Gimme Shelter: The Winner!
Well, my loyal readers, you outdid yourselves this time! I’ve never had such an enormous response to one of my blog questions, and you made my job extremely difficult. You offered many, many ideas that would work well as a name for my fictional spit of water-logged land, and I had a hard time choosing. It was Glen, one of our frequent commenters (and one of our few male commenters), who helped me pick among my favorites. The winner is (drumroll, please!): Last Run Shelter, offered by Margo. Congratulations, Margo! Send me your address and I’ll send you an autographed copy of The Courage Tree.
I liked the sound of Last Run Shelter, but it wasn’t until Glen mentioned the connection to the old moonshine days that I knew it was the winner. It fits the history of my locale, or I should say, it gave my locale a new history.
So thank you all for your enthusiasm and inventiveness! I had a blast reading your five zillion ideas and playing with them in my imagination. And thanks, Glen, for adding your two cents.
I’m still in Wilmington after an incredibly full and fun day, which I’ll post about when I get home. Until then, I want to thank all of you again for your help.
Congrats to Margo! When I first responded to your last post, I hadn’t even realized you’d made it a contest with something in it for the winner (I guess I’d just skimmed your post… Because after you commented something about it being a contest I went back and looked at the post again and saw it blatantly there…) Anyway, I think it’d be awesome to have a name you suggested make it into the novel in progress.
I love that you have that interactive aspect with us your readers. I know I myself have a hard time with names sometimes. Not so much with characters but I know that I one time couldn’t come up with a name for a business a character was opening and ended up using the perfect suggestion from a fellow writer I’d met online.
beautiful picture as well
Congrats, Margo! I must admit that I thought my ‘Helter Shelter’ would win, but I’m very happy for you! I like the new name!
Diane, I’m SO excited to have LAST RUN SHELTER chosen!! It’s wonderful to have a small part in your new book and know I contributed something. Thank you Diane for choosing this special name, and thank you Glen for your inspiration too.
There were some great ideas given and it must have been very hard to choose. Thank’s Lindsay and Denise for your nice comments.
I’m really honored. (-O:
Congrats Margo!!
Diane, love that picture.
Congratulations Margo, Last Run Shelter is great!
Diane any chance of your older Harper and Collins books being re-released?
I never got to read:
Brass Ring
Fire and Rain
Secret Lives
Lovers and Strangers
Private Relations
Thanks Gina…I’m really thrilled, especially after seeing all the other wonderful names submitted…what a hard decision for Diane to make.
I don’t know about everyone else, but it’s been close to 100 degrees here all week!!…my hair is
curling like crazy (lol)…it usually doesn’t get this hot till the 4th of July but we started our hot weather over a week ago. I was trying to read my book on the deck yesterday (THE BEACH HOUSE, by Jane Green) and finally came inside to read it was so hot.
By the way, I never read present tense but quess what, this book is written that way and I love it!…never thought I’d say it but Jane Green has made it work with this novel…it doesn’t hurt that it takes place in Nantucket so of course I’m very involved with the story…
Stay cool everyone.
Ronnie, I don’t know if those older books will ever be re-issued. I may consider reissuing them myself at some point in ebook format, but nothing planned right now. My current publisher would have to buy the rights from me, and since they have so many of my older books they can reissue (since they already have the rights to them,) they’re probably not in a hurry to add more. Thanks for asking, though.
Thanks Ronnie!!…regarding Diane’s older books, since they aren’t reissued maybe you could find them at a used bookstore. Years ago when I read KEEPER OF THE LIGHT I wanted to find SECRET LIVES which I knew was out of print…sure enough, I found a hardcover edition at a private used bookstore and felt like I had found GOLD…all of Diane’s books are fabulous and worth finding…also, Amazon usually has some available thru their used bookstore sellers and some of my friends have had excellent luck ordering the out of print ones that way.
