"The Writer's Voice" entry

“The Writer’s Voice” is a contest hosted by Cupid of Cupid’s Literary Connection, Brenda Drake of Brenda Drake Writes, Monica B.W. of Love YA, and Krista Van Dolzer of Mother.Write.(Repeat). 

The contest requires you to post the plot summary from your query letter and first 250 words of a finished manuscript.  So, with some nervousness and great excitement, I share with you:  

The Plot Summary of my YA sci-fi Right State of Mind:

Anyone who could provide humanity with limitless creativity would surely win a Nobel Prize.  Right?  Posing as a high school teacher, a neuroscientist chooses thirty unsuspecting students as his guinea pigs in his simple experiment: use light pulses to stimulate neurons in the right side of the brain and unhindered creativity will follow.  Genius!

Ivy, senior editor of the school newspaper, is the only one to see a dazzling light in the hallway.  Over time, several of her classmates can write, paint, draw, sculpt and design like never before.  And oddly enough, they are completely unaware of what they are doing until after their creation is completed.  While everyone fully embraces the creativity that unfolds, Ivy is convinced the light is not only connected to the new phenomenon she dubs “creative episodes”, but that they could be dangerous.  

Ivy’s popular twin brother, Sage, finds himself not only the captain of the basketball team, but also an artist with detailed drawings and vibrant paintings he doesn't even remember making.  The only one who doesn’t appreciate his new skills is his nerdy sister, whose crazy theories and recent articles are doing nothing to elevate his social status.
  
But then the episodes begin to happen more often.  And then the side effects begin.  One of which kills a classmate.  Terrified, Sage joins his sister to piece together the mystery of the creative episodes and what is behind them before he or someone else gets seriously hurt.

The First 250 Words:

They reminded him of bees.  Swarming around, buzzing excitedly with their friends, their minds focused on their task at hand—lockers, friends, homeroom.  That was always their pattern in the morning, much as a worker bee's pattern was flower, hive, honey comb. The hallways were always a hive of activity that he avoided as much as possible.

He scrutinized them as they joked with each other, crammed things in their lockers, talked about their previous night, about who was going out with whom.  They were on a mission to talk to as many people as possible before slipping into their seats just as class began.  He couldn’t blame them.  Class could be tedious.  But all this drama that they cared about was ridiculous.

          They were oblivious to what was to come.  He would show them what really mattered.

Adrenaline surged through his body.  Today was the day he would launch his great experiment.  If his hypothesis was correct, if the experiment went as planned, he would change these subjects' lives.  He would change education.  He would change neuroscience.  But mostly...he would change the world.

          Everything was set.  He had his experimental group of subjects.  He'd been observing them for the first months of school, meticulously recording data about their habits and personalities.

        All his research would culminate right here in ordinary Kennedy High School.  It was perfect.  Profound.  Nobel Prize worthy.