movies | Susan Baganz

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Author Confessions: A Love of Alliteration

Alliteration is when you have a phrase with a similar letter or sound starting words that are in close proximity to each other. I’ve had people accuse me of loving alliteration. Why? Well, simply because of some of the titles of my books. Before I start listing those that have this lovely literary feature, let me first say that it wasn’t intentional when I started, I just liked the way the first book titles sounded in two series and then decided to keep writing in that same vein. Having titles that are somewhat similar in length or content can be helpful for the reader in recognizing it as your book, especially when there is a series. Alliteration can capture attention and as an author I want people to be drawn to my books, but that is not the only way to get their attention. Designing a captivating title is an art in and of itself.

My first was my Regency series. I started with The Virtuous Viscount, then wrote a prequel called The Baron’s Blunder. Subsequent books as I went on realizing I had enough ideas for an entire series are: Lord Phillip’s Folly, Lord Harrow’s Heart, and The Captain’s Conquest. That series came to an end, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t abandoned the idea as I have some Regency novellas with this feature: The Doctor’s Daughter, and Gabriel’s Gift. Some of my other Regency Christmas novellas do not have that feature. I try to use whatever works best for the story I’m writing.

I started writing contemporary after I tried my hand at historical and then every year for many years I was writing one of each. That first book was Pesto and Potholes, only because I wanted something that would work potholes into the title and be intriquing. Then someone suggested I write another book called Salsa and Speed Bumps and well, I liked the idea of that so I did. After that the challenge was on to pair a food-related item with a road-related item. How do you think I did? Titles include: Feta and Freeways, Root Beer and Roadblocks, Bratwurst and Bridges, Donuts and Detours and finally, Truffles and Traffic (as a fellow writer really wanted me to write a book with truffles in the title!). I actually have a sheet of ideas of possible future titles for this series, so who knows? That one could continue indefinitely if I wished, and could come up with titles. The challenge is that the food must be part of the story, which is the easy part, and the road-related reference has to be a metaphor used in the story, whether obviously as in Pesto and Potholes or subtly in others. The title must make sense to me and to the reader.

Most of my contemporary Christmas novellas do not have this feature. Sugar Cookies and Street Lamps was originally supposed to be Sugar Cookies and Street Crossings but that was nixed by my Editor-in-chief. Oh well, she felt it sounded better as street lamps and she featured one on the cover. Who am I to argue? It’s more about the story than the title and as I’ve written about in the past, not everyone gets the title they want. Just doesn’t always happen that way. The metaphor worked either way but I lost the full alliteration I was trying for.

I’m not the only author to use this for purposes of titles. Consider: