The book-naming contest takes a turn.

Last Saturday night at the Southern California Writer's Conference, I was sitting at a table with Jean Jenkins, waiting for the Agents and Editors Panel to start (which ended up being the Agents Panel, but that was okay - it was interesting, listening to them try to justify their relevance), and I told her about how my sales were going and what else I was writing. I said I had pushed my third mystery aside ever so briefly in order to put out another book of columns, but I was having a devil of a time coming up with a title.

Insightful as always, Jean said, "Why don't you just call it Erma Two?"

That was the missing link. For better or worse (I believe for better), my first book is titled "What Would Erma Do?" I still love the title, because it sums up how I ended up with my newspaper column. After all, Erma Bombeck and I share a birthday, February 21. It's karma. Or maybe it's kErma.

I'm now thinking of a title that begins, "Dear Erma, *fill in the blank*"

Here are my ideas:

"Dear Erma, It's me, Gayle"
"Dear Erma, Now What?"
"Dear Erma, Am I Doing It Right?"

Via Facebook, Marlyn Beebe suggested, "Dear Erma, where did I go wrong?"
Jean offered, "Dear Erma, how do I know when to stop?"
My buddy Jenny Hilborne gave me, "Dear Erma, why are people so mean?" (Jen was obviously having a bad day.)
And my friend Brian Eng said, "Dear Erma, why do some people still think that Columbus discovered America?" (Brian is just one of the reasons I don't let the inmates run the asylum.)

Okay, my Minions, it's your turn. Give me your best shot, or vote for one of these.

P.S. I know you sillies love a good joke, but no voting for Brian. It only encourages him.