Stump The Novelist
Posted on 09. Jun, 2009 by Brad in WTF | Twitter: @bradhart |
I have stumped myself when I started writing a companioin piece to my current novel. The situation is 50 fith graders, 2 teachers, 2 student teachers, 4 four parents and 25 acres of mostly wooded suburbia are thrown back in time. The location is the same, an area north of Dayton, Ohio, called Huber Heights.
Primary Characters (so far):
- Jim is in his mid thirties and a landscaper/urban forester under contract with the city and school district to run the “land lab”. He has a masters degree in forestry. He is an army reserve medic since the age of 18 has multiple active duty tours in Iraq. He is also an Eagle Scout and Scout Master. His daughter is in the class.
- Rene is a teacher in her late twenties, and Girl Scout Troupe Leader. She is also former military medically retired after losing a foot to a road side bomb. MOS undecided.
- Jane has taught fifth grade since 1968 and more than ready to retire. Despite being old, out of shape with multiple medical problems she was farm raised and not squeamish.
- Cecelia is a young parent whose only real skills are blackmail and finding sugar daddies. Afrocentric to the point of alienating her half white fifth grade daughter.
Land Resources:
- The piece of ground they have is an outdoor ecology lab owned by the school district.
- Connected to the Ecology Lab are a large open grass field with one tractor sized garage, two fenced baseball diamonds with concession stand, and a 1 acre parking lot.
- Soil has high clay content with many large claybeds that at least one person knows about and how to work.
Vehicles:
- 2 school busses
- 2 illegally parked cars both large American gas guzzlers
- 1 mommy-mobile SUV
- Jim’s work truck and trailer.
- 1 back hoe parked in the lot
- 1 John Deere tractor with various attachments in the garage.
- 4 bicycles chained to a bike rack
Supplies:
- each student has 2 twenty ounce plastic bottles, their lunch, a backpack, and the clothes they are wearing.
- The mommy mobile has been to Sam’s Club early in the morning known items are non-perishable bulk food, 2 boxes of printer paper, 2 large variety packs of garden seeds and another of edible flowers.
- Landscaping tools from shed and Jim’s
- the rest of Jim’s crap
Jim’s Crap:
- Jim has been to the fine woodworking store and liquor store prior to field trip.
- Truck boxes include 2 chainsaws with different bars, limb cutter, brush cutter, 3 different reels of chainsaw chain, caged 60 gallon gas tank.
- Jim’s Trailer is used for work, camping and Scouting.
- Known items in the trailer are homemade rope twister, large tent, various camp cooking items, variety of corded power tools, extension cords, power inverters, generator, small battery bank, four 10 watt solar panels mounted on the trailer, large rolls of wire suitable for snares, extra clothes.
- Laptop Computer
- .45 caliber pistol 58 rounds
- 12 gauge shotgun 36 rounds double ought 20 rounds bird shot.
Situational Problems:
- Current location besides being sent back in time is more than a mile from nearest water source
- People are thin on the ground so no likely help from the Indians.
- Animals including predators are abundant and not afraid of people
- It is spring (early April) which means there is little food to be gathered yet and animals are lean
- Early spring is notoriously rainy in Ohio.
With these things in mind my characters have two goals in mind, survive the short term, followed by prospering in the long term. The biggest problem to their survival is I have no idea where this story is going. I would love to hear thoughts and opinions from my friend s and readers. Just leave a comment or question below.
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