Taking Title Suggestions



This is the inspiration for Ayden's house. It's bigger in my head.



My Creative Writing class at SJCC requires a final project handed in on the last day of class, a piece of original fiction, poetry, or drama. My intended piece features all three characters the previous entry mentioned (Ayden, Sydney, Silas), only set in a "real world"setting--no magic or secret societies or seventh-born gifts. The characters are all "human" and it takes place in New York City and Connecticut. I had intended to put it in the Hamptons (the only really high-end setting I could think of), but Michelle, my CW professor, suggested Connecticut instead. Since she's from New York originally, I decided to take the advice from someone who actually is from the East Coast. So Connecticut it is. (Lots of research required for this one.) The real differences between this story and my own fantasy works is changing Ayden's last name from Fletcher to McKenna and giving Ayden six older brothers instead of both brothers and sisters. I also mention her parents a lot more, even giving them names, Gregor and Natalia, and ethnic backgrounds--Irish-Italian, Russian-Romanian. Ayden has a family history now, a tangled, intense one, as opposed to The Seventh-born Chronicles, where Ayden and Silas seem to have sprung from the ground fully grown.  

The main premise of this story is this: Ayden is a librarian/aspiring writer in New York City. Her life is quiet, but contented. But her paternal grandfather dies suddenly, and Ayden discovers that he left her a house--one she had no idea existed until his death. It's a Victorian, Queen-Anne style mansion in the Connecticut country side. Ayden's grandfather, Liam McKenna, also left her a lot of money so she could renovate the house, which her family suggests she use to help them with their money problem. Ayden insists that she uses it for the intended purpose, fixing the house. She departs for Connecticut, amid a lot of tension and derision from her family. When she arrives, Ayden sees that it's falling apart and it's also home to a tenant: one Sydney Jenkins, the son of an old friend of her grandfather and coming to terms with a recent tragic accident. Ayden plans to fix up the house and sell it, hoping to help with her family's finances. Sydney takes offense to the plan, and after a lot conflict, they agree to fix up the house, and come to an agreement once the house is fully furnished. So begins my first "realistic fiction" story.  I still have no idea what I'm going to call it, but as the title of today's entry suggests, I'm open to suggestions.
So, any thoughts, people? I'm looking forward to hearing from all four of you! (Or more, if anyone accepts the invitations I sent out.)
Over & Out,
Rachel