Guest Post by Rubina Ramesh, author of Knitted Tales

Readers Muse:

How did you choose the title for this book? (Was there a particular prompt or was it out of the blue?)

Rubina Ramesh:

Hi Dhivya,

Thanks for this lovely question. Knitted Tales was not my first choice in terms of ‘title’ and I had decided to call it “Someone’s Always Watching”. SAW, the acronym for the title would have suited very well with the group I belonged to in Wrimo India. It was called SAW and my title would have been a dedication to the whole group.

As I got all my stories together, I found that most of them belonged to a different genre. The title would have been apt if most of the stories were horror or psychological. But a few stories were a complete diversification from the title. Moreover, I didn’t have a theme. I just write what came to my heart and how my mood was at that particular moment. Thus, the subtitle, “a collection of emotions”. In fact, they were like patches, that are joined together to make a huge quilt. Knitted. I had knitted my emotional tales in a similar manner. :)

I feel the title of a story says a lot about the relationship between an author and her stories. Almost like the first sound that comes out of the mouth of a baby. The name that first comes to my heart, I name my stories like that. And you know Dhivya, here is one thing I don’t think I have even thought about until I started pondering over your question- I become attached to the titles of my story. My titles are decided much before I start compiling. But both my books Finding the Angel and Knitted Tales had to fight with titles like You Stole my heart and Someone’s Always Watching – I even wrote the names on scraps and picked one. It was Knitted Tales. I still fought against it but it slowly made a place in my heart and I just couldn’t accept any other name. We writers are so weird, no?

I thank the author for her brilliant and thoughtful answer!