Brief

Gregor Buckingham is a man scarred from a childhood fire who finds in the city of Sedona a new meaning to his life. There he discovers an ancient power and true love. There, he also discovers a mortal enemy who he need to fight to preserve this new life.

What We Liked

In a fascinating version of our own world, Sedona discusses the relationship between religion and nature, the mundane and the supernatural. Its outstanding villain makes us question the effect of faith in our relationship with nature's hidden powers. Full of magic and tension, this story makes us grow fond of this unique city at the same time it transports us to Stonehenge and even the space!

Film: The Reverend August's obsession with his own greatness can deliver a very tense movie in the likeness of Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds, with Gregor's connection to the vortex being the trigger to a self-imposed quest from August, showing how his actions are responsible for everything bad that happens in the story. Including his own end.

TV: This story can have the potential to be a long-running TV show with the city as the main character, telling the stories of the people who are natural from Sedona and the tourists or just anyone who stops by. A procedural TV show would be perfect in a monster-of-the-week style of episodes, diving in the city legends and history, people dealing with magic, the vortexes, and the UFO sightings, adding Reverend August as a very good and despicable antagonist.

Key points:
1. A despicable villain.
2. Good supporting female characters.
3. The good guy wins.
4. The religious conflicts.
5. The new wave magic.

Synopsis

A tiny man-made object collides with the Space Station in Earth's orbit. This causes a severe malfunction in the Station system and puts it on a descending route towards the planet. While this happens, GREGOR BUCKINGHAM is one more time dreaming about the day his father killed his mother and almost killed him, burning the house where GREGOR lived when he was a kid. On this same night, TRAVIS, GREGOR's best friend since school, is watching the news about the incident with the Space Station. They are friends of CADENCE, who GREGOR knew as a cancer patient, and their relationship soon developed into a friendship.

After knowing a therapy dog called Sedona that, apparently, never existed, CADENCE become so obsessed with the idea of going to the city of the same name in Arizona that she convinced her two friends to go together, with CADENCE, leaving everything behind in secret.

In Sedona, we are presented to REVEREND AUGUST, leader of a local church who wants to reach more people with his sermons and sees an opportunity in the proposal from the American Christian Channel of filming one of his speeches. He sees himself as someone who was chosen by God himself to spread His word and convert people. His dream is to be noted by the Lord and contacted by Him. Sedona is a very difficult place for a man of God, as AUGUST itself recognizes. The city is famous for its UFO sightings, witch legends, the commerce of esoteric items, energized rocks, and vortexes.

When GREGOR, CADENCE, and TRAVIS arrive in Sedona, their attention goes to a local crystals shop where they discuss the veracity of energies and crystals. There they know LILLY, the owner of the shop, and her daughter IRIS, for whom TRAVIS has an immediate interest. Outside of the shop, CADENCE knows MITCHELL and after a beef talk, he convinces her to go to his father's sermon the next day.

AUGUST and his son MITCHELL discuss their visions on faith and preaching. For the REVEREND, people need to believe for good or for bad, which MITCHELL disagrees with. Their discussion starts when MITCHELL asks why his father is writing a new sermon instead of using the one he has already written. On the next day, CADENCE goes to the sermon because of MITCHELL. REVEREND AUGUST then starts his nationwide sermon focusing on witches, people who believe in energized stones, and the Devil. He calls Sedona the "new Sodom and Gomorra" and says that the Church exists to confront and overcome these false believers. After the sermon, CADENCE is presented to AUGUST by MITCHELL. The REVEREND does not like her for not being a true believer.

CADENCE and MITCHELL have dinner together at the Red Planet, a local diner with a focus on the extraterrestrial and the occult. There they meet TRAVIS by chance. He then invites the couple to the vortex tour the next day. Mitchell refuses for CADENCE and she agrees. TRAVIS meets IRIS and GREGOR for the vortex tour. During it, GREGOR feels a little disappointed for the lack of connection to the vortexes, nothing like he has already experienced. He then tells IRIS about the geoglyph he found earlier.

GREGOR starts to go alone to the geoglyph and to practice his connection with the vortex. His repeating practice draws the attention of REVEREND AUGUST, who notice him when observing the stars with his telescope. AUGUST thinks this is a sign from God so he leaves his house in the direction of the light emanations. He arrives and finds nothing, but GREGOR's amulet emanating the same light as him. AUGUST identifies this as witchery. GREGOR goes back to the plateau the next day and starts to question himself about why he even wakes up from his meditation. He feels only peace while doing this and becomes more and more powerful to the point of starting to travel to other places using the vortex. This power even cures GREGOR's burning scars. At the same time, AUGUST starts experimenting with the vortex and becomes more and more powerful. While IRIS starts to make her own connection with this energy and with GREGOR. They travel the world and even space together.

AUGUST starts to think of the vortexes as a test from God, It is the Lord offering him the power to cure people, which he assumes as a mission, and brings a camera crew to a Hospital where he starts to cure children, only the ones who share the same belief as him, obviously.

IRIS is kidnapped by AUGUST and held hostage in the malfunctioning Space Station in course of collision with Earth, with Sedona's plateau. GREGOR tries to save her at the same time REVEREND AUGUST and CADENCE go to the Plateau to cure her reminiscent cancer. AUGUST left CADENCE and transported himself to the Space Station and fights GREGOR there. Once they are back to Earth, AUGUST is still trying to kill GREGOR, as he believes is any server of the Lord's mission to eliminate the Wolves who can diverge their herd. After REVEREND AUGUST threatens everyone with killing, TRAVIS convinces him, using his own biblical logic, that GREGOR can teach him how to encounter God, and the door to Heaven is localized in a vortex on the Sun. AUGUST wants to teleport to the Sun. He forces GREGOR to get him there. They do but disappear for a long time. Later, MITCHELL assumes his father's church, TRAVIS, a cured CADENCE, and the other survivors keep on with their lives. While reuniting in Sedona, they witness IRIS and GREGOR coming back as one entity made living in unity with the vortex.

About The Author

Mikel J. Wilson is an award-winning mystery and science fiction author. Wilson draws on his Southern roots for the international bestselling Mourning Dove Mysteries, a series of novels featuring bizarre murders in the Smoky Mountains region of Tennessee.