Author’s
Notes: This is the same excerpt of the story that was on my NaNo profile, but
there’s extra context at the beginning and end so that there’s new stuff to
read even for those of you who’ve already read it. I chose it for my profile
excerpt because I think it’s a good representative of the story content, plot
and style. There’s a mixture of narrative and online chat (and I admit, I’m not
sure how accurate my descriptions of BBS chat are, but I based them on the
information I have available), a bit of late 80s technology, some familiar
names from the Peter Pan canon, an
interesting revelation or two and hints towards the larger plot. I wanted to
give people a flavour of how the characters will be depicted in this universe,
and give them a sense of the setting. By and large, I used the same criteria
when I picked the first excerpt to post in this blog.
On with
the show!
---
The building was dark, but not deserted at this time of night.
There were a couple of guys sitting at terminals who looked up and nodded as
Wendy came in, then went back to what they’d been doing. Wendy sat down and
dialled in the number for the CompuChat BBS, which by now she knew off by
heart. It felt like forever since she’d last accessed the board at home.
By now, Wendy’s reply to the secretive user ‘Tiger Lily’ had
disappeared off the board, and in the week or so since she’d made the post,
nothing had come of it. Wendy was relieved and disappointed in equal measure.
Her search for ‘The Neverland’ had already hit a dead end and she wasn’t sure
where to go from here.
At almost the exact second she thought this, her screen split in
two and a chat opened up on the right-hand half of the screen, headed by the
words,
TIGER LILY WANTS TO
CHAT
