It worked so well in September that I’m doing it again! I need help coming up with a title for my WIP, and I’m offering a prize to whoever comes up with the best one. I’ll select finalists, we’ll vote, and the winner will receive:

Fools Rush In by Janice Thompson
The Blue Enchantress by M.L. Tyndall

and of course a personalized, autographed copy of
A Stray Drop of Blood by moi

So, here’s the new book, currently dubbed “My Modern Pirate Story.” Clever, eh? You see why I need you. =)

Smith barges onto the pirate ship with his team of ex-SEALs expecting to rescue a Saudi princess gone missing in the Med–what he finds is a woman chained to a bed, badly injured, and most definitely not a princess. Unable to leave her at the mercy of the ruthless Russian thieves, he offers her a way off the ship and the the protection of his CIA liaison.

Kindness has never been a part of Cantara’s world. She occasionally traded one form of cruelty for another, but it has all been in the spectrum of pain. But when the stranger stands there, looking at her with compassion–as though she matters–she sees a promise she never knew could exist. Not for her. She had thought life wasn’t so bad with Petrov, since he kept her from an even greater evil, but looking at this man called Smith . . . for the first time in her life she trusts a man instinctively.

Smith takes her back to the U.S., knowing her knowledge of these pirates who are prowling the seas and preying on yachts and merchant vessels could prove useful. But the story of how she ended up in the clutches of Petrov convinces the CIA that she’s far more important than that. More than the pirates, she has an intimate knowledge of a black-market arms dealer they’ve been hunting for years. Smith figures it’s his duty to convince her to help his country. And the Lord has made it clear he’s also to make Him known to her. He just doesn’t know what to make of the fact that he has only to utter a word and she’ll obey him.

He’s the best man she’s ever met, that peace in his eyes is addictive. Cantara will do anything to stay with him a moment longer, to remain in his favor. She knows she is unworthy of any affection, but she is happy to do anything he wants.

Anything but the thing he asks of her. He and the CIA want her to return to the black-market world Petrov stole her from. Though she agrees, it costs her. And proves, in her mind, that she is nothing, even to Smith. Plunged into the swirling maelstrom of fear, she takes the greatest risk of all and opens her heart to the source of that peace in Smith’s eyes, the God she so wants to be hers.

With both the pirate and the arms dealer out to get her back at any cost, Cantara must learn the true value of who she is and Who she now serves, even if it means sacrificing herself for the causes of the man she loves. She and Smith both know that following God’s will doesn’t guarantee success by their human definition. This fledgling love is strong enough to survive–but does that mean that they are?

So . . . themes recurring so far:

Black market
Pirates
Eyes (it’s his eyes that show her she can trust him, and hers that show him how painful her past has been)
Desert
Water/Sea
Faith, specifically prayer

Can’t wait to see everyone else’s creativity, cuz I’ve got nothing!
This is a romantic suspense, so I need a title that captures the tension as well as the deep emotion.