Susan and John Ruff, Fantasy Authors

What’s more difficult than hiking up a mountain? Trying to find a good title for a literary work that hasn’t been used before. I’ve done both. I find the former much easier and more satisfying.

When I published my first author blog post back on May 1, 2020, I had no idea what I was doing. (I still don’t, but that’s beside the point.) I had heard that blogs were a good and inexpensive way to let people know about your books, so I decided to write one. The blog needed a title. After considering different ideas, I called it “6th Day.” The title was an in-joke based our novel 60th Hour. The universe in 60th Hour has a calendar with a six-day week, and I was planning to write a blog post every Friday (which is the 6th day of the real-world week), so 6th Day seemed like a clever name. In the very first blog post in May 2020, I explained the basis for the name and why I chose it.

Three years, two more novels, and 114 blog posts later, the title doesn’t seem so clever any more. For one thing, nobody’s going to go back and read that first post to learn about the in-joke. Second, our recent fantasy novels are not set in the same universe as 60th Hour, so the 6-day week does not apply. Third, the blog is now monthly instead of weekly, so it no longer comes out every Friday.

I decided to start 2024 with a new title that was more descriptive of the blog. The topics for my posts have tended to focus on two of my favorite subjects: writing and traveling.

Finding a name to describe that should be easy, right? The first thing that came to mind was “Travels and Tales.” It sounded good and it fit the blog.

Alas, it was too good. When I Googled it, I discovered it was already being used by someone else. I tried different variations of the title. They had already been used as well. I tried other titles like it. Same result.

Eventually, I realized that any two words with alliteration that are even remotely connected to travel have already been used. I gave up and inserted a third word in the title. The new title does not sound quite as nice as Travels and Tales, but it is (I hope) not being used by someone else.

Welcome to Travels, Walks, and Tales! The blog will still come out on the first Friday of every month. I’ll still post it to our author website and Facebook page as usual. And I’ll continue to talk about traveling and writing…and probably some walking too.

And, by the way, if you want to check out 60th Hour and find out what that former title was all about, here is the link: 60th Hour

Have a wonderful holiday season! I’ll talk to you all again in January 2024.

-Susan 12/1/2023