Ah, the title

I'm trying to come up with a new title for my space opera. I had settled on Planets of Call, a reference to the term "Ports of call" used to describe the ports a ship calls on during a voyage. An alternate version would be Worlds of Call. Planets of Call maintains the initial "P" of "Ports", but "World" is a bit more inclusive. A world might not be just a planet, but a moon colony or large space station. The problem with these titles is that is that if the reader isn't familiar with the phrase "ports of call" the Call becomes something other than just a term describing what a ship does, it becomes, well, I'm not quite sure what. And that's the problem.

So, as noted in the last post I changed the title to Secrets of the Lost Star. This is far more descriptive of what the book is about. The Lost Star being the name of the ship much of the story is aboard and it is a ship with a past that has caught up with it. It has a pulp-y vive to it, which is a nod to the stories that have inspired it. Finally, matches the titles of the three volumes it includes – Captain of the Lost Star, Enemies of the Lost Star and Ghosts of the Lost Star. I could also go with The Secret of the Lost Star, but that's even longer to say and fit on the cover, and both might be a bridge too far in the "of the Lost Star" vive. 

So I've been toying with alternatives. Such as, Tramping the Nebula, which is descriptive of the story, but "tramping" may be rather archaic. Planets & Pirates, which is also descriptive, but there's more than pirates and planets. The Bright Black Sea, a description of the nebula, which I really liked but my wife thought too vague. Planets of the Neb or Worlds of the Nebula might work, but they're hardly less wordy than the Secrets title, Worlds (or Planets) A'Stern is another nautical possibility.  My current choice is The Nine Star Nebula. Pretty boring, but it's easy to say, looks good on the cover, sounds like a science fiction title and is were the story takes place. What I'm also thinking of doing is adding a sub title along the lines of: The Journal of Captain Wil Litang of the interplanetary freighter Lost Star. Just to make the thrust of the story clearer.

We'll see. I still have several weeks to think of something better.

I also have a new cover for the book, but I'll save that for another post, hopefully when I'll have the final title on it.

Note: My current title now, is my favorite one, The Bright Black Sea and I'm adding a sub-title – A Golden Age Inspired Interplanetary Adventure.