So, up until now, I’d been referring to my book as The Name and the Key trilogy. Except, the first book is called The Name and the Key and the rest of the titles are different. I didn’t know what else to call the trilogy, though!

Well, today I turned my manuscript in to my editor and publisher, and filled out a couple forms to guide them with how to design a cover for the book, its tropes, etc. And I settled on “The Darkening Gate Trilogy.” I also suggested “The Blackening Gate Trilogy” (something closer to alchemy) but my editor and publisher liked “The Darkening Gate” better. So…we have a winner! This is what it will be!

I wanted to choose something related to alchemy, but a lot of trilogy names that I came up with were already taken! Actually, there’s a “Darkening” duology out there, and a “Dark Gate” trilogy…so this was the best I could do, and no one has taken “The Darkening Gate” yet.

The gate in the book is called Nigredo Gate, named for the blackening stage that occurs in alchemy during the process of creating a philosopher’s stone. I did do a cursory search and even “Nigredo Gate” had too many close calls. While I never call the gate “The Darkening Gate” in the book, I hope readers know I’m talking about an alchemical process…and something that eventually happens to Andresh in a very disturbing way.

Now I get to go back and retroactively rename or edit all of my posts that don’t have the updated trilogy name in it, whee!

In the meantime, this really cool art I got from depositphotos is more of a Japanese torii-inspired gate, whereas the one in the novel is a black moon gate. I just couldn’t find any art depicting this, even through searching Unsplash, depositphotos, and Pinterest combined. But this is the kind of mood I want to go for when it comes to the Gate, so, enjoy!