AVEN is the name of the fictional Alabama boom town in Dougie Bailey's DEVIL MAKE A THIRD which he modeled after DOTHAN. The literal meaning of an AVEN is "a vertical or highly inclined shaft in limestone, extending upward from a cave passage, generally to the surface"; in other words, the opening of a sink hole. Virtually ALL of the land in Dothan is part of the Lime Sinks region of Alabama. This is a common physiographic region in Georgia and Florida, however, only about 1000 square miles of Alabama are in the Lime Sinks. (Of course, Houston County also has a little town located slap dab in the middle of it called AVON. By changing the "O" to an "E", Dougie Bailey reminds us that old Dothan had a spelling controversy when its post office was misspelled DOTHEN from 1871 until 1897)  http://cartweb.geography.ua.edu/lizardtech/iserv/calcrgn?cat=North%20America%20and%20United%20States&item=States/Alabama/Counties/houston//Houston1977a.sid&wid=1000&hei=900&props=item(Name,Description),cat(Name,Description)&style=simple/view-dhtml.xsl



 http://www.wtvy.com/content/news/A-Sinkhole-has-opened-up-alongside-a-Houston-County-Home-460839243.html