Holding Out for a Fairy Tale...?

My current work in progress is always affectionately referred to as "the damn book." When I've got to write the climax and want to skip to the ending, I complain that I have to finish the damn book. If I really want to start a new project rather than make dinner, I announce that I'm ordering pizza because I need to finish outlining the damn book. It stays the damn book through the entire writing process, from outline to rough draft edits. It's not until I begin to put together query letters that I ask the dreaded question: "What do I call the damn book?"

I suck at coming up with titles. I really, really do. I agonize over them. I come up with lists, think about the connotation of every single word, and then cross-out everything on the list. It sometimes takes me longer to pin down a title than it does to outline a novel, and I almost always give up.

So, what do I do? At a loss for an appropriate name, I end up going through the text while editing and looking for any phrase that I can rip out of context that might sound interesting. It's a creative cop-out, but I did it again this time.

Ray & Elliot's story, tentatively entitled Holding Out for a Fairy Tale, is done and will hopefully need one more proofread before being submitted later this week.

You can read a short excerpt at: Holding Out for a Fairy Tale.

I don't think any special warnings need to accompany the excerpt, but I'll post something worthy of a warning label as the story works its way through the submission process:)