Something About Nouns

Opening titles.

I was looking for a book online a few weeks ago and stumbled upon several whose titles had the same cadence as a John Bellairs title. There was the curse of this and the treasure of that with somebody's spooky sinister something else in the mix, too. Some did not sound overly scary – nothing can truly beat a killer robot’s eyes – but it did make me wonder about all the unused titles Bellairs (or Strickland) had.

Yeah, it’s one thing to find story fragments or plot notes for stories that never were. I like to think one of the authors had a word list. Or a dart board with a bunch of nouns. You get three darts and whichever words they hit – boom, that’s your title. Now to come up with a story based on those words.

I truly doubt this is how Bellairs worked.

But I’m going to try it. Rather, I’ve come up with some words and you’re going to vote on your favorite. After picking your word, feel free to add your full title and plot info in the comments.