Win a book voucher worth $20 USD (or equivalent) AND a copy of The Otero County Disclosure when it launches in July. Five runners-up will also receive a copy of the eBook.

All you have to do is submit a name for a character in my next novel, using the form below. The winning name will be announced in the April issue of the newsletter.

So, what can I tell you to help you? I’ve been outlining the novel for the past 3-4 months. It’s a coming-of-age-tale-come-mystery, set in the US in the 1980s. It’s also a road trip across America.

An eighteen-year-old Texan college dropout is forced to travel with his widowed grandmother, a woman he hardly knows, from her home in the Hudson Valley, to Oregon, in 1983. Along the way, grandmother and grandson come to know one another and appreciate the other’s differences. In particular, the grandson, who comes to see the elderly lady in a completely different light; she had an extraordinary career as a journalist back in the 50s and 60s. A career nobody in the family really knows, or understands. She investigated some very odd stories and now, with her health failing, she wants to share what she knows.

The route of the trip is deliberate – each place visited holds a significance for the grandmother, related to her time as a journalist. And why did she give it all up and keep quiet for decades?

This is the character I’d like you to name…

However, they pick-up a hitchhiker along the way, somewhere in the Midwest. An attractive nineteen-year-old woman with a dog called Larry (named after her grandfather). A big black Newfoundland. The hitchhiker is smart and funny but somewhat elusive, almost mysterious. She’s heading home to Alamogordo (having been in NYC trying to get into acting school but her money ran out and no landlords would accept Larry). I haven’t yet decided what she looks like – perhaps you’d like to throw in some ideas as well?

So, there you have it. Send your suggestion(s) in below for the young female hitchhiker. You can submit as many ideas as you like. The closing date is Friday, 18 April. Oh, and I’m looking for a first name AND a second name (surname). And if you want to go so far as to suggest a nickname for her too, even better!

As an aside, I hope to release this novel – if all goes to plan – sometime in 2026.

Good luck!

Huey