Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets or: why the new title?

Ladies and gentlefops, I'm very excited to announce that my first novel, Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets, will be published in March 2013 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Be sure to put my book on your Goodreads "to read" list.

I warn you now that I will be promoting the pigeon-poop out of this book over the next year. I appreciate those of you who are already excited and hope to attract more and more fans as the months progress, so share this blog, share the updates, share your love.

The following updates will occur between now and launch day, to keep you all interested in my wondrousness:
--a cover reveal!
--an official website featuring my giant face!
--an awesome website feature specifically designed to make you laugh AND kill time!
--more things I can't mention yet!

What's the deal with the title, you ask (infected with precious curiosity)? Yes, some of you may remember this book by it's working-title YAWP! The change was NOT something I resisted and I am actually more excited about this title than YAWP!.

This new title meets the following 5 criteria:

1. It's awesome. More awesome: I can refer to my book as DR BIRD. 

I'm doing a signing with Dr. Bird tonight.

Photo caption: Me and Dr. Bird, chillaxing with some lemonade.

2. It's easier to understand when someone says it, whereas I found myself repeating "Yawp" three times when people asked for the title. Even then, I was often met with the classic "I'll never understand what he's saying so I'll just nod" head-nod. 


3. It'll be easier to remember, which means booksellers will not have one of those sad conversations at the information desk that goes like this:

CUSTOMER: "Do you have a book called Yelp?"
BOOKSELLER: "Doesn't look like it."
C: "It's by Evan Rosco."
B: "Spell that?"
C: "R-O-S-C-O. I think. I'm not sure."
B: "Don't see it."
C: "It's got a blue cover, I think."*
B: "Sure, let me just search our cover color database...oh wait, that doesn't exist."
C: "Can't you read my thoughts?"
B: "Not yet...."

*FYI: the cover is NOT blue. 

4. It's still my title, as it was part of a brainstorming session that my brain cordially invited me to attend. I'm happy that I was able to come up with a good title myself, not because I don't trust my editor or her team, but because I pride myself on titling things. (This is not a joke but something of a character flaw. I love titling almost as much as I love making up songs while I do mundane things:

Sung to the upbeat 'scaramouche' section of Bohemian Rhapsody: "I am a very very hungry little man. Got to eat, got to eat, should I make myself a sandwich? Peanut butter Jelly, very very tasty me!"

5. It highlights a feature of the book that brings me the most joy and seems to intrigue people to read: a pigeon.