Principal Actors
[Two co-protagonists]
Co-Protagonist 1 - 17-year-old Miguel Reilly, an Irish-American, archaeology nerd, plans to spend the summer exploring New Mexico indigenous ruins and learning about their culture.
Instead, his native guide Tomás reveals he's a shaman who trains apprentices to battle an ancient Aztec dragon, even though he's resistant to accepting a gringo candidate.
The shy boy's life and worldview are torn, twisted and fantastically tested. Luckily an older woman Angelina entices him away from his dragon quest into an adventure of first-sex and first-love, an experience every kid would wish for themselves. Sorry, not X-rated but definitely R[omantic]-rated.
Then the dragon shatters Miguel's coming-of-age by taking Angelina's life. To recover and learn his true worth, Miguel must learn to channel his anger and revenge against the creature, deep in Mexico's heartland.
Co-Protagonist 2 - Maritza – The following summer in Mexico City, Miguel crosses paths with a twenty-something Maya med student whose traumatic life mission is to expose the dragon that nearly killed her as a young teen. After his New Mexico affair, the last thing on Miguel's mind is another love affair, or so he thinks.
But to become her ally, Miguel must overcome his own machismo and her distrust of American gringos if the two are to complete their joint mission. Her demeanor and intelligence will make Miguel lose his resistance to falling for another lover who might also become a victim of the dragon.
Support Cast
[in order of appearance]
Diversity & Inclusivity – this fantasy novel stars a strong cast of Chicano, Mexicano and Indio characters, including a mysterious dwarf of “mixed” gender.
Tomás Chaneco Martinez – the anti-hero shaman, highly educated, bilingual, outrageous, boisterous, likely a womanizer, of large build but not obese. Think: Benicio del Toro.
Blasa la Bruja – the Azteca witch, short, lithe, of indeterminate age, only appears three times and speaks very few words. Think: Yalitza Aparicio
Julio Jimenez – the bartender, educated, outgoing, fearless, an elderly hotel owner who befriends and advises Miguel. Think: Danny Trejo
Angelina – a pale, intelligent, educated, 20-something Hispanic woman, well-off with a hill-country estate who becomes Miguel’s first-love.
Joker – the Mexican dwarf of indeterminate gender. Think: Luis Guzmán [not a dwarf but short, with a singular look.]
Background Cast – Lascivious, rich-gringa ranch owner Señora Howard. A pair of drunk Chicano ranch hands in a knife fight. Eleuterio - Maritza’s ex-novio, adept at electronic surveillance. A family of condescendingly humorous US gringo tourists at the ruins. Armed Mexican military and police who are ominously omnipresent.
The Women Characters
[in order of appearance]
Blasa la bruja – a short, very aged azteca-mexicana of few words, who appears in pivotal scenes. A conjurer, sorceress-shaman and great abuelita combined in a small woman who takes on monsters.
Señora Howard – a wealthy gringa estate owner who covets native art and lovers with equal avarice and aims her overtures at Miguel.
Angelina – a 20s-something, very pale, privileged hispanic artist who entices Miguel into his first-love, another past apprentice to the shaman. Her death precipitated by the dragon devastates Miguel into quitting NM and his mission. Once recovered he will seek revenge in Mexico.
Maritza – no beauty by Euro-American standards, this daughter of an Aztec-Maya parents has spent her life opposing macho mistreatment and as a young teen even survived an attack by La Muerte. She uses Indio features and heritage, very dark skin, short stature, and resilient independence to mark herself a warrior, rather than a victim.
Trio of Elderly Mexican Women – who appear three pivotal times to nurture Miguel and Maritza toward defeating the Dragón. Young at heart, they defy stereotypes with their unique dispositions and needs.
The Dragón – one of the two towering manifestations of the La Muerte Blanca dragón is female, less physically aggressive, more spiritual, intelligent. The male is more magically empowered, with a ravenous hunger for human flesh and equally intelligent. Each deal with humans in ways that contradict those of their avatar beast.
Filming Locations
[as they appear in the storyline]
Northeastern rural New Mexico – think: 1969 Las Vegas, New Mexico, Easy Rider scenes. think: or another Western state hamlet.
Mountain and road scenes in Part 1 – Garden of the Gods, Colorado and mountains west of there. think: or other suitable, western sites.
Tampico, Mexico – large Mexican cantina-restaurant, open-air to the Atlantic Ocean wharfs
Plaza Tlatelolco, Mexico City – a fantastical, CGI version as during the Aztec Empire.
Mexico City, various historical locations as well as apartments, streets, cafes. think: in any appropriate Latin American city.
Chichén Itzá - various scenes in the archaeological park, as well as jungle scenes filmed in a tropical jungle country. think: Costa Rica?
Dynamic Storyline
[includes three major plot points]
Conflicts/Violence/Resolution – A teenage archaeology geek struggling to accept a fantastical mission to defeat an Aztec dragon. An ageless shaman dealing with his prejudice against gringos, but hoping this apprentice might be the one.
A traumatized young Maya med student who will only find solace when people believe her dragon-escape story.
An Aztec bruja willing to sacrifice everything to aid them.
And a pair of avatar dragons whose sentience may not outweigh their hunger.
All repeatedly colliding and coalescing through two summers in panoramic New Mexico and Aztec history-laden Mexico.
First, a crisis climax – protagonist nerd Miguel struggles to accept he must battle the Dragon, risking his own life. When the Dragon takes the life of his first-love, he's shattered into depression. [middle of Part 1]
Turning point 1 is a catharsis climax when protagonist Miguel overcomes the devastating loss of his first-love by heading to Mexico to take revenge on the monster. [end of Part 1, start of Part 2]
Turning point 2 is a revelation climax when the co-protagonists find the means to jointly battle the second dragon lurking in the ancient Chichén Itzá Archeological Ruins in the jungles of Yucatan. [ending of Part 2]
A Powerful Franchise
This novel consists of Books 1 and 2, of roughly equal page-count and time periods. Would each make for a great feature film? Of course the author says, Yes! However, you must decide for yourself.
Then there’s already 2 Alt-verse SF/F Prequels, one which won 1st Place in the Ultra-Fiction Contest [Somos en Escrito Literary Press].
The other was honored by Writers Digest in their Genre Competition.
They feature the shaman Tomás Chaneco Martinez and the Dragon, from its earliest times. You can check it out here.
The Sequel has begun!
Here’s a taste of how the tale continues in Book 3…
A flooding, rushing river carried him through the darkness, bouncing his body from one side to the other. He stretched arms or feet to not break a leg or crack his skull. More worried he'd be impaled on a rock midstream, he closed his leg to protect penis and sac.
Whatever he hit on the sides, nothing hurt like expected. As if the walls were pushing him away or, made of cushions.
The darkness went on without end. Never an opening or lighted area or even a glimmer of a reflection off the surroundings.
The waters were cool but soothing, not chilly or slippery from algae or plant life. Splashes sounded like a sizable river, more than a stream, deeper than he could feel with his feet. Yet noise levels too were low, Feeling unnatural, just short of wrong. His ears should've almost burst.
But maybe, he was what was wrong.
His mind seemed fairly clear. He remembered his name, parents, last year. But much of the recent past stayed on the lip of memory. A concussion? From a fall or a beating? Couldn't remember what or when or where.
His body felt more wrong than his mind. Not aches-n-pains wrong. Something else. Like, drugs? Psychedelics? Pain meds? Whichever, he wouldn't look forward to the hangover.
Licking his lips to check for residue, his tongue seemed to spring back, a slight shock without static but springing with an energy. Psilocybin lip gloss or WTF?
This had to end. But how soon? And where? Was there even a way he could get "off" this underground river? Underground river. Like, under ... the Earth, somewhere. Under, under ... a cenote, came to mind, finally.
He'd been in or near a cenote, probably in Yucatan, though other places also had them. Yucatan sounded familiar, right on that edge-of-his-mind spot. If he could remember more, maybe he'd have an idea of how to get out.
There was no telling how long he floated onward. No watch. Chingau, at the moment he barely had more than a loincloth to his name. Clothes probably torn away by the current. Or the rocks. The rocks that seemed made of silicone.
He put 2 and 1 together and came up with 4. His tongue n lips. His body and the sidewalls. The rocks weren't bouncing him off. Something over, around his body was the siliconey stuff. Not just on his lips. All over him. WTF times 2!
No longer scared of cracking his skull on the rocks, he tried clapping hands together. No surprise. They could've been identical poles of two magnets. Almost like a clown, he turned over his right palm to strike his left palm, then both held opposite, then knuckles to knuckles. Everything the same. “Nada se toca.”
Spanish felt right, but it didn't just come from what he'd learned in high school. Deeper, like nearly fluent. How'd that happen? In Yucatan, or before? “Eh, no importa en este momento.”
Then what was important? Like, why wasn't he scared, or more like peeing-in-his-loincloth terrified? That too was wrong. He shoulda been. Maybe he had gotten some great drugs.
But no drug made you float. In fact he wasn't swimming or wading and needed no arm strokes to stay afloat. Really, he floated better than a canoe chopped out of an ahuehuete trunk. What, now he knew Nahuatl? Checking for fluency, nada. It was just familiar to him. “Whatever.”
The current stopped. Like he himself was part of the liquid, so did he, immediately. Dare he hope? He groped at the sides for a ledge or handholds. Nada. Above, he could reach nothing. Now what?
Scratching sounds was what. Hundreds or more tiny claws or feet rasping on both sides and above. Coming closer. By the sounds, they'd increased to thousands at least. Bats? Rats?
When what felt like a long cloud of what must've been bats flew between his open arms and around his head, he guessed they weren't the scratchers. Then tiny squeaks of countless maybe-rats poured around and past him, he knew he might be in trouble. But from what?
The rodent and bat scurrying faded to nowhere-near. At least the scratching had stopped. Cause he wasn't sure his bubble would've protected him from …whatever.
Then they returned.
Too near to want to know what they were.
Of that he was sure. They, them, whatever made such a tidal wave of scraping, maybe in search of food. Worse, food like him.
For some reason he reached for his heart, his sternum, his neck, searching for something. To protect himself? What could…
The current built up into a wave, like a bulge broken by the power of waters trapped behind it. He flew, twice as fast as before, and faster than the scrapers desperately trying to catch up. By the time he took his next breath, They were beyond catching up. This time, anyway…
– fin –