Okay, I suppose I can chime in, though my list doesn't seem all that exciting when I read it:
"Reflections," "Almost...But Not Quite," and "The Aliens Are Coming!" - For SNW 1, 2, and 3, respectively. These were just the titles that sprang to mind as I was writing the stories. "Almost," refers to a running thing between Dulmur and Lucsly, who say it to each other in response to this or that a few times throughout the story. For "The Aliens Are Coming!" I wanted to evoke some of that old-school 50's and 60's SF B-movie/UFO scare flavor.
Interphase - Our first SCE story. Kevin and I originally titled this
Defiant, but John Ordover opted against it since there was already a DS9 episode with that title. Not that there aren't stories or novels that share titles with episodes, but he just wanted something different on this occasion.
In the Name of Honor - Rather obvious title, given the book's subject matter. It was the first title which came to mind when I pitched the idea to John Ordover, and it stuck.
Foundations - I think John O. suggested this as the umbrella title for the 3-part SCE story, and we had no better alternatives.
Home Fires - Our gag working title for this SCE story was
Inner Corsi (
), but cooler heads prevailed and we came up with this one instead.
"Loose Ends" - For the
New Frontier - No Limits anthology. Another pretty obvious title. Calhoun has to deal with a pretty big dangling thread left over from a previous TNG episode.
Voila.
A Time to Sow/A Time to Harvest - As already mentioned by Mack and KRAD, these titles were pre-determined by John Ordover.
Grand Designs - The first of what would become a habitual use of Rush song titles for our SCE stories. Given the plot and topic of our story, this just seemed like a nice fit.
"Field Expediency" - Our SCE story for the
Tales of the Dominion War anthology. The term "field expedient" is something I heard and said a lot back in my service days, particularly on deployments where the right tools/materials might not be available and you had to make do with whatever was around. It wasn't unheard of to hear someone crafting a "field expedient shelter" or whatever. Since our SCE gang has to take several improvisational actions during the story, this title seemed appropriate.
Where Time Stands Still - Another SCE tale, and another riff on a Rush song ("Time Stand Still"). We wanted something which would allude to the Delta Triangle from "The Time Trap," and by this point we'd already decided we were going to milk the Rush gag for all it was worth.
Distant Early Warning - Another Rush song title that fit, particularly when viewed in concert with the Mack's first Vanguard book,
Harbinger, and the idea that we were somewhat retroactively setting the stage for the whole Vanguard storyline.
Summon the Thunder - Our working titles at different points were
Reckoning,
A Reckoning Cometh, and a few others I don't remember. We were again trying to build on what Dave had wrought in Harbinger. Marco wasn't all that jazzed about any of the titles, and we kicked around some ideas. He suggest something like
To Summon the Thunder or
Summoning the Thunder, and I counter-suggested just
Summon the Thunder, and we were gold.
Things Fall Apart - This first installment of the
Mere Anarchy mini-series, like the other installments, all have their roots in Yeats' "The Second Coming." To get to the title of the story, we have to step back to how the series title was chosen. Kevin and I called it something else in the original pitch (I forget what it was...something like
Damnation and Salvation, I think), and our working title for Book 1 was
Our Most Noble Intentions. Keith rightly pointed out that the series title was a bit clunky. He suggested
Truth & Consequences, and that stuck for a while, until he hit on the notion of using
Mere Anarchy, from Yeats' poem. Once that was decided, it was thought that having all the stories use titles taken from the same poem would add an extra flavor, and there you go.
"First, Do No Harm" - For the
Constellations anthology. Kevin suggested this title, based on the main guest character, and we never looked back.
Turn the Page - For the "relaunched"
Corps of Engineers e-Book line. Keith wanted story to serve as a jumping on point for the series. With Sarjenka joining the crew, Keith, Kevin and I thought this was a good time for us to use a storyline we'd been wanting to use pretty much since the start of the series, an homage to a
M*A*S*H episode called "Old Soldiers," with Captain Gold serving in the Colonel Potter role (obviously). Once we married that story up with Sarjenka coming onboard, we started looking for a title. My wife is actually the one who suggested it after reviewing the list of Rush song titles I keep on my computer for just this purpose, and as soon as she said it I thought it was perfect. I also loved the irony of it being the title for an e-Book
Age of the Empress - This was Mike Sussman's title, which followed the working titles
Restoration,
Rise of the Empress, and another one which escapes me at the moment. His story, his title. No problem here.
"Acts of Compassion" - For the TNG anthology
The Sky's the Limit. Another title suggested by Kevin, based around the fact that our story was centering on Crusher and a benevolent Cardassian doctor.
"Ill Winds" - for the upcoming
Shards and Shadows anthology. Sounded good to my ear, based on our story's subject matter. Check it out in January to see whether we were right.
Open Secrets - The fourth Vanguard novel. Our original working title for this was
The Rarer Action, based on several plot points we're pursuing this time around, and the fact that the main storyline is taking a much-required departure from the types of things which filled the series' first three books. Marco never really warmed to the idea, so I went back to the reliable Rush song list and pulled out another working title,
Peaceable Kingdoms (the actual song is called "Peaceable Kingdom"). At first Marco was okay with that, but then he hit us with an e-Mail one evening, puzzled over our Rush fetish and suggesting we talk to someone about it, but then humoring us with a list of possible alternatives after his own perusal of the song list. Of those suggestions,
Open Secrets worked for me, given what we're trying to do this time around.
So, there you go.
I always thought it was a clever title!
