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Submission Synopsis Double Lives, Double Loves by A. R. Yngve Length: Estimated 70,000
Genre: Paranormal Romance Sci-Fi
Sentence: When one woman lives two lives, not even her two loves can escape unchanged.
Blurb: They had never met before: Jane Wynn, single mother in an Appalachian town, and Jenette Coppel, the single businesswoman in Miami.
And yet Jane and Jenette looked identical, had identical personalities... and each felt what the other one felt. When Jane was hurt, Jenette sensed the same pain. When Jenette fell in love, Jane would inevitably love and long for the same man.
Then Jerrold Nye entered their lives, confronted them with each other’s existence, and awakened them to an impossible love triangle: Jane and Jenette were the same woman, split into two separate lives… competing with herself for the love of one man.
But can you live double lives, double loves, simultaneously?
Synopsis: Chapter 1: Jane Wynn, a waitress in her upper 20s, marries Kirk Larsen, a young soldier, in their hometown of Big Stone Gap.
They have one passionate wedding-night before Kirk will be sent off to Afghanistan the very next day.
Simultaneously, in Miami, single businesswoman Jenette Coppel (who is of the exact same age and appearance as Jane) experiences Jane’s intense emotions of the wedding and wedding-night. The two women have never met, yet their emotions are inexplicably linked.
Chapter 2: Kirk is killed in action, and Jenette feels Jane’s grief without knowing why. She accidentally discovers Jane’s photo in a newspaper, and becomes obsessed with the idea that she might have a twin sister. She hires a private investigator, ex-cop Jerrold Nye, to find proof of Jane’s identity and origin.
Chapter 3: Jerrold Nye, an outwardly cynical man, is strongly attracted to Jenette from the start – and so is she. She wants to make a DNA test on herself and her “double,” but is reluctant to seek out Jane before she has become certain.
Chapter 4: Jerrold Nye travels to Jane's home town (Big Stone Gap in Wise County, Virginia, pop. 4,855).
He locates Jane at the restaurant where she works, pretending to be a tourist, and talks to her. Jerrold feels the same attraction for Jane as he did for Jenette, and realizes how eerily similar the two women look and sound: he is willing to believe they really are identical twins.
Jane feels attracted to the visitor, but is distracted by her own worries: that she might be pregnant with her dead husband’s child, and a jealous cousin, Lennox, who won’t leave her alone.
Chapter 5: Jane’s stalking cousin Lennox comes to her house, drunk, and threatens to break in.
Jerrold Nye fights him and scares him away. A grateful Jane invites Jerrold to her home, and confides to him that she has felt “haunted” for many years, similar to how Jenette has been “haunted” by Jane.
Jerrold and Jane very quickly fall in love, nearly (but not quite) consummate their love. Lovestruck, he confesses that he is investigating her on behalf of a woman in Florida. Jane becomes upset and asks him to leave. But he leaves her a photo of Jenette, and Jane understands that the lifelong “haunting” might be her awareness of Jenette, her “double.”
Chapter 6: Jane catches Jerrold as he is about to leave town, and allows him to take a tissue sample for a DNA test. He bids Jane goodbye, confessing his feelings for her, and promises to return with conclusive evidence about the relation between the two women.
In reality, Jerrold is feeling increasingly torn between the two, and wants to know just as badly whether Jane and Jenette really are twins.
Chapter 7: The big plot twist. By this time, the reader expects the “rational” conclusion that the two women were separated at birth. However…
Back in Miami, Jerrold receives a DNA sample from Jenette and brings the two samples to a clinic for analysis.
A few days pass. The test proves, beyond any doubt, that the two women have different mitochondrial DNA (the part which is always inherited on the mother’s side only). They had different mothers and could not possibly be twins.
Furthermore, the birth certificates which Jerrold requested arrive from the different states where Jane and Jenette were born. Their birth dates are exactly identical, down to the last hour. Their registered biological parents are different couples, not identical to each other, and not related.
It’s as if Jane/Jenette was born twice in the same day.
Jerrold hesitates to reveal the truth to them… but the two women are already determined to meet each other and communicate by email to arrange a meeting in Miami.
Chapter 8: Stunned and disturbed, Jerrold returns to Florida with the sample. He is torn between Jane and Jenette, and nearly has sex with Jenette, who becomes jealous of her “double. On top of that, she feels the same attraction + jealousy as Jane (as does Jane, too).
