The Writer's Voice Entry - THE PACT - Adult Science Fiction

Thanks to everyone involved in The Writer's Voice contest!


Query:

Dear The Writer's Voice Coaches,

For 21-year old Scarlett Earle, being the President’s daughter has its perks, like getting exempt from a worldwide alien-induced slaughter that happens once every four years.

After an alien race, known as the Otros, set in motion a war that consumed the Earth, the powers that be on both sides made a pact to end the fight. The result was The Clearing, a quadrennial event that allows a harvest of all the Earth’s resources, including humans. For mankind, this means respite from attack and peaceful living for the majority of their lives and for the Otros it means total domination.

After turning 21, she is assigned the task of travelling through North America to help educate and prepare those for the coming Clearing, a task given to her in order for her to prove her allegiance to her country and her parents. Unfortunately for her, Delmar, her fathers charming and chauvinistic chief-of-staff is tagging along as her assistant, but both of them just see it as glorified babysitting.

Their journey takes an unexpected turn in the Deep South where Scarlett sees the poverty, destruction and violence that exist past her sheltered home and life and fears that she is part of the cause. The lies that her parents have been telling her, and the entire world, begin to unravel and Scarlett learns that the pact her father made may not have been so simple and that she may have been on the winning side of the war all along. After learning the truth, Scarlett is in danger, not only from an underground rebel group who plans to overthrow the government, but also from the government itself.

Complete at 100,000 words, THE PACT is a standalone Adult novel with series potential. It is HOUSE OF CARDS meets WAR OF THE WORLDS, as political gameplay and science fiction merge in a story about a corrupt government and a girl who is faced with the ultimate choice: duty or truth?

Thank you for your consideration.

First 250:

The invasion didn’t happen the way it always does in the movies. Instead of screaming, there was only silence. No black, omniscient death ships hovering above in the sky, no unstoppable laser-powered weapons and definitely no little green men.

It was almost anti-climactic in a way, a disappointment where scenarios of world domination are concerned. One could even say that if it wasn’t for living in the age of technology, mankind could have carried on and not even noticed what was happening around them.

The disappearances began in the poorest countries, Liberia, Malawi, the Congo. At first it was just the livestock that was going missing. Large herds seemingly evaporated into thin air overnight, with no evidence left of where they went or who took them. Then there was war, but in places already filled with conflict, this didn’t draw much attention from the rest of the world, not until more precious goods began to go missing. Coffee, cotton, diamonds and oil suffered the same fate as the livestock and this finally made the world notice, but not in a good way. The fighting grew to a larger scale, each countries leaders accusing the others.

 It’s hard to know whether they planned this in the first place, or if it was sheer luck that the human race chose to hurt instead of help each other, but either way it helped moved their plan along smoothly. After fine goods, they moved onto the next commodity they sought, the one that they wanted more than anything else.

Us.