Guestie: A Book By Any Other Name by Tymothy Longoria

Tymothy Longoria. Writer of The Stories and so much more that is epic. He is… an idol, of sorts. Someone I look up to. Someone I can count on to never let me down. Some may think that is a bold statement to say of someone you have never “met”. Of whom you have never seen or talked to or had the opportunity to shake hands with. But, hey. He hasn’t let me down yet.

Tymothy Longoria is a great friend. A superb inspiration. He has inspired me not only to write, to keep writing and to never, ever, give up, but to be the writer I’ve always wanted to be. The writer who is, proud, of that which she is, proud to share herself, her thoughts, her dreams, and her love of writing. Tymothy Longoria has inspired me to be all I can be, and so, so much more.

And it is here, without further ado, that I welcome him to my site and tell the world how proud I am now to introduce him to you. Welcome, Tymothy.

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The brilliant (understatement of the year, perhaps?) William Shakespeare a.k.a Willy Shakes coined the phrase in Romeo and Juliet. Juliet asks: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Sheer genius, Willy. I agree. As far as roses are concerned. They have no name. They are organisms that use suckering to reproduce. Really.

What about books? What of the name or title of our beloved stories?

There is a little book about vampires and werewolves. It did okay, I suppose. Maybe you’ve heard of it. It’s called Forks. Doesn’t sound that fascinating does it? What if one were to change the name of Forks to…

…wait for it…

Twilight. That sounds a lot better doesn’t it? Sure it does. It’s synonymous with, yes vampires (albethey sparkling vampires), and wolves and Bella. Okay most of you probably already knew that, and if so, let it serve as a reminder.

The Forks Saga. Doesn’t hit the mark. But with one simple, yet brilliant change, well, the rest is history.

Here’s another example of the opposite.

Harry Potter. The main character/protagonist/hero/awesome-destined-to-save-humanity-wizard guy’s name is…Harry. Harry’s never really been a dynamic, exciting name for a dude. Come on. It’s true. It’s not an “epic” sounding name. But nevertheless Harry Potter is one of the most well known names in the history of literature and pop culture now.

I’m in a silent dilema with my book. I love the title. I mean, of course I do. It’s my baby. Every writer spends either a lot time naming the book or none at all. It might just come to the writer in a blink of an eye. To me, naming the book is one of the most important parts of the process. Why shouldn’t it be? We’re naming our child after all. Before I named a single character or wrote any notes on my book, I sent a text to my wife while at work in a machine shop:

“Fiction- We are in the midst of a revolt. Not a war. There is no vast army, nor strongholds. We may seem familiar to you. But you may notice things aren’t quite as you remember. You grew up. So did we. Things have changed. We have changed. We are…Stories.”

THAT’s where the title came from. It flowed naturally. So what then, would I eventually name the book? Well, Stories, right? No, I added a simple t-h-e in front of it and it became The Stories. The title is in reference to the fact that the characters are, yes, stories themselves. The names of legendary fairy tales and Grimm style stories are often named after the main character, e.g. Little Red Riding Hood. She is a story. So, of course, for my book, it fit. The book’s characters are the stories? Get it? Now where is the dilema I mentioned? Well, look at the title.

The Stories. Can it be any more vague? I can count on more than one hand how many times someone has asked questions like, “So is your book a collection of stories, or?” Or “The Stories, how many stories are in it?” I smile because I knew from the first day, it might be confusing. Hopefully now though by this time, the awaiting audience has caught on to my unintentional name confusion. The problem is that an editor might agree and change the name. Oh, Lord, noooo. So, then I imagine a hundred names being attached to it. What could possibly fit The Stories, like…The Stories?? Will it still be a rose? Sure it will, just a different kind.

I seriously have prayed for divine intervention that the name gets to stick around :}, but I also know of the huge possibility that it may not. That’s one of those things with traditional publishing. God love ‘em. If and when they (COME ON, EDITORS!) decide to pick up my book and they do happen to “suggest” a name change, sure it’s going to hurt. But…

I know it’ll be a lot better…

…than Forks.

Word.