Is 'The Sphinx Scrolls' hard to say out loud?

The earliest word processor file I have for my novel dates from 1996. It was back in the days of Wordstar, a wonderful DOS-based word processor on which I started my digital scribble, and that first file was simply called 'Nov'. It didn't even have a suffix. A year later I started calling the story 'Earth' because it seemed to encapsulate an entire lost history of the planet. By 1998 the story had a much clearer direction and I knew what it was really about, and from then on it became 'The Sphinx Scrolls'. Job done. Sorted.

Or was it? I'd always found it tricky to say 'Sphinx' and 'scrolls' out loud in quick succession. Perhaps it requires excessive or uncomfortable mouth movement, or maybe there's some important phonic law that I'm breaking by trying to connect that group of sounds. In 2001, when the novel reached its peak word count of 216,000 words, a brilliant solution occurred to me: why not simply call it 'Sphinx'? That was far easier to say, I decided. So for the next year my computer filled with various versions of 'Sphinx.doc'.

As I began the long process of writing 'backwards', tightening up the story, plotlines and dialogue and in the process cutting 50,000 words from the book (ouch - that's enough to make a separate novella!) I began pining for the word 'scrolls'. It's such an integral part of the plot that, tricky to pronounce or not, I decided it had to be on the cover. 'The Sphinx Scrolls' emerged once again onto my computer in 2002, leaner, meaner and harder to say.

Now I'm committed to that title, and if anyone has trouble pronouncing it, as I do, I can only recommend speaking slowly and taking a breath between words if required. You might sound like you've just sprinted into the bookshop, but you can't put a price on clarity.

Back to the job in hand. Today I continued working through chapter 2, checking if the replacement skyscraper at New York's 'Ground Zero' has been built yet, since my Matt Baker character refers to the 'new hole in the skyline' of his hometown. That hole was definitely there when I wrote the line 8 years ago, so I needed to check whether it was still there. Looks like they're only about 4 storeys up so far, so I'll keep the line in for now.

I noticed an amusing detail in the book. Writing the first paragraphs in 1996, under the influence of a large glass of Port (which, incidentally, is why the heroine was called 'Ruby'), I fantasised that one day this story might be made into a film and that Harrison Ford could play the 40 year old Matt Baker lead role. So I described Matt as having a scar on his chin just like Harrison Ford. Hmmm. At 67 I think Harrison might need to forget about playing that one. Hope he's not too disappointed.