The original title for The Fortune Teller’s Daughter was The Temple of the Purple Lady, which I still prefer. Lots of book titles these days have something to do with daughters, which is fine, but adding my book’s name to the list makes it less original-sounding. But publishers have their concerns and writers have theirs. Many of these concerns are the same, but many are not. (I had a similar issue with my first book. There are at least three others in print called Every Secret Thing. And the cover makes it look as though it takes place in Kansas, which it doesn’t.)
There actually was a Purple Lady, and she did have a temple as well as a shrine. I made up the beliefs of Miss Tokay (the Purple Lady in The Fortune Teller’s Daughter). But the real Purple Lady was a member of a UFO cult that was founded in the early 20th century, although it wasn't founded by her. I don’t know if it has any living members, but if so, it doesn’t have many.
My band, Bone of Contention, released an album in 1990 called 48 Points of View, and we featured this picture of the real Purple Lady's shrine on our cover. |
