Joely Sue Burkhart

1. Classical mythology and antiquity.  Beautiful Death is mostly based on Greek mythology with some ancient Macedonian elements. Future books will bring in ancient Rome and continue the mythology theme.  (e.g. Charon is the hero of the next book)

2. One of the original movie inspirations was Underworld–because I thought the movie dropped the ball!  Grr.  I still haven’t watched it all the way through.  I was sooo disappointed.

3. Another movie inspiration was Alien, thus giving me the initial concept “alien underworld.”  (website already taken)

4.I’ve always loved Hades and thought prissy Persephone had a stick up her butt.  So I created a world and new heroine for him, Isabella Thanatos, known as Beautiful Death because of how many monsters she killed.

5. I mean, Thanatos is such a cool name–why not create a kick-ass heroine worthy of it?

6.Greek roots, etc. were one of my favorite things in school.  Consider: nekros, thanat, polis, chthonian (non-Olympians), mythos, neo, xeno, morpho.  I came up with some bizarre ideas for brand names from these:  Necrotorium, Chthonios, NeoMythos (already used), Mythomorphoses.  I really like the latter, still, although it’s pretty long.

7. Some misc. elements:  vampires, drakon (shapeshifter dragons), aliens, monsters, pandemic virus, New Olympia, Athens, Erebus, Macedon.

8. GoDaddy became my friend as I checked to see whether certain ideas had already been registered.  Most had been. 

9. While vampires are in the first story, it’s not really about vampires in particular.  The story is about monsters–and how monstrous humans become when they hate (premise).

10. At one point, even the Monster Mash seemed inspirational.  *giggles*

11. This article told me a brand is more than just about the product–it’s about the people I want to buy it.  The best brands evoke emotion in one of four ways:  “being” — emotionally confirms you’re somebody; “becoming” — aspirationally defines what you want to be; “doing” — functionally enables you to do something; “belonging” — connects you to other people like you.

12. This article on Primal Branding described 7 elements or stages (sort of like a Hero’s Journey) that a powerful brand should encompass:  Who are you?  What are you about?  Show who you are.  Rituals.  Sacred Words.  Non Believers.  Leader.

13. All of this work over the past two days has lead me to a tentative brand for the series:  JOIN THE MONSTERS.  I like this because it creates a sense of belonging; monsters are an important theme to the series; and it’s easier to pronounce and spell than some of the Greek crap I came up with.  I still really like Mythomorphoses as a series name, which might be too long.  Still thinking on it.

What do you think of JOIN THE MONSTERS?