So is Cary Island real, but Cary's Island (how it's written in your fic) fictional? And the dog's name is Bear. And it's Canada.
Hahaha okay so what happened is I was trying to think of a story to recreate for the Rewritten Reylo anthology last year. My friend joked that I should use the Marian Engel novel, Bear, and I was like l m a oooooooo……..WAIT.
(Sidenote: I learned about Bear from some Tumblr post then got it out from the library and sent the um….relevant parts to friends so they could share the horror. Yes, this is what being my friend is like. So that’s how my friend knew about the novel.)
I got to thinking about how I could remake the story for Reylo. Kylo had to be the bear ofc so I was trying to think how he could be in this isolated place and kind of not able to leave, while Rey could come to him. And then *poof* the idea was born of alpha!Ben being an outcast and Rey coming for the summer and getting to know him etc.
The setting is real! My grandfather and his friend built cottages beside each other on a lake in Ontario and that’s where it’s set. :) There was no road access to the cottages until after I was born, so they had to bring everything over by boat. I changed the name of the lake and called the island at the entrance to the bay Cary Island (from the novel). Everything is real from the swamps to the islands to the directions of the waves when it rains.
I’m so sorry I wrote this reply months ago and didn’t publish it for some reason. D: Anyway, here it is!