Nancy Lee

1. Story Statement A woman with a secret family kills her father then disappears in order to hide her crime and her true identity from her husband and daughter 2. Antagonist Slipper’s antagonism of her Melanie begins in the womb. She refuses prenatal care, hides the pregnancy from the potential fathers, and then – when she has twins – abandons, then separates them from each other as babies, finally choosing Melanie over her twin sister. Twenty years later, when Melanie is dealing with an unplanned pregnancy of her own, Slipper abandons her again, leaving her hurt, confused, and without clues as to where she went or why. 3. Title Slipper The Dark Wherever 4. Comps Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (For its alternating timelines; tough, fiercely independent young female leads; complicated romantic relationships; big reveals) I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins (Alternating timelines; mother who runs away; complicated parent-child relationships) 5. Core Wound and Primary Conflict A pregnant young woman wrestling with feelings of abandonment, launches a search for her missing mother that takes her back to the Seattle grunge music scene where she discovers lies, a body, and a secret twin sister who has a different father than her own. 6. Other Conflict: Two Levels Inner Conflict Melanie, unexpectedly pregnant at the same time her mother has abandoned their family, is scared, hurt, and confused. Unsure if she even wants the baby, she worries that if she doesn’t get answers about where her mother went and why, she could end up abandoning her own child someday, as well. Secondary Conflict Melanie’s father – a couple years out from a devastating car accident in which he lost an arm – is suffering since her mother disappeared. His mental and emotional health is crumbling, but he is telling obvious lies about what he knows, and resists Melanie’s efforts to find her. She fears that to find her mother and the truth, she must hurt her already ailing father. 7. Setting With alternating timelines, “Slipper” moves between present day Seattle, an ordinary family home in an ordinary neighborhood – and 90s grunge-era Seattle, gritty bars, music venues, warehouse crash-pads, and band vans. The story then moves to a squatter colony of artists living off-the-grid outside Sedona, Arizona.