Having to Change My Title

For many years, I had my first book's title already decided.  It was to be called The Rending - Book One, and the series was to be called The Rending.  I had researched and vetted it and was very happy with its availability and with my choice.  Then, in 2024, two different SF/F books published with that title, and one of them had cover art too similar to the art I was already working on with a terrific artist I had engaged.  That book was a debut like mine, and it already had a few good reviews.  Perhaps I could have pressed ahead and used the same title anyway, but I went back to the drawing board to see if I could come up with anything I liked as well, or better.  

With excessively hopeful naivete, I enlisted the aid of a good friend to help me brainstorm ideas, which ultimately devolved into the following email chain:

From me:  

So, apparently if you wait long enough, someone (or two someones) will name their books The Rending.  There are two out this year with that title, and one is a post-apocalyptic.

So, I need title ideas!  For the books and series. 

Then I gave my book description which I won't recreate here because I don't like it very much. I don't feel like it fully captures the things about my book that I Iike the most.

Two long and quiet days later, which my friend obviously spent in deep and careful thought, he produced this list:

Failed safes

Zero fields

Remade

Reformari

Reformed

Hell Was a Four Letter Word

The Heckening

ReGenesis

I'm Human

Unhumaned

The Yellow Brick Road

Then 24 minutes later, he sent another set of options:

Who did this to me?

Gravity optional

Science to magic: a field guide

Transmogrified

My Fellow Amageicans

Red White and What the Hell Is That

Ambrosia and Apple pie

I Read About This Kind of Thing

Car Keys and Candelabras

All the Horses Turned into Unicorns

Wait... What?

Then 13 minutes after that, he wrote another:

I swear to God this is the last email. Must stop OCD trigger. That's not a title that's me.

Semper mutantur

Mutatio

Science Shmiance

Accidentally Magic

Improbably Magical

They Improbably Drived Us

Then 7 minutes more elapsed before:

Damnit accidentally sent it too early. THIS IS THE LAST ONE I SWEAR

Mr Adams was right

Napkin universe

The Petunias Had It Easy

I Forgot to Fall

Towels Did Turn Out to Be Handy

Improbable Apocalypse

They Didn't Carry the Zero

Shoulda Wore My Tin Foil Hat

They Forgot to Carry the Infinity

I was understandably inspired so I joined in, with:

QQ They Divided by Zero

This Fallen World of Very Bad Things

The Magic Apocalypse of Demons

Demons of the American Southwest

A Bicycle Quest of Unfortunate Circumstance

I Can't Believe It's Not Reality

Where's the Beef (It's Us)

The Last of Us Are the Tastiest

The Tasty Remains

The Remains of the Day

The Dregs

The Garotte of Life

1.21 Jigawatts

That One Time

The Demon Gate of Magical Misfortune

The Infernal Fifty-Two... Just Kidding We Don't Know How Many There Are

Then, finally, the next day, I sent another revelation:

Oooh. I've got it.

Gen Hell

Fortunately, none of those names were chosen, as they are almost universally incompatible with the tone of my series.  I eventually chose The Breaking - Book One of The Infernal Age.  And then immediately rethought it and chose the FOR SURE DEFINITELY NOT CHANGING IT title The Infernal Age - Demon Gate.

But some of those titles above really should be the title of a book or movie.  If you want to use one, just write to me to let me know so we can track the progress of the next great American Novel. Except The Remains of the Day, which is a terrible title. It specifically tells you it's boring. Like, they did something relatively important that day, but this story is only about the REMAINS of the day when nothing happened of note - Enjoy! Or maybe that's just me. I'm not a huge fan of period pieces that don't take place in the 1980's. I'm also not a fan of dramas, even though I usually enjoy movie dramas when forced to watch them.