Melissa Senate

Well, first THE LOVE BUS (my upcoming novel–this November) became THE OPPOSITE OF ME. But another author beat us to that title, so now my editor has come up with a great new title that completely fits the book in so many different ways (thank you, brilliant editor). Everything about it is right and it feels special to me.  Just waiting for confirmation that it's a definite go–I'll post it on Monday and change it everywhere I've already changed it. 

Titles are so tough. I accidentally came up with the title of my debut novel, SEE JANE DATE, by adding it in a long list of possible ones to replace my working title THE FLIRT NIGHT ROUNDTABLE (what was I thinking??), but next to SEE JANE DATE I added: just kiddng! Everyone loved it and thought it was perfect, and it really was the perfect tltle for that book.

Just came back from the Portland Public Library, which is worth the schlep from my tiny town. I took out a collection of stories on motherhood aptly titled Mothers and started reading the first one by Mary Grimm, and it was so GOOD that I had to stop so that I could save it for tonight when I could really savor it, instead of read it quickly while waiting to do something else. (Motherhood is like that.) Also took out The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted by Elizabeth Berg, who by the way, wrote one of my favorite books on the craft of writing, along with Carolyn See's Making A Literary Life and Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird and Stephen King's. I have tried and tried to read Elizabeth Berg's novels, all of which sound so appealing, yet for some reason, I've been unable to connect. I love her non-fiction, though. Same goes for my beloved Pam Houston and Anne Lamott. Not sure why that is. 

Have a great weekend!