In Dreams of Trees

Welcome to the homepage for my 2011 NaNoWriMo novel!

During October I’ll be building up the bones of the novel (crockpot plotting at its best!) so there will be lots of outlines and plotting and whatnot in this space in the days to come.

I’ll be blogging the apocalypse during November, so you can expect to see the very rough draft as it’s written. It won’t be linear, but it should be an amusing glimpse into the chaos!

Summary and Theme | Cast List | Four Act Overview | Contents/Outline

Summary and Theme

One Sentence Summary: Wendy and Peter Pan fight over the future of humanity.
Pitchline/Setting: Stargate Atlantis meets Peter Pan, as told by Tim Burton
Central Theme: Stagnation vs. Entropy
Genre: Science Fiction (Soft)
Blurb: Gray and Tan are chasing a kidnapper, Blue and Horn are hunting a serial killer, and Red is trying to save the world. There’s an Endless City hidden in the woods that holds the answers they need, but can they unravel its secrets in time?

Expand Summary

• A futuristic K9 CSI team investigates the disappearance of multiple children in a national park. What they find shakes the foundation of their worldview and forces them to reconsider what they have sacrificed in order to attain utopia.
• An elf and his teenage human bodyguard fight a faceless killer who is systematically massacring the Elven ruling class. But the killer’s motivations go well beyond the human revolution they’d suspected and suddenly the rules they’ve lived by for centuries are torn apart.
• A scientist grieving over the loss of his entire world sets out to reassemble the pieces, no matter the cost– but the City and her children are fighting him every step of the way.
• A sentient City, run by AIs based on the scientific team that build her, fights to maintain the stability of a purposefully fractured dimensional timeline and the thousands of worlds that fracture created.

Expanded Themes

• Acceptable Losses / Acceptable Gains
• Good of the One / Good of the Many
• Humanity / Inhumanity (Alien) vs. Humane/Inhumane
• Quantum Mirrors / Reflections / Refractions

And yes, that’s all the same story.

Note:

Title is recycled from my Stargate Atlantis fan fiction drabble set in the Where the Ocean Meets the Sky Alternate Universe and the stories share similarities in theme– so this is a derivative work of a derivative work, but you’d never know to look at it, eh? *grin*

Cast List

Names are placeholders for now, but I may end up using them throughout NaNo until I have a better feel for what they should really be called. The casting calls (played by) are just rough character fit, I’m having a hard time finding ‘voices’ that match. *pokes fictives* I sense some MuseFic on the horizon come November…

Grey : Female, early twenties, CSI, gray hair, gray eyes, thin, lean, ghost-like, played by: Kaylee (Firefly)/Brennan (Bones)

Tan : Male, genetically modified cyborg dog, CSI, wolfhound/bloodhound cross, waist-height back, mostly tan with gray and black markings, played by: Gibbs? (NCIS) Ginger (my dog), prone to seizures caused by logic loops, basic data processing/gathering lab on paws.

Blue : Male, older teenager, bodyguard, Servant caste, brown hair, green eyes, stubbornly loyal, curious, adaptable, played by: John (SGA)/Tony (NCIS)

Horn : Male, young Elf, owner of Blue, Ruling caste, small cat/raccoon-like, hollow poisonous spines along spine that can be inflated, fourth son, played by: Sweets? (Bones), falls into hunting and feeding frenzies, can tap into Blue to use his brain to translate speech. Perfect mimic, like parrot, most noises are bird-like rather than cat-like.

Red : Male, early forties(ish) prior to entering the City, scientist, tunnel vision, insane, driven, last first world survivor, incredibly gifted, tightly focused on his goal, in the midst of a psychological breakdown brought on by the destruction of his world and everyone he knew or loved, played by: Rodney (SGA)

Black : Male, serial Killer, amoral, inhumane/inhuman, mission-oriented, sociopath, lawful good stereotype, played by: Snape (Harry Potter)/ Spike (Buffy), dark hair, dark eyes, pale thin and sharp features.

White : Female, kidnapper, patronizing, robin hood complex, chaotic good, played by: Mal (Firefly) / Faith (Buffy), older white-gray hair, retired action hero trope.

Wendy : Female (maybe), AI, first world scientist, chaos champion (entropy, change, real world)

Peter Pan : Male (maybe), AI, first world scientist, static champion (stagnation, perfection, underhill, heaven)

Purple/ Lost Boys : Humans either kidnapped by White or who were called to the City by one of the AIs. Some can pass through the doors at will, others can only enter the city but not leave. Depending on where they are in the city, the will not age. There are multiple groups of Lost Children and many are working at cross-purposes.

Supporting Cast

Victoria Townsen – missing (kidnapped) child from Gray’s world
Tosh – murdered bodyguard from Blue’s world
Brian – young teenage leader of one group of Lost Children, hostile to Black (Grissom, NCIS/Clone Jack Stargate)
Nathan – member of Brian’s group
Sara – member of Brian’s group
Tim – member of White’s group of Lost Children
Tish – member of White’s group of Lost Children
Maddy – first world scientist, Red’s old flame
Skip – AI in Rodney’s group
Chatter – AI in Rodney’s group

Four Act Overview

Act I – Into the Woods

Primary conflicts are Gray/Tan chasing White and Blue/Horn chasing Black. Red has much lesser role here as he is already within the city.

