Novel / Literary historical fiction

Alas, Dreamland

At Coney Island's Dreamland in 1904, a nurse who keeps premature babies alive in glass incubators is caught between the lion tamer she's promised to and the quiet electrician who notices everything, while the park burns its way toward the fire of 1911.

Two people walking the Coney Island boardwalk past the Wonder Wheel on a gray morning.

Status: Complete draft, revising
Length: 158,701 words · about 12 hours
This draft: Complete draft, August 2025

Dreamland opened before the paint dried: a million electric bulbs, a tower you could see for miles, a ride called Hell Gate, and, between the lions and the roller coasters, Dr. Couney's exhibit of real premature babies in glass boxes, a quarter to look. Minnie Thompson is the nurse who keeps them breathing. She's engaged to George Dressler, the German lion tamer whose act anchors the park, and she has learned to hold her breath every time the cage door closes behind him.

Then James Harris arrives to keep the wiring alive. He's careful and quiet, carrying his dead brother's stopped watch and a name that isn't quite his own. Over seven seasons of storms, winter repairs, bad money and one lion that won't forgive anybody, the three of them circle each other in a place built to look permanent and made of fresh lumber and electricity. The book opens on the night it all burns. The rest is how they got there.

Heads up: this one deals with fire and disaster, serious injury and amputation, alcoholism, grief, the illness and death of infants.

Start reading: Prologue Story guide · 57 cards Notes on the book

CONTENTS84 chapters

Revision notes15 open

The to-do list for the next draft: places where the book contradicts itself, where it drifted from the plan, and real-history slips. They get checked off here as they're fixed.

continuityGeorge's arm
Lost to Caesar in October 1906 (ch 2, 35), already one-armed from Barcelona (the prologue, ch 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13), Caesar slashes "what remained" of it (ch 29), and from ch 43 on it's a missing finger instead.
Chapter 2 Chapter 35 Prologue Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 7 Chapter 9 Chapter 11 Chapter 13 Chapter 29 Chapter 43
continuityMinnie and George: married or not?
"Three years of marriage" in ch 2-3, living together unmarried elsewhere, and married eight days then annulled in ch 36.
Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 36
continuityJames's name and past
James McIntyre Harris (ch 4), James McAllister, real name O'Brien (ch 10), James Wright from ch 42. His brother died at a Westinghouse plant in Pittsburgh (ch 10), then "the Queens facility" (ch 20).
Chapter 4 Chapter 10 Chapter 20 Chapter 42
continuityTwo Elizabeths
Elizabeth Brennan (veteran night nurse) and Elizabeth Chen (hired 1907). Ch 47 calls "Elizabeth" a young new nurse.
Interlude Interlude Chapter 46 Chapter 47
continuityChapter dates out of order
Ch 24 (1906) comes before ch 25 (1905). the interlude, Ch 27, 31, 33, 40 are set in 1905 among 1906 chapters. the interlude (1910) sits among 1907, and the interlude (1911) comes before ch 66 (1910).
Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 27 Interlude Chapter 31 Chapter 33 Chapter 40 Interlude Interlude Chapter 66
continuityThe park closes in 1909, then doesn't
Ch 62 closes Dreamland and sends everyone to Chicago in September 1909, and later chapters carry on as if it didn't.
Chapter 62
continuityRichardson in two places
He's in Florida in ch 72 but on hand in ch 73, 75, 78.
Chapter 72 Chapter 73 Chapter 75 Chapter 78
continuityHope Whitman
She goes home in April 1907, yet "Baby Hope's station" is still there in 1911 (ch 69), and ch 66 has a toddler called "Hope Couney".
Chapter 66 Chapter 69
continuityTommy Callahan's wife
Marie in ch 32, Maria in ch 69, and ch 40 calls her a fire-eater.
Chapter 32 Chapter 40 Chapter 69
continuityDr. Hess's hospital
Michael Reese in Chicago (ch 14), then Presbyterian, then "New York Hospital" (ch 71).
Chapter 14 Chapter 71
continuityGeorge on fire night
Ch 75 has George take Caesar out of the park, but ch 77 puts him at the fire.
Chapter 75 Chapter 77
continuityThe epilogue's setting
the epilogue is dated Miami Beach but set in a Bay Ridge basement, and mentions George "dying in French flames".
Epilogue
continuityThe Whip
It breaks for good in ch 59 (1908) but runs again in ch 70 (1910).
Chapter 59 Chapter 70
bibleBible vs. the draft
The bible says George Comstock, George dies in the fire, Minnie and James marry and have a daughter, six babies saved, the watch stopped at 3:27, James is 21. The draft says Dressler, George survives, they never marry, twelve babies, 3:17, and James is 26. Pick one and update the other.
historyReal-history slips
The Elephant Hotel burned in 1896. The Whip wasn't patented until 1914. A Trip to the Moon and Dragon's Gorge were Luna Park rides, not Dreamland's. The financial panic was October 1907. The Parachute Jump arrived in 1941. The real Dr. Couney worked until 1943.

Version history2 drafts

Current · August 2025

Complete draft

The full book, framed by Minnie's recovered journals. George now starts with both arms and loses one to Caesar in 1906, the opening frame of an archivist finding the journals was added, and the ending moved from a Miami Beach reunion scene to the historian closing the last journal.

Earlier · July 2025

First draft

Three chapters that survive from the first draft: the fire-night opening, the first night in the lion arena, and the original Miami Beach epilogue. In this draft George has already lost his arm when the story begins.

3 chapters · 2,884 words. Where a chapter survived into the current draft, its earlier version sits in an accordion at the bottom of that chapter's page.