[Julie Christensen]

From Searching For Meredith Love:

"Fear creates loneliness.  I'm not afraid, so I'm not lonely."

 

[thejosh86]

From Not Everything Brainless is Dead:

"The only thing standing between Dr. Malevolent and her salary was the large brick wall of the bank that held it. "

And from my WIP:

"Splashing erupted from the churning waters below—this was certainly not Captain Rescue’s first time dangling helplessly, and the situation’s familiarity irked him."

 

[Bob Mayer]

“To, duty, honor, and country,” William Tecumseh Sherman proposed, raising his mug of ale.

 

[BuddyGott]

From one of my WIP:

I was more than a little surprised when my mother pulled out the gun and shot me.

 

[mathewferguson]

It was Tuesday morning and things were getting ... moustachey.

From Super Monkey Group: The Humming Cows of Mount Bolliverger.

I love it because I've made up about a hundred variations like:

It was Tuesday morning and things were getting ... zombiefied
electrical
dragony
furry
hypothetical
etc

 

[hughewil]

From the short story i started today

Paulie sat up with a start and grabbed his chest, looking down he saw no blood or other signs he’d been hit, but walking towards him was the cop he was in a shoot out with.

 

[Eric C]

“You want me to frame myself for murder?”

 

[Rex Jameson]

I don't do single lines all that well, I guess. I do like the opening paragraph from what will probably be my second novel the best so far:

The Winter Phenomenon (WIP):
"Alex looked down at a picture of his sister Anne. He traced a finger around her face and broke a smile for the first time in a week as she smiled back through the frame at him. The picture was all that he had left of his broken childhood."

The opening line from Lucifer's Odyssey might be a decent pitch line. We'll see in time. I find it humorous to think of Lucifer sitting in a ****** tonk.

Lucifer's Odyssey (WIP):
"Lucifer sat down at his usual, dimly-lit spot at the back of the honky-tonk bar."

 

[Cheryl Shireman]

"I am dreaming."

From my novel Life is But a Dream.

Originally, the character had the dream later in the book, but as I continued to write, the importance of the dream (of her fears) became more and more obvious and I moved the entire dream sequence to the opening chapter. It then even prompted the title of the book.

I love that about writing - how you start with one thing and it sometimes evolved into something else.

I can't even remember what the original first line of the novel was!

 

[NicoleIreland02]

Here's mine from A Second Chance.

That Friday morning in mid-September dawned bright and hopeful for Annabelle Dixon.

 

[Craig]

Some days it just doesn't pay to be alive.

From "You Can't Count What Isn't There," the first story in my upcoming loosely connected collection "A Time for Poncey."

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,40980.0.html

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

There is never a good time to get the trots.

From Something to Read on the Plane.

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

As the 747 hiccupped through a pocket of turbulence, Frank Turner's white-knuckled fingers tightened round the armrests in the same vice-like grip he used on the dentist's chair.

from But Can You Drink The Water?

 

[MiaHeart]

From Blood Whore it's my favorite:

I didn’t always know that I was going to kill my husband, or any of the others for that matter.  It’s not something I planned, not something I particularly wanted to do. It just sort of happened.

 

[JFHilborne]

From my current WIP: "Tonight, he would kill again."

 

[Katharina Maimer]

„Coffee?"

--- my just completed podiobook / eBook "Wiener Blut"

 

[Will Hose]

From my WIP: Dragonfire can melt a Cadillac.

 

[daringnovelist]

My favorite is from a short story called "Trail of the Lonesome Stickpin" (in Waiter, There's a Clue In My Soup!)

"When I woke up, I was lying flat on my back on the ceiling."

Camille

 

[Guest]

A tie for my own stuff:

There might have been any one of a hundred reasons that made Kimbra plug Joe Ambler that night-I never understood why because I never understood her-but lack of reason made me cover up the crime: Kimbra flaunted some mysterious mix of power and vulnerability that hurled my caution out of orbit.

Dark Quarry.

I'd never been poisoned before; I'd been followed, chased, run down, beat up, tied, taped, gagged, sapped, spit on, clawed, slammed, twisted, knifed, slugged, and shot-but never poisoned.

Dark Poison

 

[Carolyn J. Rose Mystery Writer]

Later, Kate Dalton often wondered how things might have turned out if she had been a little stronger or a lot weaker, if she had refused a mother’s plea, or if she had spoken the truth while it was still hers to tell.

This is from The Refuge, a book I hope to have up as a Kindle by the end of May