Boardwalk Tales

The Credwell Chronicles
In 1906, a family lived on Main Street near Fred Swanton's Tent City. The children enjoyed playing in the pool and attending concerts in the Casino, while the parents were invested in the company but distrusted Swanton's motives. Little did they know that Swanton's plans would directly interfere with their lives. Three generations of tragedy from the Great Casino Fire of 1906 to the final death that sealed the fate of the Plunge in 1962 combine to form one tragic and terrible narrative encompassing the life and times of the Credwell Family.

This is an ongoing local fiction-horror project utilizing historical events and linking them to the legacy of one fictional family with Santa Cruz roots. The following chapters are drafts prone to updates, expansions, and revision. They constitute what is considered the middle of three story arcs, the first of which will introduce the parents and the third of which will wrap up the family's surviving members. This middle arc focuses on the tragedy of 1906:

Chapter 1: The Past and the Future
Chapter 2: Sense and Sensibilities
Chapter 3: Dull Moments and Restless Youth
Chapter 4: Gin & Tonic
Chapter 5: Salty Air and Bitter Coffee
Chapter 6: Boiling Tea and Cooking Oil
Chapter 7: Lacquered Floors and Onion Domes
Chapter 8: Resolution and Sacrifice
Chapter 9: Fire and Water
Chapter 10: Stairways and Sink Basins
Chapter 11: Bolts and Boilers
Chapter 12: Cops and Cronies


Tales of Buccaneer Bay
In 1752, the pirate ship The Flying Dutchman disappeared into the waters of an unknown sea with most of the crew perishing in the tragedy. Previously to that, a mutiny had overthrown the vile and evil Captain Billy Bones. Now, twenty years later, a surviving mate of that fateful voyage and an adventurer have set out to find the lost treasure and claim it for their own. Little do they know, the spirit of Bones lives on and he's thirsty for blood!

Tales of Buccaneer Bay is a two-phase project conceived while working at the Neptune's Kingdom Buccaneer Bay Miniature Golf Course at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The first phase of the project is to produce a comedic, sarcastic, and generally British-styled fictional novella concerning the date of Captain Billy Bones and his treasure. Two plot lines will parallel to tell the tale from the perspectives of the Second Mate, Robert "One-Eyed Bob" Sullivan, and the adventurer, Jack Flint. Following the prologue, the chapters will read in such a way that a person playing on the real-life golf course would be experiencing the parallel stories first hand. When the Golf Course originally opened in 1991, such a story line was already established, but it has been lost since that time and this is an attempt to reinvigorate the story and the course, linking them to something memorable.

The novella will contain periodic illustrations and obvious, though indirect, references to aspects of the miniature golf course.  It will consist of 38 chapters: 18 for each hole of the golf course from each main character's perspective, a prologue, and an epilogue. Each chapter will not exceed 10 pages and most will be fairly short and fast-paced. The ideal audience for this book would be the 16 to 40 crowd.

The second phase of the project is to produce at least one fully-illustrated children's book telling Jack Flint's story from a simpler perspective. The audience would be roughly 6 to 9 year-olds with the story remaining simple and each two-page spread showing the scene of the golf holes. It could be possible to read the book while playing on the golf course. Indirect references to aspects of the holes would again be likely and they may be more obvious. Most of the rude and sarcastic humor of the novella would be removed to permit a more streamlined plot.

Boardwalk Ghost Stories
The following are just short ghost stories that I created while working at various locations in the Games & Arcades Department at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. They are all rough and short and have no basis in fact.

The Specters of Neptune's Kingdom
The Tale of the Laser Tag Operator
The Tale of the FrightWalk Operator

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