Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Bond, James Bond...

the newest Bond book...
Greetings! Lee Tobin McClain here, writing about book titles. Specifically, the titles of my Sacred Bond and Sacred Bond Guardians series... and how I'm running out of them!

When an author starts a series, she rarely knows how long it will go on. That all depends on whether readers love the series and beg for more, or whether reader reaction is more of a "meh, it's okay..." type of thing.

When I started my Sacred Bond series a couple of years ago, I found it easy and fun to come up with titles. The stipulation I gave myself was that every title needed to have the word "Bond" in it. Why? The books are about a group of former delinquents who attend a Christian reform school together. They make a pact with each other as teenagers: to rise above their rough beginnings and help those in need. Each of the boys gets a tattoo on his forearm with the words "Sacred Bond" and a cross, to remind them of their commitment they've made. So I started out with Love Inspired type titles: A Christmas Bond, His Baby Bond, The Bride's Broken Bond, Her Reunion Bond, A Doctor's Bond. Each title tells readers something about the book's premise, and also lets you know that the book is part of the Sacred Bond series.

The Sacred Bond books were a success, and readers wanted more... and I just happened to have a couple of Christian romantic suspense novels just waiting to be brought out. So I planned out the Sacred Bond Guardians, a more suspenseful spinoff of the Sacred Bond series. It starts out with another group of boys from the Covenant School, most of whom want to go into military or law enforcement professions. So now I had The Protector's Bond, A Brother's Bond, A Bond at Risk, A Bond of Vengeance, A Bond Fulfilled... and just yesterday, A Western Bond came out. I am running out of "Bond" titles!
Check out all those "Bond" titles!

So my next projects involve a friend of Mark Stern (hero of A Western Bond), and Esperanza Lopez, a long-lost foster sister of Maria Moretti (heroine of A Bond Fulfilled). PLEASE HELP! I need to find Bond titles for both of these books. Any ideas?

Stop by my website to grab the free short story that starts off the whole crazy series. You guessed it: it's called BEFORE THE BOND.  And thank you in advance for helping me come up with some decent titles... help me avoid naming a book after James Bond!!

6 comments:

mamacita5 said...

Esperanza means hope, Perhaps, A Bond of Hope, then Bond Of Faith, etc.

Jackie Smith said...

Sounds like an exciting series coming up!

Beth F. said...

I have loved each and every one of the Bond books you have written! I can't wait for more to be added to the series. As for your new books, I like the idea of including Esperanza. You could call it A Sister's Bond. The other one, I am not sure what to use as a title since I don't know what his profession would be. I think it would be awesome to have one of your lead characters be an EMT or fireman. That would really be easy for them to be in the "protector" role.

jcp said...

sounds great!

Lee Tobin McClain said...

Thanks for commenting! I love those ideas: A Bond of Hope, A Bond of Faith, etc. Or... Sacred Bond Sisters, with A Sister's Bond being the first book. Hmmmmm...

Jennifer said...

Hi Lee, How about His Faithful Bond or His Outstanding Bond? I'm amazed about how many Bond titles were able to come up with thus far and that they all sound good to. I'm glad your series have done so well and I like that you have given secondary characters a story of their own. Thank you for your post and I hope that these suggestions help you out. Jenny