Oliver Moss

Babbling about my Nano projects because it might help me shape it a bit. I've got characters, backstory, setting hook... I have a possible idea for plot resolution but I am not super into it yet.

I have a horrible kludge of what I want the cover to look like. I posted about commissioning art on tumblr, worried I'd get spammed, but so far no replies actually.



Basic set up: Paranormal investigators on a train in the Coast range in Oregon. Yes, best hook ever. But since I am writing it and not just reading it, I need to figure out how to do it justice.

POV character - Devon: Used to be active in paranormal investigations. He's done no work people have been aware of for fifteen years now. He's said to be the protege of another investigator named Cynthia and has a lot of people coming at him very entitled because 'as Cynthia's heir' he owes them something. He's telling himself he decided to join because it's a free ride on a train he'd never be able to afford to otherwise, and 99% of supposed hauntings have mundane causes so what are the chances? This is probably just free dream trip. But really despite everything he's be through he wants back in the game. He's isolated. He hasn't used his specialized knowledge or skills in a long time and he's itching to.

Aylene and Martin - They run a paranormal group up in Washington. Both of them used to be attached to an small liberal arts college, but five years ago the dean killed the program because it would look bad for the school. Aylene and Martin were pissed at the time, but have since realized that the dean real the winds of the political landscape correctly and the school still having the program would have lead to obsessive attacks by certain alt right groups. Despite being true believers and having some uncanny footage, most of what they did involved teaching students to deal with data they didn't understand. They taught classes on combining research of both the hard sciences and the social sciences. Most of their investigations wound up helping people who were having health issues caused by wiring problems or improper sewer venting. They testified in 3 court cases against companies that own apartment buildings. (Note: There is a paranormal group of of Georgia and I've been to a few of their presentations. A good number of freaking out people who sought their help turned out to have the head of their beds right over a fuse box and moving the bed solved it all. It became literally the first thing they check for, even if a lot of their client felt very invalidated and upset by a mundane explanation)

What they used to do was so damn satisfying they refuse to throw in the towel and are trying to form a stable, financially viable organization of their own, but it's going badly. This job would help a lot.

Aylene specializes in anthro and psych, Martin in physics. Aylene is older and angry at how things went with losing the department. She's running what exists of the group out of her house and is sleeping in a bedroom full of file boxes. Martin is younger and leans more towards being really happy that he managed to work such a job at all and doesn't have to entirely give it up. He's also more traditionally employable and could pivot if he needs to. For Ayelene... she's older, had tenure, can really only work in academia, etc.

The group has a few part time members, all former students, but none of them could make this trip. Some were supposed to, but a a change in scheduling left Ailene and Martin scrambling. They are still surprised that their hail mary pass of asking Devon to join actually worked.

The group is in a weird spot. Despite their stellar track record in actually helping people, people outside the paranormal community discount them for being paranormal investigators. In the paranormal community, most think they are not serious and use 'paranormal investigators' as a bit. They think Martin and Aylene are having a laugh at them.

Josh - The youngest of the group. He's a grad student in transportation and logistics. Aylene cast a wide net for someone with specialized knowledge about trains and got him. He wasn't really clear on what he was signing up for, but it was a paid gig and sounded like an adventure. He's easy going and curious.

Jennifer - The train's driver for the trip. If this project to make a tourist route through the mountains actually happens, she'll be one of the engineers employed by the company. She doesn't believe in the paranormal, but knows a lot of people have freaked out or been injured on the test runs. She really wants this sorted. She wants this to be her job.

The set up:

There is a train route that was originally made for mining in the mountains, and until recently the family that owns the land had still been using the route for various reasons. (I have this all detailed out, but it's unlikely to be plot relevant) They've been interested in a while in the growing market for high end train travel and their route has views of waterfalls on private land, also angles on mountains, rivers, the coast and the valley that only a handful of people have seen in the past few decades. They had no problem moving cargo over the route, but now that they are trying to make a passenger route, stuff keeps happening. Injuries, freak outs, etc.

The train has a diesel engine, a modern car for luggage / kitchen / modern bathrooms, a vintage Pullman seating car and a vintage Pullman lounge car with back deck. The train cars ones used in the PNW in the 1930s, adding to the ambiance. However, while the axles and train beds are mostly from the train cars they claim to be, most of the lounge car and part of the seating car were restored using parts from a train from Maine.

The Maine Train was rear-ended by a steam engine. The impact caused the steam engine to break and vent the steam into the passenger car. This didn't damage the metal, but instantly killed the 28 passengers. (Note: This is a real thing that happened, and reading about this accident is the seed this story came from. The company that owned the real train - Ohio's Nickel Plate 62 - renamed the car instead of retiring it. Now that the car is at the end of it's life span, it's a tourist attraction due to having been in a grisly accident. They now call it The Death Car. In my novel story, the train was retired and stored instead of being put back into use. Since it was in pristine shape, the company eventually sold it for parts. The metal of the car was fine, it's just everything else that got destroyed.)

So, basically they think they are in a PNW train that had maybe 2 on board deaths, but most of the parts are from an east coast train that was involved in a mass casualty event. And ghosts get very cranky when you call them by their wrong name, are remembered wrong, etc.

Hidden history, that is the name of the game. The route has waterfalls and views of mining camps and even goes through a tunnel that even train enthusiasts haven't even known existed because that section of the mountains is private property. Aylene and Martin, honestly very open about everything but everyone discounts them and they are outcasts from the paranormal and academic communities. They aren't silent, but are effectively silenced. Josh, well, if I do finish this damn book and decide to write more, it will be a trilogy and his dealio will be book 2. Devon has dealt with serious shit in the paranormal world. As entitled and nosy as people are about him, they don't believe him. Also, yeah, the 'Cynthia's heir' thing, Cynthia is his dead name. He *thought* that going with being her protege would like help him restart in life with a bit of clout but that backfired badly. Cynthia is basically an urban legend at this point, the local paranormal community exaggerates the stories a little more each year. Rather than clout, it got him a bunch of people angry at him, saying that since he was the one she chose he MUST help them, he MUST do this or that. They seen him as a piece of shit of having that gift and not sharing it. Between both traumatic experiences investigating and how damn shitty the community is to him, he withdrew from the world.

The train is not the train. 2 investigators are silenced/discredited. Josh is Josh. Devon has done a shit ton for the city he lives in but no one is interested in the real stories or how dark they are.

Devon's personal arc is a spark of connection with people he should be in community with, ones who don't suck. He isn't suddenly part of Aylene's group, has a BFF or is in love, but he is finally around the people he should be around. With Aylene and Martin it's that they all share this passion / knowledge set / skill set, etc. With Josh, Josh is bi and is a connection to another queer person and for Josh connecting with them makes him feel more grounded.

Now, logically, if shit gets bad then Josh would be able to spot how many rivets are new, signs of how much of the train did not start out as the train, etc. They could stop the train and climb up high enough to get a signal and look up the train parts (Fans maintain exhaustive databases of this stuff) They could look up the real history and go from there. That they need to climb, possibly through old trails and makeshift mining camps makes it a struggle and not just 'oh hey look it up', so I don't hate it as part of the resolution. But still, like... then they talk the ghosts into calming down? They use a doohickey one of the characters has?

I'd like to have the cars sent back east to rust in salt air to ease the spirits, but that isn't something our characters can do and also I'd like the ending to be the route existing and the group paid and Jennifer with her job, even if the rich owners benefit the most. But also status quo in terms of the business / larger world side of things also isn't hitting right.

So, that is where I am at.

More rambling while I am rambling.

Josh actually liking Devon and then kind of connecting is a storyline I want and am writing, but it's the part I feel super awkward talking about. A queer person being friendly to an older, isolated queer person instead of deciding that they are a piece of shit, that if they have problems is must be because they suck, etc... yeah, that feels like OTT wish fulfillment and I am awkward about it. (Note: this is my personal baggage not a value judgement in general.) I haven't written anything yet, but when I imagine the characters interacting I am fine with that and think writing it will be fine. But explaining that specific dynamic, writing it out, makes me want to die of cringe.

Devon & Josh become friends, this is not intended as a romance story.

I've changed Devon and Aylene's names a few times. I may yet change Josh's name to something else. Pretty set on Martin.

I have a lot of background on Aylene's group. I want to flesh out a few more members even if we don't see them. It is kind of a lot, tho. Officially, they go by the name Trillium, Inc (I may change this) because Trillium are not what they seem. They don't grow from seeds like flowers, they grow from deep underground connections. If you see a patch of Trillium it's all one plant, and some of the flowers down the mountain are also the same plant. It's why you do NOT pick trillium. Tourists to the PNW always think picking trillium and harmless because they think it's a wild flower and it's not. Aylene chase the name due to the importance of connections and it being a local plant. Most people in the group actually call themselves the Dizzies. Before Aylene picked a name, they called themselves The Dispossessed. It's a joke on being outcasts and also a paranormal joke because 'possession'. They shortened it to Dizzies. <- I might ax all of that as too much detail, but I kinda like it. I can see Alene wanting a nice sound name, a reference to local things, etc, and everyone else in the group sort of ignoring it in favor of Dizzies.

A lot of what's in the setup, like the ongoing long term investments in higher end rail travel, lack of cell service in the mountains (they will have a satellite communications device but it will be more like a very limited pager) how the route would work, rail car restoration and parts tracking on public databases is all very reality based. Not everything has to be accurate, but so far it's very how things actually work.

The haunting will manifest as flashes of terror, sounds only one person can hear, people getting thrown like the train is rocking hard when it's not.

That is about where I am overall.