Title Quotes

    Those That Wake took its title from (and was preceded by) a quote from a poem by the English diplomat and poet Matthew Prior.   It is a quote intended -- out of context as it is -- to sound somewhat menacing.  In context (an excerpt of which appears to the left of this very post), it goes like this:

     When all seems lost and tomorrow feels like a long journey ahead
     It is hope that sparkles like a flickering flame inside of our hearts.
     For you have a destination far beyond where you stand today,
     And hope is but a dream of those that wake.

     Clearly, my ultimate intent by using this quote (and in writing the book itself), was to suggest a sense of hope.
     What We Become, the sequel to Those That Wake, takes its title from (and is preceded by) a quote from French critic and essayist Charles Du Bos.  Also intended to conjure an uneasy feeling, excerpted as it is, in its entirety it reads "the important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become."  Again, my ultimate goal (with the quote and the book) is to suggest the idea of improvement, of becoming something better than we are, though the evolution might require that we give up a certain part of ourselves.  Conveniently, it also conjures the notion of sacrifice, a theme that plays heavily into What We Become.