There is a setting in my work-in-progress, The Lies We Told, that I need to name. You, my readers, have helped me name both books and characters in the past, so I'm turning to you once again for inspiration. If I use the name one of you suggests, I'll send you an autographed copy of The Courage Tree.
Here's the setting: Picture a backwoodsy area of coastal North Carolina. In real life, there's a (much nicer) area called Holland Shelter on a tributary of the Cape Fear River. I like the word Shelter, which fits both the locale and the storyline. So I'm looking for "_____ Shelter".
_____ Shelter is actually a peninsula of sorts. Like Holland Shelter, it's on a tributary of the Cape Fear but that's where the similarities end. _____ Shelter is attached to the mainland by a long, very narrow strip of land, so that when the area floods and that strip is underwater, _____ Shelter becomes an island, cut off from the mainland. If you don't have a boat, you're trapped until the floodwaters go down. And of course, my characters don't have a boat.
The house in the picture (a real house I snapped on a recent trip to the area) belongs to one of the characters who lives in _____ Shelter, so you get an idea of what life is like. Not great. :(
The situation is scary from a pyschological perspective and to a lesser degree, from a physical perspective. But it's also an emotional story. As is usually the case with my books, there's a little bit of everything! So the blank in _____ Shelter should be a word that evokes trouble and mystery, with a healthy dose of poignancy.
I look forward to your ideas, and may the best ______ win!
Published on
June 23, 2009 17:06
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Tags:
book, carolina, chamberlain, courage, diane, north, peninsula, shelter, tree, win
Very cool.