A Quote, Out of Context

By the way, the title of the short story I published below, "The Wanted Way Of Things" is a phrase that struck my ear a couple of years back when listening to an audio book version of "The Call Of The Wild" by Jack London. Here's the complete quote, in context:

"They had made short work of the snow-shoe rabbit, these dogs that were ill-tamed wolves; and they were now drawn up in an expectant circle. They, too, were silent, their eyes only gleaming and their breaths drifting slowly upward. To Buck it was nothing new or strange, this scene of old time. It was as though it had always been the wonted way of things."

Another one caught me the other day and would make a great title in a number of ways. It was a phrase from the Richard Powers book, "Plowing The Dark". The phrase was "The black of elaborate plans". I like the simpler, "Elaborate Plans", but the whole phrase has a nice turn to it, don't you think?

I have an old novel-in-progress with the working title of "Harrowed In Deep" that might work better with the title "Elaborate Plans". I'd have to chuck most of it - dated and now the best part of 15 years old and therefore painful to revisit as a writer. But there's probably some salvageable stuff in there. It was initially meant as an tribute to John D. McDonnald.