After being scapegoated and fired for hacking his company, Tyler Morlin must clear his name and prevent the real perpetrator from destroying his family.
2. ANTAGONISTIC FORCE
Jane Ortega met Tyler when he joined her team at Google. She instantly became infatuated with him but initially checked her impulses because he was a committed husband and father. When she could no longer contain her lust, she sideswiped his wife Jessica on her bicycle commute in a hit-and-run murder with no witnesses, giving Tyler her shoulder to cry on and ultimately ensnaring him in a romantic relationship.
She introduced Tyler to Bucky Thomas, the CEO of Blanco Energy, a coal-fired electricity plant, who hired him to lead the company’s transition from polluter to solar power producer. Fueled by a grudge against Bucky after he broke off an affair with her, she teamed up with Reese Dillard, COO of Blanco Energy, who wanted to settle the score for being passed over for the CEO role after spending twenty-five years rising up the company ladder. They built a massive operation to steal Blanco’s electricity to mine billions of dollars of Bitcoin and disgrace Bucky.
Obsessive, crafty and vengeful, Jane will stop at nothing to get what she wants, even if that means destroying anyone who gets in her way.
3. BREAKOUT TITLE
Goldmine
The Mother Lode
Settling the Score
4. COMPARABLES
Genre: suspense/techno-thriller with relatable, flawed protagonist and fierce antagonist
The Chain by Adrian McKinty — kidnapping thriller with a protagonist who finds she’s capable of much more than she had thought to get her daughter back; ruthless, diabolical antagonist; plot involves high-tech (spyware, bitcoin, etc.)
Firewall by Andrew Watts — accessible techno-thriller with good action, character development, likeable protagonist and clever twists
The Spider Heist by Jason Kasper — morally-flexible protagonist redeems herself after being scapegoated and fired
5. HOOK LINE
When a widowed single-dad engineer is falsely accused of hacking a power plant after discovering a plot to steal its electricity for a lucrative Bitcoin mining operation, he must discover the truth before the real perpetrator murders his daughter and destroys his reputation.
6. INNER CONFLICT
Tyler carried the albatross of self-doubt after he made the difficult decision to take his wife off life support following her accident. Lacking her guidance and encouragement, his social anxiety grew and he lost the confidence to stand up to his superiors at work when they accused him of not being a team player. He second-guessed his actions, worrying he was making the wrong choice.
SECONDARY CONFLICT
Saddled with medical bills from his wife’s hospitalization and his daughter’s disease, Tyler reluctantly joined a coal-powered electric company to make ends meet. The lucrative assignment drove a wedge between him and his teenage daughter, Maddy, who blamed the company’s toxic emissions for causing her rare lung disease. She asserted her independence as they argued about his decision to join Blanco, date Jane and spend time with friends he wouldn’t consider ideal role models.
7. SETTING
Goldmine takes place in June, 2019. Most of the scenes are in Tyler’s home in Rockville, MD, an upper-middle-class city in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, whether it’s dialog between Tyler and Maddy or Jane, or time in his home office and on the phone with other characters. Tyler’s home office is meticulously set up for his technical projects. Other locations in downtown Rockville include Tyler’s favorite cafe, Roaster’s, his lawyer’s office, Spazio’s restaurant and the theater where Maddy performs.
Much of the action takes place at Blanco Energy’s headquarters, coal-fired plant and solar farm which are located in rural Dickerson, Maryland, forty-minutes Rockville.
The climactic scene takes place at the upscale Knyght Hotel in Washington, DC.
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Goldmine by Michael Feldman
1. STORY STATEMENT
After being scapegoated and fired for hacking his company, Tyler Morlin must clear his name and prevent the real perpetrator from destroying his family.
2. ANTAGONISTIC FORCE
Jane Ortega met Tyler when he joined her team at Google. She instantly became infatuated with him but initially checked her impulses because he was a committed husband and father. When she could no longer contain her lust, she sideswiped his wife Jessica on her bicycle commute in a hit-and-run murder with no witnesses, giving Tyler her shoulder to cry on and ultimately ensnaring him in a romantic relationship.
She introduced Tyler to Bucky Thomas, the CEO of Blanco Energy, a coal-fired electricity plant, who hired him to lead the company’s transition from polluter to solar power producer. Fueled by a grudge against Bucky after he broke off an affair with her, she teamed up with Reese Dillard, COO of Blanco Energy, who wanted to settle the score for being passed over for the CEO role after spending twenty-five years rising up the company ladder. They built a massive operation to steal Blanco’s electricity to mine billions of dollars of Bitcoin and disgrace Bucky.
Obsessive, crafty and vengeful, Jane will stop at nothing to get what she wants, even if that means destroying anyone who gets in her way.
3. BREAKOUT TITLE
Goldmine
The Mother Lode
Settling the Score
4. COMPARABLES
Genre: suspense/techno-thriller with relatable, flawed protagonist and fierce antagonist
The Chain by Adrian McKinty — kidnapping thriller with a protagonist who finds she’s capable of much more than she had thought to get her daughter back; ruthless, diabolical antagonist; plot involves high-tech (spyware, bitcoin, etc.)
Firewall by Andrew Watts — accessible techno-thriller with good action, character development, likeable protagonist and clever twists
The Spider Heist by Jason Kasper — morally-flexible protagonist redeems herself after being scapegoated and fired
5. HOOK LINE
When a widowed single-dad engineer is falsely accused of hacking a power plant after discovering a plot to steal its electricity for a lucrative Bitcoin mining operation, he must discover the truth before the real perpetrator murders his daughter and destroys his reputation.
6. INNER CONFLICT
Tyler carried the albatross of self-doubt after he made the difficult decision to take his wife off life support following her accident. Lacking her guidance and encouragement, his social anxiety grew and he lost the confidence to stand up to his superiors at work when they accused him of not being a team player. He second-guessed his actions, worrying he was making the wrong choice.
SECONDARY CONFLICT
Saddled with medical bills from his wife’s hospitalization and his daughter’s disease, Tyler reluctantly joined a coal-powered electric company to make ends meet. The lucrative assignment drove a wedge between him and his teenage daughter, Maddy, who blamed the company’s toxic emissions for causing her rare lung disease. She asserted her independence as they argued about his decision to join Blanco, date Jane and spend time with friends he wouldn’t consider ideal role models.
7. SETTING
Goldmine takes place in June, 2019. Most of the scenes are in Tyler’s home in Rockville, MD, an upper-middle-class city in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, whether it’s dialog between Tyler and Maddy or Jane, or time in his home office and on the phone with other characters. Tyler’s home office is meticulously set up for his technical projects. Other locations in downtown Rockville include Tyler’s favorite cafe, Roaster’s, his lawyer’s office, Spazio’s restaurant and the theater where Maddy performs.
Much of the action takes place at Blanco Energy’s headquarters, coal-fired plant and solar farm which are located in rural Dickerson, Maryland, forty-minutes Rockville.
The climactic scene takes place at the upscale Knyght Hotel in Washington, DC.