Jerrold seeks out a renowned physicist and asks: Is it possible for the same person to exist in two different places, two different life courses, simultaneously?
The physicist answers: Yes. Scientists have created pairs of elementary particles which fly away from each other, yet are identical and mysteriously connected. What affects one will instantly affect the other – faster than the speed of light; from their moment of creation, they have become “entangled.”
“In physics we speculate that this strange phenomenon is somehow responsible for the processes of life itself.”
So Jerrold asks: “Could two identical humans be created in the same way, as entangled duplicates?”
“There are reports about twins being in telepathic contact, the so-called ‘Corsican Brothers’ Syndrome’… but no respectable scientist would be prepared to take this seriously.”
“Not twins. I mean, could the same person be born twice?”
“It sounds extremely unlikely.”
“And suppose one of these entangled pairs touched each other… that their paths crossed? Might this cause some sort of paradox?”
“In physics, when two entangled particles meet, there’s probably going to be some energy reaction. They should not able to co-exist in the same location. I’m not certain what would happen to them – perhaps they’d fuse into a new, more stable state… or annihilate each other in a burst of energy.”
“God, no!”
“What part God plays in this is not for me to answer.”
Jerrold panics, and drives to prevent a scheduled first meeting between Jane and Jenette, to take place in Florida. A hurricane passes near Miami, creating dangerous obstacles for him and the two women.
Chapter 9: Jerrold fears that if the Jane and Jenette touch, he might lose them both, and struggles through the storm-swept city to reach them before it is too late. The hurricane blocks out his attempts to reach them over the phone.
Also Jane and Jenette are struggling to get through the city during the storm. But their mutual jealousy – and curiosity – compels Jane and Jenette to meet.
Finally they clash: both are upfront about being jealous of each other, equally in love with Jerrold, and their lives being intertwined. (Jane proves this by pricking her own finger with a needle when Jenette isn’t looking – and Jenette yelps at the sting.)
Jerrold Nye arrives, breathless, and the two women ask him to choose one of them.
The paradox dries him to the brink of insanity: whomever he chooses, he’ll hurt the same woman; every choice is wrong.
Unexpectedly, he breaks down and cries. Despite his misgivings, the women embrace him simultaneously: he kisses them both in turn, and makes love them both at the same time. Jane and Jenette experience the same passion: they become one.
But in the
morning, they are still separate bodies, and Jerrold is not there. They
find him collapsed and bleeding in the bathroom. At first they fear he has
tried to kill himself. Chapter 10: Jane and Jenette rush Jerrold to the hospital, and the doctors X-ray him. One of his lungs has been punctured and filled with blood, as if he had been shot – but there is no external wound.
Jane and Jenette ask Jerrold what happened.
“I had this dream… that I was in a desert… I carried a rifle and uniform… and someone shot me. It hurt, and I woke up. I’m dying alone, far away from home.”
Jane and Jenette realize that Jerrold also has a “double”… who has just been wounded in action.
They post a message on the Internet with Jim’s photo, and ask: “Have You Seen This Man?”
The response they get is that someone who looks exactly like Jerrold Nye, Gil Frayn, is being flown out of Afghanistan after being wounded in action.
The women locate Gil Frayn in a military hospital.
Chapter 11: Jane and Jenette visit Jerrold and Gil in their separate hospitals, and shower them with affection. When they show Gil the photo of his “double”, Gil’s condition improves rapidly.
Jane tells him: “You’ve got to pull through, not just for yourself, but for him – because he’s you.”
Gil sees the two women only one at a time, and in his injured state comes to believe they are the same person who he calls “Jane Jenette.”
Both women are instantly attracted to Gil, whose personality and looks are identical to Jim’s. But they agree that they can now choose. Jane chooses Gil (who never realizes he has fallen in love with two women), and Jenette chooses Jim – who swears to leave his “double” alone. Chapter 12: Two months later. The two couples marry simultaneously in two separate cities – Jane, already pregnant with Kirk’s child, marries the fully recovered Gil. Jenette marries Jerrold. Jenette sends Jane a text-message on her phone: “I’ll always be here if you need me,” and receives the reply: “I’ll always be a part of you.” Bio: |
NOTE: All material is copyright protected. No portion of this material may be copied or reproduced, either electronically, mechanically, or by any other means, for resale or distribution without the written consent of the author. All copy has been dated and registered with the American Society of Authors and Writers. Copyright 2007 by The Swetky Agency |
