Funny things, titles

Number Three is almost wrapped up.  The end is in sight!

There's two scenes to finish and a couple of edits to work through, but then it'll be done.

Was hoping to have got there last November, but I'll settle for this July instead.

Although its working title was The Palace at 4am, after Alberto Giacometti's sculpture, I knew I had to ditch this a while ago, when the members of a Book Group assumed it must be about the royal family, which it most certainly ain't.  I was a bit disappointed because that title had been kicking around in my head for a long, long while, and the sculpture encapsulates, for me, the abstract, other-worldliness of the time of night when nothing seems quite real anymore and when, sometimes, we do strange things... which is a bit more pertinent to what it's about.

Never mind.

I just couldn't find a suitable alternative for a few months and didn't much like working without a title during that period, because it helps shape the focus of a story for me.  But then a new title arrived, slowly, in two halves, and I found the focus again. 

Funny things, titles. They create all sorts of expectations.  Which is why I remain a little coy about them until they're actually printed on a dust jacket.

Went to see The Avengers at the cinema a few weeks back.  Everyone was raving about it and, being a fan of the 1960s TV series, I couldn't wait to see how it had been remade.  Thought I'd be in for a trip down Memory Lane.  Was a bit surprised, then, when the opening scenes introduced a batch of Marvel Comic characters - the Incredible Hulk, Fury, Iron Man, Captain America, et al -  and no sign of John Steed and Emma Peel.  Different avengers!  Oh well, it was still a fun movie.