And Bob's Official Title Is...

…At the bottom of this post:)

Aw, you guys are awesome! Five hundred words isn’t a lot to go on, but you came up with 249 titles. Like I said, awesome.

Before I announce the winners, I have a brain fart to confess. I should have mentioned how I planned to handle the word “The” in the contest post, but since I didn’t even think about it until I was judging all the entries, I guess I’ll mention it now. I decided to treat entries with and without “The” as separate entries, so TOOTHLESS and THE TOOTHLESS are, in fact, different. (Which actually makes sense in the context of the story, because TOOTHLESS can refer to the condition of being Toothless as well as the group of people who are, whereas THE TOOTHLESS is most definitely the group.)

My short list was pretty long, but here it is:

Honorable Mentions

BITE THE HAND by Ryan Z Nock
THE LAST WINGTOOTHER by Myrna Foster
SETH TUCKER AND THE SHARK ZOMBIES by Liesl
SETH WINGTOOTHER AND THE STREAM BREAKERS by Joseph Adams
STREAM OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS by L. Bowser
STREAMBREAKERS by Taryn7
TOOTH FOR A TOOTH by Joseph Adams
THE TOOTHLESS by Gwendolyn Conover
TOOTHLESS RISING by Stephanie McGee
THE WINGTOOTH CHRONICLES by Holly
WINGTOOTHER by Christauna Asay

I liked a lot of things about these entries. For instance, I loved SETH TUCKER AND THE SHARK ZOMBIES and SETH WINGTOOTHER AND THE STREAM BREAKERS, but both of these felt more middle grade than young adult to me.

THE LAST WINGTOOTHER sounds great, but it follows a too-common pattern. (You can blame THE LAST SAMURAI and THE LAST AIRBENDER for that:) ). And while I love the idea of using THE WINGTOOTH CHRONICLES as a possible series name, I’m not as wild about it for a single book (which Holly already pointed out).

Because I thought these titles were so great, I’M OFFERING THE HONORABLE MENTIONS A PRIZE AS WELL. I’m not an agent, but I’ve spent the last two years trying to get one, and I think I’ve learned a thing or two about writing queries and first pages. So honorable mentions, if you’re looking for some feedback, feel free to e-mail me at kvandolzer@gmail.com with your query OR first page. I’d love to learn a little more about the stuff you’re working on.

Third Place THE ASSASSINATION OF MARVIN HERMES by Diana. Love this title. Really love this title. But if anybody’s name is going to be in the title, I’d rather it were Seth’s.

Second Place FEED DEAF by Too Cute (Penelope Wright), which I am taking the liberty of changing to STREAM DEAF. I didn’t mention it before, but sometime between now and when I first set up this contest, I actually came up with two titles I really liked. STREAM DEAF was one of them, so when Honey Bear read this one off, I just about snorted my ice water. I figured it was a sign:)

First Place WHOSE TEETH ARE AS SWORDS by Ben Spendlove. I honestly couldn’t decide between STREAM DEAF and WHOSE TEETH ARE AS SWORDS, but I decided to give WHOSE TEETH the win because it was the one title I couldn’t get out of my head. The phrase comes from a scripture in Proverbs (Proverbs 30:14), and that verse couldn’t be more applicable to Bob.

Congratulations, Ben, Penelope, and Diana! Please e-mail me at kvandolzer@gmail.com so we can work out prizes. And everyone else, thanks again for all your help. Bob has needed a title for a long, long time, and now he has one.

Bob, I dub thee WHOSE TEETH ARE AS SWORDS. Or maybe STREAM DEAF. I can’t quite make up my mind.

Next stop--agents’ inboxes! (And Ben (or maybe Penelope), no one is rooting for you to win that Kindle as much as I am:) )