What's in a title?

Actually, a lot.

Usually, I come up with a title before I start a project or get one not long after I'm into it. I like my titles to have some meaning and reference something in particular as opposed to something that just sounds cool without being specific to the story. I like there to be that moment when someone's reading that they go, "Oh, that's where the title came from." It's a dumb little thing, but I always think about it. I've done my fair share of ghostwriting for other series and get sick of stuff like, "______ River Vengeance" or "Hellfire on the _____ Trail". Just fill in the blanks and you've got about six dozen different books in a dozen other series.

I don't always get to use my own titles, which can throw me off. THE MAN FROM BOOT HILL wasn't my original title for the series. I didn't like it at first, but it grew on me and I like it just fine now.

Some titles are happy accidents, like NO ANGELS FOR OUTLAWS. That one just came out as dialogue from Nick's father and I instantly knew that had to be the title for the next one.

Some titles can be somewhat generic, but still very cool and appropriate for the book. The reason I'm bringing all of this up is because I'm trying to think of a title for the next Compton and am having some trouble. I had an original title in mind, but that got shot down. It's fine, because I wasn't too crazy about it anyway. The problem is that nothing else is coming to mind. Oh well. I'll think of something. Times like this, it's always good to just keep chuggin' along and wait for that title to hit you. It will hit you. If little creative things don't hit writers every now and then, they shouldn't really be writers.