I thought about it Margo, I even went on to EBAY. I just can’t bring myself to do it. There was a discussion on this blog a while ago and I said that I am not a germ-a-phobe but I don’t like library books because I don’t know where they have been, well I feel the same way about used book stores. OMG, people read in the bathroom (not that I do). Do you know where these books have been? Did you ever get a book and there are stains and stuff on it and you wonder what it is? But I will borrow books from people I know.
Its my own sickness, I am sure a few years of therapy and some medication and I can overcome it. UGH, I think I have to go and take a shower now.
Maybe Diane has some pristine books tucked away someplace that I could purchase? If it comes from you I wouldn’t mind a little stuff on it.
What a hoot! I was hinting to Diane about my not so long ago ancestors and their moonshine days, though not as successful as the Kennedy’s.
There’s a little area west of here called “Deep Run” along the Northeast Cape Fear River which I suspect got it’s name for either the fishing or the deep waters to run the distillation lines. Probably the latter! 🙂
Right around Deep Run is an area (not really a town) called “Pin Hook” where my father was born. There is a sign that says “Pin Hook” on both sides of a 4×4 post. As they say, “The town is so small that if you blink, you’ll miss it!
“Last Run” also could be for the cotton and tobacco traders and sharecroppers as they made their way down the Cape Fear River to the sea port in small boats or “Bateau”.
Congrats Margo!
Ronnie, you are SO funny!!…I normally don’t buy used books either but when it came to reading Diane for the 1st time 15 years ago, I knew I had to find whatever else she had written…the copy I found of SECRET LIVES was in perfect condition and to be honest, I didn’t care where it came from…I was just so thrilled to find it and it was definitely worth it…a nonstop read which was so unique…I pull it down from my ‘Diane Shelf’ every so often and reread it…
Thank you Glen!!…I’m really glad the name works for Diane’s story…(-O:
Ronnie, my friend, author Patricia McLinn, thinks we should start an anti used books campaign with the slogan: “Do You Know Where That Book Has Been?” Writers love readers to buy new! Of course, if there out of print, you need to get them any way you can. I have a few oldies for sale on my website (under “books”), but not many of the really old ones. I only have my own copies left of most of them.
Diane, even though I am not an author, can I be an honorary member of “DO YOU KNOW WHERE THAT BOOK HAS BEEN”?(they can put that on my epitaph!) Another reason I love my Kindle!
Since I already ordered all the books you had on your website, I bit the bullet and I just ordered the earliest FIVE books by you that I have not read from an internet used book clearing place. I just hope that when they say “very fine” and “very good” they mean it. My biggest hurdle is I like to read in bed and I really don’t know where these books have been. They should come with a detailed history of past owners. Maybe If I put the books in the freezer it will kill off anything that they might have came with. Do you think it will ruin the books if I boil them and then book then in the microwave?
OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE!
I have to go put some antibacterial lotion on my hands now.
Ronnie, you are so funny. I totally get it, though. The thought of reading a used book and seeing “ick” on the pages is not pleasant. The freezer is a good idea.
I hope you enjoy the oldies. I have a personal favorite among them (SECRET LIVES). I consider the two earliest (PRIVATE RELATIONS and LOVERS AND STRANGERS) my learning-how-to-write-a-novel books, but SECRET LIVES, which was my third, was where I finally found my groove. Have fun!
Ronnie, you have so much to look forward to with these books…everyone of them is fantastic…I actually LOVED Diane’s first book PRIVATE RELATIONS…it was reissued in paperback a year or so after the hardbound edition of KEEPER came out…I loved the story of a unique group of people living together in a Beach House…excellent book.
SECRET LIVES is absolutely incredible and I feel so lucky to have the hardcover of this, FIRE AND RAIN and BRASS RING…LOVERS AND STRANGERS is good too…what can I say except Diane is THE very best and I love reading her novels over and over again…She has written so many wonderful books that I now have ‘Diane Shelf #1, #2 and am starting on #3’…(-O: