2012 NaNoWriMo: EPOCH

The Beginning/End/One Sentence Description/Background

Write your story's beginning and end.

beginning

The alerts sounded and military personnel recalled; the decisions made; the orders given; the keys turned and the buttons pushed; the missiles, more than enough to destroy all life on earth three times over, launched and exploded their poisons and the radioactive dirt scoured from the ground by blast force rose high into the atmosphere to block the sun for too many years. In an instant, at all the ground zeroes and in most of the northern hemisphere, all the fretting, terror and horror was over. In the remote pockets of the northern hemisphere, life hung on for a few weeks, then died of radiation poisoning. In the southern hemisphere, the people at those few points of ground zero died instantly and the surrounding areas slowly measured the rising radioactivity spreading outward. Over a matter of months, the sun became dim as the dust from the northern latitudes filtered south. Within six months animals and plants sickened and died, not just from the radiation; but also, from the lack of sunlight. Nuclear winter already froze the north; the south wasn't far behind.

end
William James Dilliard IV and Nagiru Running-Wolf looked at each other and smiled. The time had come to open the doors and excavate the tunnel that would allow their people to walk the surface of Mother Earth once again.



one sentence description

Fifty culturally diverse family groups--1,439 "tourists"--escaped the immediate holocaust of the nuclear war inside a mountain complex built and set up by a secret foundation whose members and contributors never personally benefited from their efforts.

Main Character Background story

"End of the world stuff," said Bill.

"How long til we get it?" said Darren.

"Round the end of this last harvest, but not quite long enough to process more than twenty percent. We have stocked what is left of last season's goods, and with the need to ship out being unnecessary, we will actually gain an extra ten percent in the projected stores."

"Only ten percent, Billy? Well, I suppose it could be worse."

"Yes, it coulda been worse. So Darren, do we have a chance in hell? I mean, in five months or less we are dead, too--right?" Bill looked away from the lists on the clipboard he held and looked his brother square in the eyes.

Darren looked at Bill and nodded with a scowl. "Possibly, we won't be dead, but the surface will be uninhabitable for at least thirty years."

"Yeah, Darren, I know the flap. I read it too, remember? But, is it propaganda or is it fact?"

"Don't know Billy. Guess we will find out."

"Yeah, we're going to find out, all right."

Bill turned away; Darren reached out and grabbed his sleeve. "We are the lucky ones, Billy. We been chosen to carry on."

Bill shook his head but didn't look at Darren. He wondered; were they truly the lucky ones, or just destined for a slower annihilation than the rest of the world population?

Darren let his grip slip from his brother's sleeve as Bill walked away. "Yeah, the lucky ones, Bill. We will make it fact."

Bill turned with a quick glance at Darren to determine if his brother was reassuring him or himself. Darren had turned and headed for the guard shack and all Bill saw was his bother's back. More trucks were arriving. He needed to get forklift crews to unload the goods.

Their families were already in the mountain, they had arrived last week just before the northern hemisphere went mad and blew themselves up. There were pockets, even south of the equator that were hit, but not like the north. There was no saving the polar bear--now--or the penguin, or the whale, or the rainforest. Hell, they'd be lucky to save themselves.

His family had been drawn in the lottery, like the other fifty families around the world. Three-limited-generation families; living grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles and children. Bill knew it was less of a lottery and more of a computer statistical choosing. Twenty six to thirty members of a single family group were picked. Every family who qualified, consisted of members, who, also met specific criteria for intellect, race, function. The people chosen to live in the mountain were hand picked as the most likely to survive the hardship of long term isolation as well as tolerance for other cultures. The notices went out as lottery winners, all expense paid vacation down-under; only, everyone on the list was given little to no choice about taking the vacation. When the threat became quite imminent, agents were dispatched around the world and the persons on the list were flown to the isolated resort location, and disappeared into the mountain. Fourteen hundred and thirty-nine people from all around the world, some willing, some literally snatched; but, every person on the list accounted for and present. And now, there was less than five months to top off the storage vaults with essentials that needed to last for a minimum of fifty years and a maximum of a hundred and fifty. Bill knew he would most likely die inside the mountain and it would be his great grandchildren who would emerge out into the new world. They were man's second chance. Bill wasn't sure he personally wanted to be a part of man's second chance; but, he loved his wife and children and had chosen to walk willingly into the mountain for their sake; well, that and he didn't want to die among strangers.

650 words

People in the Mountain: An Extreme Character List

More than just story character's Listed here: The whole population in the mountain whether mentioned in the story or not influences the crises and the climax of the story. Every person plays a part in the outcome of the story. So I will keep a running tab on all the initial population and the subsequent population.

Draft a list of your characters and write a brief profile on each one
(first and last name, age, occupation, in relation to main character/s,
rough physical description) Keep your list handy for future updates
throughout the Prep.


