Fellow SF Novelist member Joshua Palmatier has put together a terrific resource for writers who think that synopses are the epitome of all evil. Thus a whole bunch of us are posting the synopses to our books that sold and have been published. The synopsis is doable, I swear. And so, as part of The Plot Synopsis Project, here is the official synopsis to HELL’S BELLES.

(Yes, this means spoilers. If you haven’t read HELL’S BELLES yet — and really, why not? — then you should skip the synopsis, unless you really like knowing how books end before you read them.)

One thing you’ll notice, assuming you read the book (and really, if you haven’t…why not?), is that the synopsis summarizes many events in the book, but it also glosses over many others. I don’t mention Caitlin by name, even though her act sets everything else into motion. And I don’t get into detail about how Caitlin changed Jezebel into a human; she just does. This is one of the most important things to keep in mind when you write the synopsis: you don’t have to tell the entire story from start to finish. Just the important bits. It’s perfectly OK to skip entire subplots and minor characters.

(By the way, a book that I found very helpful when I was first struggling with the very notion of a synopsis — condensing 300 pages into, like, five — was YOUR NOVEL PROPOSAL: FROM CREATION TO CONTRACT by Blythe Camenson and Marshall Cook.)

[EDITED TO ADD THE FOLLOWING]

Here are links to the other authors who participated in the Plot Synopsis Project:

Patricia Bray
Chaz Brenchley
Mike Brotherton
S.C. Butler
David B. Coe
Jennifer Dunne
Diana Pharaoh Francis
Gregory Frost
Jim C. Hines
Mindy Klasky
Stephen Leigh
Misty Massey
Kelly McCullough
C.E. Murphy
Naomi Novik
Joshua Palmatier
Michelle Sagara
Jennifer Stevenson
Sean Williams

Like everything else, writing a synopsis takes practice. You can do it.

And now… HELL’S BELLES: The Evil Synopsis From Hell (Sort of Literally)

The succubus JEZEBEL loves her job. Seduce a lot of men, corral their souls for Hell…what’s not to like? But then KING LUCIFER makes the Announcement that changes Hell forever, which leads Jezebel to run away. Next stop: the mortal coil.

In Salem, MA, Jezebel convinces a witch to turn her into a human (albeit one without a soul). A run-in with a malefic bounty hunter proves that the spell worked: for all intents and purposes, Jezebel is now a mortal—in fact, a dead ringer for the witch herself—complete with an amulet to hide her presence from Evil.

At Boston’s South Station she meets PAUL, a handsome man who, like Jezebel, is leaving a big part of his past behind him. They take a train to New York City, where Jezebel realizes she has no idea what to do with her new life. She decides to rent a hotel room while she looks for work and an apartment. She is very intrigued (and a little spooked) by Paul, whom she now recognizes as her last “client” when she’d been a demon. He gives her his phone number and says she should call him once she’s settled.

She gets a job as an exotic dancer at a topless club called Belles, working for ROMAN and MOMMA. Then she returns to her hotel room and comes face-to-face with the Fury MEGAERA. In Hell, Jezebel and Meg were best friends. But even Meg didn’t know about the conversation Jezebel had just before the Announcement with a certain demon, ending with a soft kiss…a demon who turned out to be King Lucifer. Now in the hotel room, Meg urges her not to say anything to the humans about the Announcement—and that if forced, Meg would do her job and bring Jezebel back to Hell.

Nighttime, and Jezebel’s first shift at Belles: Paul is one of her many fans, and she spends time with him in the VIP lounge. Things get a little bumpy when Roman later speaks with her in private…revealing that her friend, the incubus DAUN, has possessed Roman. After a failed attempt at seducing Jezebel, Daun echoes Meg’s earlier warning, then leaves Roman’s body. Roman mistakenly thinks that he and Jezebel slept together. He tells her to come by his office tomorrow; he has a proposition he wants to discuss.

