I haven’t posted anything new for awhile, because I’ve been working flat out to finish the draft of my new novel before I head off to the UK on tour.  I finished the draft this afternoon, with more of a whimper than a bang.  I lay down for an hour–it’s physically strenuous, writing like a madwoman, and then went to rehearse for the Revels, which take place the last weekend in January. This year I play a fundraiser who sings the “Habanera” song from Carmen, warbling “L’argent,” instead of “L’Amour.”

THE NEW BOOK NEEDS A NAME!

My working title is Body Work, but I’m not a hundred percent happy with it.  Book names are funny.  Some come with the idea, as happened with Hardball and Bleeding Kansas.  Others come after the book is finished, like Bloodshot and Killing Orders.  Body Work–I’m not so sure.

The action of the book is about an Iraqi vet who suffers from PTSD.  He starts having violent outbursts at a nightclub, and, when a woman who also goes to this particular nightclub is shot and killed, the vet is arrested.  V I Warshawski is hired by the vet’s parents to clear his name.  At the center of the story is a performance artist whose act consists of appearing naked on stage and letting people draw on her.  She’s enigmatic, a figure of mystery.  She’s not part of the main action and yet her presence galvanizes all the disparate people who make up the book…the head of a Ukrainian organized crime syndicate…a civilian defense contractor doing business in Iraq…an immigrant family whose daughter is the person murdered at the nightclub.

With this small bit of information, try your hand at a title.  Remember, the V I titles are two words, with a double entendre.  If you come up with a title that works for the book, you will get a walk-on character named for you.