up with that one on very short notice–overnight, in fact. What a peach!
Blessings, Laurie
Tags: Book titles, Cheryl St. John, Steeple Hill Love Inspired historicals, THE DOCTOR TAKES A WIFE, writing life
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You know what I love more than anything? His Lady Mistress. This is the novel that got me into Elizabeth Rolls, and I simply adored it it. The romance was amazing and very sensual, the characters are believably flawed (sometimes this is difficult for romance novelists to accomplish) and while it is (as always) frustrating to see how their problems could be resolved with an honest conversation about their misunderstandings, it is easy to see how the misunderstandings come to be and why each character stays within themselves instead of becoming vulnerable. Max’s difficult family life is further explained in “A Compromised Lady,” which is the story of Richard’s romance. I have read and reread this book - LOVE IT.
Historical Romance Novels