subject: You Are Nobody Until Somebody Hacks You [print this page] I am making lemonadeI am making lemonade. I was handed some lemons last night when I found out someone had hacked into my Facebook account. I felt violated. I felt vulnerable. I considered deleting my whole account for a moment but instead I changed passwords, ran a scan, found some unpleasant lurking mal-ware and removed it. When I posted a warning to my facebook friends, someone joked back that this was a mystery. So we have a title for our next murder mystery: "You are Nobody Until Somebody Hacks You".
Nice start, huh? That's all we have so far. This won't be the first time Nora and I came up with a new murder mystery with just a title in mind. "Look Both Ways...Before Crossing The Mob" is one of our most successful murder mystery plays and that also just started with a clever title. I 'm sure the story was lurking deep in the recesses of my mind somewhere and that's why the title popped into my head.
Titles are important. I think good titles afford the reader or the audience a little preview of the story. The title is the very first thing the audience sees about the work so I say it's important to use the opportunity to begin storytelling right away. Of course, I didn't exactly follow this advice when naming our Los Angeles Party Entertainment production company, "Sharpo". Using a non-descriptive name for our brand does have other advantages, though, like personalizing the services we provide and putting our name behind everything we do. The question that murder mystery and suspense writers have to ask is whether the title gives away too much information in the murder mystery? We have a great murder mystery play called "Grave Robbers" but guess what it is about.
I am not sure exactly where this new murder mystery play will lead yet and I am sure Nora will as usual be the secret ingredient in making it a success. I like that "Hack" has the obvious multiple meaning. I better not say anything else about it. You will know when Nora and I finish writing it and you come to one of our murder mystery dinner shows in Los Angeles or you host a Sharpo murder mystery party in your home.