This is a ‘crossing the threshold’ act where we move from the known to the unknown and create solid foundations/introductions for the two teams and the alien city setting. (Although technically she’s not alien since humans built her.)

Act II – Reflections/Refractions

Red picks up a stronger role here, along with Wendy/Peter and the Lost Boys. Gray/Tan and Blue/Horn move out of the city into other realities offering additional backstory for the city and exploration of the Quantum Mirrors / Reflections / Refractions themes.

Explanation should be given on the City’s creation and Red’s quest as well as some of the Lost Boy’s motivations. Still hunting White and Black at this point, however both pairs are losing that confrontation as a clear-cut goal. There’s a fracturing of character motivations here as the pairs start to lose cohesion and teamwork.

Act III – Too Old for Neverland

Heavy Purple influence here as the Lost boys dominate the storylines. Confrontations with White and Black as well as Peter and Wendy and Red as everything boils to a head.

Acceptable Losses / Acceptable Gains and Good of the One / Good of the Many play heavy here as everyone lines up on their own side of the chessboard. Not everyone is good at making hard choices.

Act IV – We All Fall Down

Red makes his final move and the City does the same, Gray/Tan and Blue/Horn choose sides, Wendy and Peter Pan muster their forces and–

Contents/Outline

And this is where my previous outline goes out the window and I just write randomly and try to sort said randomness into order. Somehow. *pokes story*

Prologue
Empty Sets

Gray and Tan’s Tale
A Sharp Right at Apple (527)
Clarke’s Second Law (456)
Burning Bridges (586)
Lost and Found (1,099)
Collateral Damage (649)
But Why? (997)
A Little Chaos Theory
Werewolf Bartenders [PLOTBUILDING]
And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street
A Star To Sail Her By
On The Road Again (713)
A Sea of Grass [PLOTBUILDING] (592)
Give A Dog A Job
And Damn The Consequences
A Ticket To Ride
Aftermath (298)
A Passing Fancy
Crossing Paths [PLACEHOLDER]
This Way To Neverland
For The Good Of The Many
Against The Dying Of The Light

Blue and Horn’s Tale
Treed (1,116)
Friend of My Enemy (660)
Found in Translation (984)
Of Pomegranates and Favored Sons (1,707)
Telephone Trees and Pictionary (454)
Alien (440)
Dues Ex Machina En Masse (383)
Practical Applications (408)
Open Sesame (679)
Raptor Santa [PLOTBUILDING]
City of Ghosts (975)
Dances With Nuts (229)
Come Sail Away
Bedknobs And Broomsticks
A Scurry of Squirrels (423)
Across Wide Water, Without Sound
Sign Language
Closing The Gaps [PLOTBUILDING]
Worst Idea In The History Of Bad Ideas
Laying The Trap
Pawn Takes Queen
And Suddenly (944)
In The Pale Moonlight
The Last Data Point
Revenge

Red’s Tale
I Hope You Dance (900)
Promises and Lies (552)
Almost Superman
Fair Maid Of Mine
Lines In The Sand
When A Plan Comes Together
I Said What I Meant
Promises
Outsourcing Saves the World (413)
Technicalities (493)
Straight On Till Morning

The City of Trees (Everyone’s Story)
Blue Needs a Subplot (852)
The Gilded Cage (558)
Promises to Keep (874)
And Then There Was Cheese (253)
In Sunshine or In Shadow (310)
Tipping Points
In The Beginning
One Plus One Is Blue
Ask Me No Questions, I’ll Tell You No Lies
The City Of Trees
Ghosts
Good Intentions
Choices
All For One
Ones And Zeroes
Time, Tides, And Man
Echoes
Protego
And On The Eight Day
Two Plus Two Is Apple
Never
This Is How The World Ends
Dance With Me
For The Good Of The One
Spark
I Am Become Death, Destroyer Of Worlds
A Bitter Kind Of Mercy
The End And The Beginning

Extra Bits (Worldbuilding, DVD Extras, Etc.)
The Endless City [WORLDBUILDING]
The City Of Trees [WORLDBUILDING]
John and Red [WORLDBUILDING]
Gray And Tan [WORLDBUILDING]
That Long Horizon [WORLDBUILDING]
The One With The Angel
Till Morning
The Best Of All Possible Worlds
Photographs And Kerosene (Nathan)
Tipping Points (366)
Straight On Till Morning (324)
Tendency To Swarm
A Fair Ways
And Beats High Mountain Down
Carry Me Home
The First Law
The Next Horizon
They Didn’t Care
Unbroken
Scorned And Covered With Scars (Brian)
The Covenant
The Death Of Time
Summer Nights
So Much For Diplomatic Immunity (White & Brian(