Thank you for coming out and supporting the Interns of Magic Engineering’s second installment: A Madhouse of Magical Malfunction!
The feedback on the Interns so far has been incredible, and it makes all of the hard work worth it, because I write for you. Really! I want to write the books you want to read. Period. You choose the adventures I write. If you’re loving the Interns and want me to write more, great! But I can’t guess—you’ll have to tell me. If you liked A Madhouse of Magical Malfunction and want me to write more of this series, pop over to Amazon and tell me!
The Interns are such a blast to create—and I’m not just talking about the storytelling. As an indie author, I have the responsibility (and privilege) of creating nearly everything that goes into my books. And you may be surprised to hear that the toughest part of making these books was… (drum roll)
The titles. Seriously. They’re a struggle.
I approached the titles for the Interns of Magic Engineering from a much different angle than with the Kari Hunter series. I wanted titles that emphasized comedic adventure and whimsy, and I wanted all of the titles to relate somehow. I started with a simple idea and then kept beating on it with the Metaphorical Sledgehammer of Creativity (+3 STA, +3 CHA—a bard weapon, for sure) until it morphed into something I liked. Since they went through a lot of hilarious iterations, I thought I’d share a few rejected titles for your amusement, in order of their ideation:
Law of Magical Catastrophe
Mage My Day
From Sporky, With Love
The Pitfalls of Platonic Magic
The Menace of Magical Contraptions
The Mayhem of Magical Magnetism
A Misappropriation of Magical Merchandise
A Mobster of Magical Machinery
So, you can see how my thought process evolved as I chased different ideas. Originally, I thought I could riff off of scientific laws or theories, but they weren’t punchy enough (or at all). Then I got the idea to name the first book Mage My Day. I still love that title, but I wanted all of the titles in the series to relate, and I couldn’t figure out iterations on that. I had to move on. As soon as I figured out a “formula” around the word “magical,” it was a matter of flipping through the M sections of a dictionary and a thesaurus until I never wanted to look at another dictionary or thesaurus ever again. The titles went through twelve brutal rounds before they ended up with their final forms! But the hard work paid off, and I love the titles we ended up with.
I’m still pining for Mage My Day, though!
And here’s one more piece of trivia about the titles that you may find fun: Book one was originally called A Minefield of Magical Machinery. But when we saw the title on the cover, it felt really heavy. We mixed the words between the first and third titles, and ended up with titles that actually fit the theme even better. Book one is A Master of Magical Machinery. Book three ended up as A Minefield of Magical Malice… and it will be available for you to read on September 28!
But wait, there’s more!
BONUS CONTENT ALERT!
I won’t keep you waiting until September for some sweet, sweet magical engineering hijinks—I’m also working on some cool bonus content that’ll be available soon: LIORA, Inc. Confidential Files.
LIORA, Inc. is keeping a very, very big secret under their building. Get the backstory on that with the Confidential Files! It’ll be available for all my New Release list subscribers.
Not a subscriber? Just become one. I only need a lock of your hair and a blood sample.
I’M KIDDING! Just sign up here: Jen’s New Release Posse, and get emails from me—yes ME—when I have new stuff for you to read.
Thanks for being a reader, a friend, and/or a cool person. (Just pick whichever categories you fall into. I’ll accept any and all.)
Until next time,
Jen
Jen Kirchner 