(from usatoday.com
by Lea Francza)


Ever wonder how authors come up with that all-important title for their books? We are delighted to welcome prolific and reader favorite authors Kit Rocha, Vivian Arend and Lauren Dane today to share how they decided on the title for their new anthology, Marked (available now), and it's three unique, very hot novellas.

Here are the blurbs for each of the Marked novellas:

Three stories of passion, possession, and ink …

Lauren Dane takes you into a brand new world in All That Remains. Summer Killian falls fast and hard when Charlie arrives in Paradise Village. But the heat turns all the way up when she learns Charlie is also with Hatch — the man she loved four years before. While she's not sure she's cut out for a triad, neither man is going to give her up.

Take a Rocky Ride with Vivian Arend as she leads you back to the Six Pack Ranch. Anna Coleman might be the law around Rocky Mountain House, but bad boy Mitch Thompson knows that under the stiff RCMP uniform is a woman with a passion for speed and pleasure that matches his own, and he's not giving up until she's his.

Kit Rocha returns to Sector Four in Beyond Temptation. A promise to a dying friend backfires when Noah Lennox finds that the girl he was supposed to rescue is all grown up — and wearing O'Kane ink. He wants to protect her from the secrets of their past, but she wants him. And an O'Kane woman always gets what she wants.

There are as many ways to come up with a title as there are authors. Some need to have the title first, to direct the story. Some find the title as the plot progresses. But when you have an anthology like Marked, you add another twist.

Not only do all three authors have a book title, they have a series title and an anthology title. Coming up with three perfect phrases or words three times over is not an easy task!

Vivian: In my case, the series for my story came quickly — Thompson & Sons had been referred to in a previous book, and this spin-off series is about the five siblings in the Thompson family. The book title was also fairly simple: It had to have Rocky in there, and the hero is a biker. But my favorite title story is regarding the anthology title, Marked. Tattoos are important in the story, and it was very sweet to find my characters discussing them:

"We make decisions together, Mitch Thompson," she reminded him.

"Then decide to get naked, Anna. I've been going nuts wondering what you got marked with."

Lauren: For me, the title came before anything else. It was the feel I wanted, the view of something that's familiar but stripped down. All That Remains refers to several aspects of the story. The book is set on an Earth 400 years from now. Things are very different in some ways but the main core of humanity exists. And for the romance it's about how these three find a way to get past obstacles and make their HEA with one another.

A snippet:

The night was perfect. Clear. So clear the stars were bright enough to light the path even without the lamps. She paused at the outer ring of the Commons, just watching Hatch and Charlie with one another.

Kit: I'm usually a huge fan of series titles, but in the case of the Beyond books, the origin of the series name is pretty obvious. We knew the titles of the first four books when we started — Beyond Shame, Beyond Control, Beyond Pain and Beyond Jealousy — and knew that each title would be an important clue to the emotional journey the characters would undertake.

When we set out to write the Sector Four version of a Best Friend's Little Sister story, we knew exactly what word would sum up our hero's conflict — temptation. But in Noah's case, getting beyond temptation doesn't mean overcoming it. It means learning to see Emma as something more than untouchable. Sometimes the first step in going beyond is giving in …

A snippet:

Emma barely seemed to hear — or she just didn't care. She was staring at his mouth, her body trembling so close, so damn close —

Letting go had never been so literal.

Find out more about Kit, Vivian and Lauren and their books at their websites: kitrocha.com, www.vivianarend.com and www.laurendane.com.


Lea Franczak cannot remember a time when she didn't have a book in her hand. She's read and enjoyed multiple genres but is especially partial to contemporary and erotic romance, dark gritty romantic suspense, paranormal romance and has recently become a New Adult junkie. Lea has been blogging and reviewing since 2008 and is active on Goodreads. Lea is also HEA's Tweeter Extraordinaire. Follow HEA on Twitter (@HEAusatoday).

(Photo: Kit Rocha)