The next afternoon, when Jezebel and Paul have lunch in her hotel room, she reveals part her past: she ran away because she learned something about her “family” that she couldn’t handle. Paul comforts a grieving Jezebel, and she responds by throwing herself at him. He gently rebuffs her advances; he doesn’t want to take advantage of her. Stung by his rejection, she kicks him out.

On her way to meet Roman at the club, Jezebel gives a twenty to a sick beggar, who reminds her that there are others out there worse off than she. In Roman’s office, her boss suggests that she prostitute herself for select customers in the VIP room. She says she’ll think about it.

During her shift that night, Paul pays for a half hour in the VIP room with her, trying to make up for that afternoon. On the way to the room, Jezebel remembers visiting Paul when she’d been newly reassigned as a Nightmare, just before she fled Hell. She had tried to terrify Paul but wound up seducing him instead. When QUEEN LILLITH threatened her, Jezebel turned passion into horror. Paul’s shrieks echo in her ears now as she leads him to the VIP room. Paul reveals part of his past, as well as his feelings for Jezebel. They kiss and make up.

Downstairs, Jezebel’s amulet warns her that something Evil is in the vicinity. She retreats to the dressing room, joined by a female patron who needs a bathroom. In the dressing room, one of the strippers is possessed by Lillith and attacks Jezebel. The customer slams her boot over the possessed dancer’s head, and the iron in the steel-toed boot forces Lillith to evacuate the stripper’s body. Momma brings the stripper to the hospital and tells Jezebel to go home. Paul escorts Jezebel back to the hotel, where she reveals more about her past. Giving into the undeniable connection and attraction they share, they make love.

Next morning, Jezebel leaves the hotel in search of finding an apartment to rent. She meets the beggar from the previous day, who attacks her and steals her amulet and all her belongings. Wounded, broke, and with nowhere to turn, she flees to Belles. Roman helps her upstairs to the VIP room, where he dopes her. Daun appears, preventing Roman from taking advantage of her. Jezebel comes up with a new plan: work that night, score a lot of money, and get out of the city before Hell catches up to her.

During her shift later, Daun warns Jezebel that “she” is coming—and then he is expelled from Roman’s body. Paul arrives, flashing a police badge, telling Roman he’s under arrest for operating a house of ill repute. Roman escapes, with undercover vice cop Paul on his heels. Jezebel dashes off to the main showroom en route to the exit, where she freezes: the police have taken control of the crowd and the staff. When Momma is escorted downstairs, she sees Jezebel. Possessed by Lillith, Momma grabs an officer’s gun and shoots at Jezebel, barely missing her target.

Jezebel runs out of the club and down the street. Paul stops her, but then Megaera appears, ready to claim Jezebel for Hell…but first she gives Jezebel the chance to willingly return. Jezebel refuses and closes her eyes, waiting for oblivion. When she opens them, Meg has disappeared.

Thinking she’s free, Jezebel embraces Paul, only to have Roman approach them, brandishing a gun. Roman tells her to get out of the way as he takes aim at Paul. Instead, Jezebel launches herself at Roman, who shoots her point blank in the chest.

As she lays dying, she remembers the Announcement, when the purpose of Hell was revealed. King Lucifer told the demons that God didn’t believe they were doing their jobs well enough. Therefore, Heaven would run Hell. Lucifer himself had been reassigned, and the archangel MICHAEL was appointed the new King of the Underworld. Under Michael’s jurisdiction, many changes were made, including all female Seducers being reassigned as Nightmares. This is why Jezebel ran away—she couldn’t bear spending eternity with no purpose other than to terrify mortals. Confused over the roles of Good and Evil, she decided to flee and take her chances on the mortal coil.

Jezebel opens her eyes to face Lucifer, the new Angel of Death. She reveals her love for Paul, which is why she took the bullet for him. Lucifer says that because she sacrificed her life in the name of love, she has the right to claim a soul. She accepts. The contract against her is null and void; the demon Jezebel is no more. She is finally, completely, human.

She survives the gunshot, and the story ends with her in the hospital, healing, with she and Paul making plans for once she has recovered…and with the former demon Jezebel wondering about her connection to Lucifer, and her newfound ability to read people’s auras.