An unexpected fringe disadvantage to the book title game

Chicklit mystery author Kyra Davis will see her first novel published in a couple of months. And though its title upon submission was WORDS TO DIE BY, it’s not surprising that was changed soon after the deal was inked. The only problem is that the new title led to this particular incident at her local Starbucks:

So yesterday I was standing in line at the very same Starbucks. A man got in line behind me and tried to pick me up. I didn’t have a book to hide behind (not that it helped me a lot the last time) so when the little old man in front of me asked for the time I used his question as an excuse to start up a conversation with him thus avoiding the man behind me.

The elderly gentleman’s name turned out to be Henry and in no time at all I had told him I was a soon-to-be-published writer. Upon hearing this Henry called over his wife, a sliver haired lady who had been scoping out the lowfat scones, and introduced her to his new friend, “Kyra, the author.”

“You’re an author? How wonderful! What’s the title of your book?”

“The title? Why, were you planning on buying it? Because it won’t be in the stores for a really long time.”

“So we’ll look for it when it does come out. You simply must tell us the title dear.”

There was just no out. “Sex, Murder And A Double Latte.”

“Oh,” the woman looked to her husband and then back to me uncertainly. “Well…I like lattes.”

“Yes,” her husband chimed in enthusiastically, “and I like sex!”

Sometimes, you really can’t make this stuff up…