1) Dilliard/Running-Wolf/Johnson/Rogers/Byrne Family Group {21 family members} (American [French/Sioux/Teutonic/English])

Bill; 30 yo; William James Dilliard, Jr.; Electrician


Darren; 25 yo; Darren Jason Dilliard; Diesel Mechanic

William James Dilliard, Sr.; 49 yo; Mechanical Engineer; Bill & Darren's Father
Agatha Christine Frost Dilliard; 47 yo; grade school teacher (3rd grade); Bill & Darren's Mother

Rebeka Dawn Dilliard; 32 yo; Historian--HS History Teacher; divorced no children:W.J.Dilliard,
Sr.'s sister
Robert Kristoffer Dilliard; 40 yo; Dentist/Oral Surgeon; never married (Gay); W.J.Dilliard,Sr.'s
brother

24yo; Sapphire Willow Running-Wolf Dilliard; Bill's wife
5 yo; William James Dilliard, III; Bill's son
2 yo; Opal Rose Dilliard; Bill's daughter
6 mos.; Cougar Jasper Dilliard; Bill's son

Adrian Moon Running-Wolf; 48 yo; Linguist/Historian Professor of Native American Studies.;
Widower; Sapphire's father

Storm Skye Running-Wolf Johnson; Adrian's sister; 40 yo; no children; Botanist; College Professor;
Adrian Moon Running-Wolf's Sister
Elmer Franklin Johnson; 42 yo; Storm's husband; Ecological Engineer; Storm's husband

Samantha Cynthia Rogers Dilliard; 25 yo; Darren's Wife
6 yo; Dillon William Dilliard; Darren's son
3 yo; Sara Renee Dilliard; Darren's daughter

Allard Gerold Rogers;Mathematician/Researcher; Samantha's Father
Eileen Briana Byrne Rogers;Housewife/community volunteer; Samantha's Mother

Eileen's brother: Kevin Dahy Rogers; HS English Teacher/American Literature; divorced
Kevin's son; Randall Davin Rogers; Artist--sculptor/volunteer fireman
Allard's brother: Collin Liam Rogers; Optometrist; (Gay)

(1418)

2) (Chinese[Mandarin/Cantonese/Hunanese])


3) (Korean/Italian[Korean/American])


4) (Japanese)


5) (Thai/Burmese/Vietnamese [American])


6) (North West African)


7) (Armenian/Greek/Persian)


8) (Ukrainian/Russian)


9) (Russian/Czechoslovakian)


10) (Albanian/Armenian)


11) (German/Austrian/Swiss)


12) (Norwegian/Scotsman/Dane)


13) (Dutch/German/Dane)


14) (Welsh/Irish [Celtic])


15) (Central East Africa)


16) (Swedish)


17) (Icelandic)


18) (Finnish)


19) (Polish/Czechoslovakian)


20) (Romanian)


22) (French)


23) (Italian)


24) (Germanic [German/Austrian/Swiss])


25) (Slavic [Ukrainian/Bosnian/Polish/Serb])


26) (English (Norman/Anglo/Saxon)


27) (Spanish)


28) (Portuguese)


29) (Native Peruvian [Inca/Maya])



30) (Argentinian [Spanish/English])


31) (Mexican [Spanish/Native American])


32) (Brazilian [Portuguese/Native])


33) (Caribbean [Jamaican {African/Spanish}/Puerto Rican ])


34) (Haitian [African/Spanish])


35) (Cuban [African/Spanish])


36) (Central American [Spanish/Mayan])


37) (Northern South America [Venezuela/Columbia/Guyana/Ecuador])


38) (Central Canadian/ Central American Natives)


39) (Western Canadian/Alaskan Natives)


40) (Pacific NW Native American)


41) (North Eastern Native American)


42) (Southwestern Native American)


43) (Central African)


44) (Southern Africa)


45) (Basque)


46) (Arabian)


47) (Turkish/Iraqi)


48) (Iranian/Persian)


49) (Pakistani;Indian)


50) (Egyptian/Isreali)



Above is some prep work on my NaNo project--basically I started a full listing of the 50 family groups who will be interned in the Mountain. Of course, not every 1,439 individuals will be mentioned in the book; however, so that I have a feel for who the major and minor characters know, and because nearly every person in the population will be known or at least 'known of' by the participating POVs in my story, I as the God of this underworld must needs know of them too.

I have basically Listed all my first family group; i.e., the family of my Major characters; and I've listed nationality groups of the remaining 49 family groups enclosed in the mountain sanctuary.

As I develop the members of the family group I need to research regional and racial/cultural names religious and political influences. With a world wide sampling of people and cultures, there promises to be quite the upheaval for 'getting along.'

Everyone in the mountain will be exposed to the most extreme in culture shock and some cultures more so than others. There will be a push to mingle as well as keep cultural customs intact. The next couple generations will grow up aware of all the cultural cornucopia and undoubtedly will adopt multicultural practices much to the concerns of the first generations.

Also, due to the limited, 1 family per tradition and specific genetic identifier--intermingling of races will be inevitable. The hidden agenda of the Humana Institute (me thinks) was to homogenize the races as much as possible in the shortest amount of time and yet keep cultural traditions/ceremonies of the world as alive as possible.

I am beginning to visualize the controversies (conflicts) to my 'ideal Utopian endeavor.'



WOW! I have my work cut out for me on this project. But I have a feeling it will be quite educational for me and my characters. We are all in for one heck of an eye opener on what constitutes the creation of the Perfect Utopian Future. Of course, every Utopian world has its underside, the dark side. I am looking forward to discovering what this Utopia has in store.