The Writer's Voice Contest!

I've just entered The Writer's Voice contest! More information here. I'm in good company--best of luck to everyone!


Per the contest rules, here are the plot summary from my query and first 250 words of Olympus Gate:


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Plot Summary:

Annie always believed she was just another girl orphaned by the nuclear wars... until the anonymous package arrived on her doorstep. Piecing together the clues inside reveals that she was born thousands of years before in ancient Rome, and that time travel is possible. She discovers that she had a twin sister, who was murdered in 83 BCE.

When she learns of her sister's death, she realizes she has a choice—stay with the people she has known all her life or return to ancient Rome in the hope of saving her twin. What's more, Annie believes that by changing the past she could create a new future, one not destroyed by war, but that in doing so she would erase the lives of everyone she loves. Uncertain whether she is making the right choice, Annie travels back to Rome.

Now she's stuck in the past, hiding her true identity and falling for the guy who loves her twin. She can't find her sister. She can't figure out how to change the world. And as the ancient superstitions that led to her sister's death close in, she fears that she may run out of time for both.

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First 250:

Someone told me once that before the end of the world apples were available year-round.  People could go to food stores and expect to find them regardless of the season.  Earth had a lot more apple trees back then.  A lot more people too.


The few of us who survived the apocalypse made a new existence for ourselves, one in which apples are only available in autumn.  I guess we're lucky--that Helsa Labs had the foresight to build this underground facility before the bombs fell; lucky we had the technology to preserve some of our way of life; lucky we rescued enough people from around the world (myself included) to have the genetic diversity necessary to prevent extinction.


But sometimes I think about life in the old world.  As I reach for the first apple of the harvest I wonder—would I like them so much if I could eat them whenever I wanted?


My hand closes around the fruit and immediately I know exactly how it will taste—tart for a gala, but with precisely the right amount of crunch in each bite.  A bruise mars the flesh—a surface wound only.  It doesn't reach the perfect core with its three teardrop seeds.


No... I don't know for certain, but three sounds right.


I pivot to scan Helsa's cavernous dining hall for a place to sit and jump as two lanky arms drape over my shoulders, the gold-skinned fingers grasping my fruit.  The vegetable soup in my left hand sloshes over my thumb.