There’s no simple answer for choosing a book title. I can only share my thoughts on how I arrived at my choice.

There are many titles with ___ of the ___ or ___ of ___ and so on. I believe those titles are outstanding, and they are chosen because they work. They give you a sense of what the story is about. You know books are within the fantasy genre when you see titles like The Way of Kings, The Lord of the Rings, or A Song of Ice and Fire. I like these kinds of titles and my next novel already has a tentative title with an ‘of’ in it.

Originally, the title for my debut novel was going to be “The First Sword of Mourning” and “The Sword of Mourning”. As I revised and expanded the story, I realized certain elements didn’t fit. The focus wasn’t on what the characters were known for, but on them. I felt confident in a single name title with a made-up name based off of books like Eragon, Sabriel, and Hild. Each has inspired not only my imagination but told me I can do this. It is a freeing thought.

Morvelving’s simple meaning is mourning. It has a more complicated definition, but that gets into spoilers! And it plays a part in the characters plot arc. The other detail that made me confident about using the name as the title is that it doesn’t have complicated pronunciation. It sounds like it is spelled.

The story is about more than Morvelving. You can check out my Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/calebjswitzer/) for more character introductions (be sure to follow for more updates).

I am eager to share more about my debut novel. There are some key announcements coming in the next weeks and months!