Hello, Editing Fairy!

Yes, folks, the editing fairy has laid another egg on my doorstep. Literally.

Our UPS guy is a NUT.  You can hear your package smacking down on the doorstep even as he's ringing the doorbell, and in the time it takes to walk across the living room and into the little entry and open the door, the dude is back in his van and driving away.  DRIVING AWAY.  In less than one minute.  I'm not sure if he hates me personally, or is agoraphobic, but even when  I have been standing IN the entry when I hear the box drop, I have not been able to see his face. 

So, he threw a padded envelope at my front door and ran again today, and I opened it to find:

Black Wool Chain

The manuscript complete with millions of tiny little editorial suggestions from my editor.  This is a long-awaited arrival, though, so I'm not complaining.  According to my contract, I was actually supposed to have edited it and turned it back into Bloomsbury by last Saturday.  So I've actually been wearing a hole in the floor with my pacing, wondering when it was going to come.  And, for once, I'm really excited about this edit.  I've been a bit of a whiner in the past: Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow was a touchy subject for me, editing-wise.  There were a number of things that I would in no way change, in my anxiety to do justice to the original tale.  This one is based on a fairy tale too (The Twelve Dancing Princesses), but I'm more flexible about it.  The biggest problem that we're having with this one is the title.

Yep, the title.

I've mentioned this before, but I am not a good titler.  Titling does not come easily to me, it is not my gift.  Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow was the original title for that book, and neither my editor nor I was really in love with it.  We came up with about ten other titles, and the marketing department pooh-poohed them all.  Dragon Slippers was originally Dragonskin Slippers, then The Dragonskin Wars.  Dragon Flight was going to be called Dragon Helm, but then I didn't end up using the word 'helm' in the book, because it actually kinda annoys me.  And really, those are the least changes books of mine have undergone, title-wise.  My first novel ever has been called about six different things over the years, and I'm working on a story right now that after four years of kicking around in my brain and computer files, is still called Untitled Desert Project.  My titling bone is broken.

So.

Black Wool Chain.  I actually like it, myself, as much if not better than I've ever liked a title of mine.  My editor, on the other hand, hates it.  She would really, really like to put 'princess' somewhere in the title, because (like 'dragon') it is an eye-catching word.  Unlike, say, 'wool'.  (She has a very, very valid point.)  Her title suggestions, on the other hand, don't work for me.

So here it is, the alternate title I've come up with.  And you, gentle reader, must use the comments to tell me what you think.

Princess Under Stone

It's got 'princess' in it, it's intriguing, easy to remember, and I think quite catchy.

Anyone care to comment?