So what's in a name?

Everything, I’m told. It’s the single tag that brings attention to all around us – the food we eat, a person, a country, a place, a movie, a book, and much more. Our brains are processed to store everything we associate with a name, be it good or bad. A name is a brilliantly conceived, shorthand device that instantly gives us an expectation or a memory of an object, experience, occasion and more.

Imagine what live would be without names. We’d say things like:

• ‘I’m going to that place behind the supermarket where people leave their cars before going shopping.’
• ‘Tonight I’m doing potatoes boiled in water, drained, and then smashed up with butter until they become all fluffy and mixed together.’
• ‘The condensed moisture of the atmosphere falling visibly as separate drops.’ (Taken from the dictionary.)

We just haven’t time to exist without names. Life would be long-winded, tedious, and boring, which is why we invented them.

This brings me on to the real purpose of this post. I need a name for my new book. I want some help, and welcome your comments.

It’s a follow-on to my last, Playing Harry. The working title is The Tired Assassin, but I’m not confident it’s good enough to be the final title.

Storyline. Harry Fingle, the protagonist in Playing Harry, is pursued by his old nemesis, the feared Russian assassin, Grigoriy Nabutov. Grigoriy failed to kill Harry before, but convinces his masters he’ll do the job properly this time. The plot gets complicated when Harry and Grigoriy discover they’re sharing the same lover and Grigoriy demands more money from his masters for Harry’s excecution.

Fifteen chapters of The Tired Assassin are on Wattpad. I’ll put up a further two or three this week.

Some titles I’ve thought of:

• The Tired Assassin
• A Failed Assassin
• Love and Assassination
• Harry’s Nemesis
• A slow and ponderous Assassination
• An assassin, one lover, and Harry
• The girl who slept with Harry and Grigoriy
• The girl who slept with Harry and his Assassin

Find out more about Playing Harry – the background, storyline, and the characters – by hopping over to http://playingharry.wordpress.com

Buy Playing Harry at Smashwords, amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, Barnes and Noble, iPad UK, iPad US.