A new novel...but no title

I decided to write a short story back in February. Somehow that has transformed into something much bigger than I had ever anticipated. At this point, I just have to go with the fact that I now have a novel on my hands...with no title.

I always thought that thinking of titles for stories would be the easiest thing. You can tell by some of the titles that I've chosen that this is not the case. Stranded, Beast, MILF, Juicy...On the other hand, Angel over my shoulder, Wheels of Steel and Miscegenist Sabishii were pretty good ones (in my humble opinion).

The story I'm currently at the tail end of is 162K words (and it is not even complete). The average novel starts at 180K. A novella is approximately 160K. I'm not sure how I end up writing myself into a sticky corner but here is my dilemma, other than not having a title.

There is no sex in it yet.

Obviously this is not an erotic story. Second problem;

It has a lot to do with religion and faith and frankly, it doesn't always come out in the best light.

I mean, I'm working against a lot here. I love tackling hard subjects but not sure why I can't just seem to write something easy...

I've only shared this story with one other person and he likes it a great deal, as do I. And in some ways--me liking it is the important thing. Generally if I like it then you guys have liked it as well. I remember when I was writing WOS before anyone ever saw it, I said to HO-Z that no one would get the story. It was going to be too long and the subject matter was very controversial. HO-Z just said fuck what anybody thinks and just write it. So I did. WOS turned out to be maybe my most popular novel.

But if I break WOS down to it's most basic description it is about an angry white guy with cerebral palsy, stricken with daily seizures and a bad attitude that falls in love with his black assistant that is plagued by panic attacks, debilitating shyness, and ulcers. That was just not the formula for the average love story. And yet it worked.

In this story a young black girl is raised in a convent since surviving the Rowanda genocide as a child. She is suddenly thrust into a 'world' that she is poorly equipped for. She falls back on faith, her romantic idealism, and poetic notions when trying to grapple with the world. At the same time there is an older white man that she goes to work for. He is bitter and filled with loss but he also has compassion where she is concerned.

I suppose that the answer to my question (I know I didn't ask one but it is there peeking out of me) is that a story is a journey into each character. If I do my job well then you will experience their highs and lows and therefore, even if there is not any 'action scenes', that is what keeps it going.

But there is only way way to tell if I've succeeded. And that is to post it. So here goes Chapter 1 of


UNTITLED