Help Me Pick a Title, Please

Dear Reader,

Help! I'm trying to come up with the perfect title for my latest novel. Who better to ask than you, someone who may possibly read it, especially if it has a killer title you just can't resist?

Here's a little info if you'd like to play the game. Genre: book club fiction / romantic comedy. Blurb: 

When Anthony texts his weekly reminder that today is garbage day, and Viola texts back, everyday is garbage day when I’m with you, darling, she knows she can’t survive this suffocating marriage of nearly forty years much longer. But her (slightly more than) midlife crisis is put on hold when her mother dies and she temporarily abandons her husband—Anthony’s words—leaving her disintegrating life in California to settle the family estate in small-beach-town Massachusetts in January. 

Unfortunately, Mom—fearing damnation, naturally—has left an oh, by the way confession involving a secrecy pact she made with Anthony. Before he and Viola were married, she agreed not to reveal a sordid event in his past that would’ve been a deal-killer had Viola known. Mom insists posthumously that I only ever acted in your best interest. 

After her brain explodes, Viola embarks on a vendetta to punish Anthony by following her every worst instinct, beginning tonight. She meets up with her gonzo friend Jackie from high school days, the one for whom they must’ve coined the phrase sex, drugs, and rock ’n roll. They drink themselves silly at a dive bar before Viola gets the brilliant idea to undertake her first polar plunge at the nearby beach. But when she’s halfway into the water with half her clothes strewn across the sand, an annoying good samaritan grabs her from behind under the mistaken impression that she wants to off herself. 

You ruined it, she cries, but one look at her rescuer, reminiscent of a droll-eyed, gray-whiskered Sean Connery, ignites the dormant sexual desire within. After an interruption from Jackie, she turns back to get his number for a possible future one-exquisite-night-of-carnal-pleasure escapade, but the annoying man has disappeared. 

There’s no rest from here on out, as Viola wages war with her mother’s ghost, struggles to work up the courage to tell Anthony where he can put his garbage, and pursues the mystery man who may or may not be related to the signs she ignored when destiny once clubbed her over the head. Meanwhile a winter-nor’easter-for-the-ages bears down on Mom’s seaside home, floundering on stilts over the crashing waves.

Here are some titles I came up with:

This Will Be a Love Story

A Heroine for Sometimes

My Life After Crockpots

Older, Not Done

Running Late for the Love Story

If I Rise Like a Phoenix, Will I Still Need That Hip Replacement?

Old Canvas, New Paint

Viola Restrung

Not My Job Anymore

__________________

In the comments, please vote on any you like. Or feel free to suggest titles of your own.

I won’t be able to reveal the final title choice until publication. But I will thank all who participate in my acknowledgments (with your permission, naturally).

If I pick a title of your suggestion, you will receive an acknowledgment and a gratefully signed complimentary edition on release. 

Thank you for your participation!

❤️Margie

More on my new book and my deranged life in next week’s post. If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter yet, what are you waiting for? Grab your free ebook of short stories before they run… oh, who am I kidding, the supply is infinite. Tell your friends! Go to margiebenedict.com and click on Subscribe from the menu bar.