Titles Considered

by Therese Heckenkamp

 

The following is a list of titles I considered during and after the writing process.  I didn’t realize what a long -- and pitiful! -- list I had until I perused my many notes. (I didn’t hit on Past Suspicion till long after the first draft was written.)  Many of the titles are quite clichéd, at best; most of them are pretty awful.  Don’t laugh too hard!

 

Remember to Forget

What You Wish You Never Knew

Deadly Consequences

Echoes from the Past

The Mistake   

Years Later

Twenty Years Later

When Tomorrow Comes

When the Past Catches up

From Yesterday to Tomorrow

It Happened Like This   

Here Today, Here Tomorrow

All Over Again

True Treasure

Key to the Past

Remember Robin 

May Memories

Picking up the Pieces

I’ll be Watching You 

Pieces of the Past

Reflection of the Past

People Not Going Your Way  (taken from the Edna Ferber quote)

A Lingering Past

Lingering Memories

Never too Late 

Not Quite Forgotten

A Sort of Treasure

No Second Chance

Unlocking the Past

Out of the Past

Mirror of the Past

Mirroring the Past 

Running from the Past  (Yep, I sure liked ‘Past’) 

The Years Came Back

Escaping the Echoes

Nowhere to Hide

So Much Left Undone 

 

Obviously, I wasn’t satisfied with any of these or I wouldn’t have kept thinking up new ones.  Then, rereading the story, I noticed two key words: “suspicious” and “past.”  They cut to the heart of what the novel was about, so I put them together to form Suspicious Past.  But that seemed bland.  When it occurred to me to reorder the words into Past Suspicion, I instantly realized the double meaning.  That’s when I knew I had the right title.  The important “time” element is apparent, but in a subtle way.  I like how you must read the novel to grasp the title’s full significance.