that will help me decide how I write my character and her actions. Not sure if these are group decisions or if Joseph already has answers. I was looking up climates and regional terrain for northern islands in the Atlantic. I think we could take a little bit from each region, perhaps. For instance, this link will take you to a site that talks about the resources and terrain of some northern islands. I like the idea of the terrain here and the resources, like coal and stuff...

But I really like the idea that there is a growing season. I inspected the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map and if you look, you'll see there are still soem places up there in the northern island area that have growing seasons. These places will basically have weather like Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming -- for those of you in the US. I couldn't find a European version of this map!

So, those are some of my own suggestions. Does anyone else have any suggestions/ideas?