I started design work this week on a new novel -- PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES. This novel will be a sequel to LEVERAGE, reusing three of the characters from the story.
The tale is set in central British Columbia where a group of consulting company senior managers are meeting for their annual retreat. During a whitewater rafting excursion on the White Mile (a trip I've made myself), a disaster occurs that has its roots in the power struggle going on within the firm. The tale that spins out of this involves murder, arson, kidnapping, love, using people, and plenty of corporate politics.
Although in its early stages, I'm quite enthusiastic about the project.
I feel an explanation is in order concerning on the titles of my novels -- something no one has ever directly questioned, but probably needs some clarification.
All my novels utilize over-used business-speak terms as their titles. Most of them actually annoy me a bit, and I find it amusing to use these words as titles for my books.
LEVERAGE -- possibly the most over-used term at a recent employer. It felt like the term was used by the CEO in nearly every sentence. And it seemed to have some kind of magical or mystical quality.
INCENTIVIZE -- my top disliked non-word in common business usage. Incentive is a noun, so stop trying to "verbize" it. Instead of this stupid term, speakers should say "provide an incentive".
DELIVERABLES -- "goals", "objectives", and "targets" cover the landscape perfectly well. Deliverables is another mouthful meaning essentially the same thing.
HEIR APPARENT -- is business-speak, but perhaps not quite as irritating as some of the other terms. It just fit extremely well with the plot of this novel.
EMPOWERED -- "empowerment" is even worse, but didn't quite fit the story. This term is so overused that it has leaked into all kinds of non-business subjects.
SUPPLY-CHAIN -- What is this exactly? Consultants use it as a substitute for "suppliers". Unnecessarily.
PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES -- the official notification often says this when an executive has been fired. Does speaking in code really soften the blow of job loss? Some seems to think so...
If anyone has other favorites, I'm open to suggestions for future novels...just comment here.
