Yet again, titling help needed.

So, I’m at the stage with Under the Hill in which I should imminently be getting a contract to sign – at which point I will officially announce as much as I know about who the publishers are and when it’s likely to appear.  But in the mean time my editor and I have decided that as it’s so long, the best thing is to publish it in two parts.  This is fine, as there happens to be a natural cliffhanger right in the middle, which will make a great place to end one book and start another.

However, that means that Under the Hill becomes the title of the whole series (if you can call two books a series), and I have to think of separate individual titles for each volume.  I was thinking Knight’s Gambit and Queen’s Pawn.  The trouble starts in the first book when a knight of Faerie meets Ben and recognizes him, and it ends in the second book with two Queens of Faerie having a smackdown, aided by our heroes, so that seemed appropriate.  But I can’t help thinking that chess references may be as common as muck.  What do you think?

Otherwise I was thinking about something to do with take-off and landing (to tie into the fact that two of the heroes are WW2 airmen.)  Or something to do with being kidnapped and rescued (though that might be a bit spoilery)?  The first book mainly takes place in Bakewell in Derbyshire (a small, picturesque village in the UK), with diversions into Elfland, whereas the second takes place mainly in Faerie, with diversions into our world.  But Under the Hill: Village People and The Queens of Faerie, while appropriate, might be a bit misleading.

Can anyone help me?  I’m really useless at this!

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