Travelers: Mini-Synopsis

Only a handful of people actually know what Travelers is about, although a number of people have asked me over the years. I've always had a hard time summarizing it. After I finished it, I discovered that (obviously) you have to summarize it for agents and editors (and sometimes a slightly longer synopsis as well).

As it turns out, I don't know what my own book is about. That is, I had a hard time boiling it down to a single theme or even plot point. There's just so much that happens, and it's all important to me! Some of this is due to inexperience writing query letters, and the rest of it is inexperience writing period. When I wrote Travelers, I just wrote what needed to happen. I didn't have a theme in mind necessarily until I looked back at it and saw what it was about. And even then...

Anyway, here's the mini-synopsis in its current state. I had an idea this morning that I might use to change it, but this is a start for those of you who want to know what I wrote about.

Dr. Alex Gaines considers himself a man of reason – after all, it’s reason that helps him create a time machine – but when he meets an old man claimed as a prophet, has to save his son from a self-appointed dictator, and comes to care for a lonely girl with powers beyond her control, he finds that reason may not have all the answers he needs.

Alex and his son travel more than 100 years into the future, where Southern California has become a wasteland after a devastating war. A small group of survivors live together for protection under the control of a man named Arad, but if the rumors about him are true, Arad is something more than a man; some believe he is the savior prophesied before the war began, others call him the devil. Those who speak against him mysteriously disappear, and now only a small group of rebels remains.

It seems nothing can stop him, until one day a strange girl arrives in the rebel camp in a most frightening way – exploding through a cave wall, unintentionally killing innocent people. The leader of the rebellion wants her dead, but many believe she is their only hope against Arad. As it turns out, Arad has plans for her as well, and while she struggles to understand who she is, Alex discovers that he and his son may be her only hope.