Title of the New Book

Thanks, everybody, for writing in with your thoughts on the title of the new book. Here is the general drift of what I’ve been receiving:

By and large, more people prefer Sacred Moments than prefer Illuminations. Those who don’t like Sacred Moments are about evenly divided by those who think it is too precious — sounding like a line of figurines — and those who think it smacks too much of traditional religion.

Those who don’t like Illuminations see it as a somewhat empty phrase. One person said it sounded like “a lighting store.”

On the other hand, those who like Sacred Moments say it articulates exactly what they hope the book is about, and what they expect from me in this type of writing. Those who like Illuminations say it sounds literate and intelligent, which is what they feel sets my writing apart from most “inspirational” writing.

An interesting idea suggested by several readers is to junk the alliterative two-word title (Simple Truths, Small Graces, Sacred Moments)altogether, and simply go with the proposed subtitle as the title: The Hidden Beauty of Ordinary Days.

The publisher is meeting with the distribution group tomorrow (they contract distribution through a major national company) to get their feelings on which title they think will be most well-received by readers. I will be very curious to see what opinions are expressed in that meeting. I have passed along many of your thoughts and emails to the publisher, so your voices will definitely be heard.

Thanks so much to all of you who have written. And if any of you has a brilliant title that encapsulates the experience of finding deeper, more spiritual meanings in the ordinary events of life, send it along. If it begins with an “S” and has two words, all the better. But it is the power to evoke, not describe, that we are looking for.

One way or another, a decision is coming soon.

I’m off to Washington D.C. for several days. Then it’s up to the far North Shore of Lake Superior here in Minnesota to be the guest author at a conference on nature writing. Both trips should be absolutely inspiring — the yin and yang of the American experience: culture and politics followed by nature and solitude. I feel lucky, indeed.

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