What the heck…? Ozark or Ozarks?
I live in Oklahoma, so the Missouri Ozark setting for my young adult novel entitled, Flower in the Hills is very near where I live. But here’s the question:
Is it Ozark?
Or Ozarks with an added S?
We say “the Ozark Hills,” but we travel to “the Ozarks.” Confusing, right? Sometimes we use the S—sometimes we leave it off!
Town Name Anomalies
Many anomalies (inconsistencies) exist in place names in America. We haven’t time to travel down that road, at least not very far. How about just one? In Oklahoma there’s a town named Miami. That’s easy. Everyone’s heard of the coastal city of Miami, FL. But not so fast; the town in OK is pronounced “Mi-a-muh” not “Mi-a-me.” So there you go.
How Many Square Miles?
The Ozark hills are situated in SE Missouri, and NE Arkansas and cover nearly 47,000 square miles. Yep. It’s that big!
I’ve visited the Ozarks often and the hills there are beautiful (as main character Latina learns in this story). The area at one time was filled with stereotypes of barefoot hillbillies, moonshine stills, rutted backwoods roads, and rickety cabins perched on the side of a rocky hill. But that has all changed. Those stereotypes no longer apply. (If indeed they ever did.)
Ever Been to Silver Dollar City?
Nowadays you travel on smooth highways that wind through the hills, and you enjoy such places such as the theme park, Silver Dollar City, and the resort town of Branson, which is filled with Las-Vegas-caliber shows and concerts.
Latina’s summer visit to the Ozarks in Flower in the Hills rests somewhere between those two different time eras. (Definitely before theme parks and super highways.) She arrives in the town of Zell’s Bush with her own preconceived thoughts, ideas, and perceptions.
Have you ever had that happen? You have ideas about people, or a place, only to learn to your surprise, that you were totally off? Latina encounters surprise after surprise during her summer in the Ozark Hills—surprises that change her life forever.
Because Flower in the Hills takes place a generation or so ago, you read about a few things that are quite different from today. We’ll take a closer look at those in future blog posts.
Writing/Publishing Sites
http://www.beanovelist.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BeANovelist/
http://www.cleanteenreads.net/
https://www.facebook.com/CleanTeenReadsNet/
