Leslie Kim #102 Gets a New Name & Cover?!

I have finished writing Leslie Kim #102 and I’ve finished the editing that I needed to before sending it over to a fresh pair of eyes. Now, I need to find a new cover for it and see if I can find a new name.

The name is a little bit hard. With #101, I decided to use “Mythical Investigations” because I really wanted to try to prepare readers for the genre cross overs. The book has some fantasy elements (mythical creatures) and some science fiction elements (set in space, space ships, aliens, futuristic). Mostly, it is a cozy mystery at it’s heart. This amount of crossover really asks the reader to trust me while I take them on a bit of a wild adventure. So, I tried to name the book in such a way that it could ease them into it. I’m not sure that it worked, but I’ve never had a reader complain about it.

In my mind, #101 is called The Grootslang. That was the original name that I decided against using because I wasn’t sure there would be a big market for the obscure Grootslang anyway. If I could do it over, I think I would just use The Grootslang.

So, the name for #102 that I’ve been using personally is The Gnomes. I do wonder how important the name is when it’s part of a serial. I think attaching the Leslie Kim Serials to it will let anyone that read the first one know to pick it up. I have considered using a long title for this one too, something Nancy-Drew-esque that will describe the mystery in this one. I have a few longer options that I like:

The Elanthian Situation

Dissent from Kapaton

Kapatonian Getaway

The Missing Gnomes

The Gnome Mystery

So, my next steps are to wait to hear back from my cover artist and to finalize name. I’m also waiting to get my final edits back. I’ve been working on this release for weeks and now that my manuscript is in other people’s capable hands all I can this is…

Hurry up and wait!