You folks have outdone yourselves this time! Such great prison names. Confines, Claustrum, Guardian, Revisions. I loved them all. And if I were writing a futuristic thriller or satire, I could have used any of them. I was very tempted to use Lorna’s suggestion of Guardian, a company that wants to project the image of doing the country a favor and seeing itself in a positive light. But there are companies and products named Guardian, and I never want to malign any real people, places, or things.

So I chose the straightforward Corrections for a Safer America, CSA, because it felt the most realistic. Thank you, Angela Davis, for this submission!

Angela also submitted the very creative name Olga Krivitsky for the judge. It never occurred to me to make the judge a woman, but if I did, she’d be Olga. But the judge in this story is based on a real person who made the news, so I’m sticking with a male.

Of the other submissions for the judge’s name, there were three I liked so much, I couldn’t make up my mind: Winston Slaybaugh (from Sandy), Jedidiah or J.D. Bidwell  (from Jack Finch), and Ralph Bletzo (from Briana Stansberry). Slaybaugh, Bidwell, and Bletzo. They sound like a corrupt law firm.

I went back and forth so many times, I finally asked my husband to chose his favorite, and he liked them all too. We finally narrowed them down to Bidwell and Slaybaugh, then tossed a coin. So the judge will be J.D. Bidwell, who does anything but bid people well. Thank you, Jack!

But I’ll use the other two great names in the story somewhere. They’ll most likely be politicians, which seems appropriate. And because I like all three so much, I’ve decided to send the print book to Angela for CSA. Everyone else gets an ebook. I can send either The Trigger or The Target now, or put you on the list for The Trap when it’s released in December.

Thanks again, readers. I love your input.