THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO “bb” FOR HER NOVEL SENTENCE: “It was the dead dog that started it.”
The Mixed Bag Challenge: a new question each week for the 15 weeks leading up to the Festival. Prizes include a bag for the best each week, and a raffle chance at Festival event tickets for each entry.
This week’s challenge: 4. Write YOUR OWN memorable first line to a novel.
Deadline: Feb 25, Noon. New challenge then.
21 Comments
February 18, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Once in my youth I was among the stacks reaching up for a volume by O. Henry when I noticed it was braced by a curious, twisted-like bookend which appeared to grow larger and larger and larger when suddenly it hit me.
February 19, 2009 at 12:58 pm
My life had been lived on the straight and narrow until I met the love of my life who introduced me to adventure, extraordinary journeys and memorable experiences.
February 20, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I stole a book yesterday.
February 20, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Most of my life looked to be boring and uneventful, and then the vortex opened.
February 20, 2009 at 2:15 pm
My ninety-year-old mother, no longer cleared for on-road driving and barely able to see over the dashboard, sat in the passenger seat, freely giving my husband detailed navigating instructions on how to get to the funeral parlor.
February 20, 2009 at 2:41 pm
As far as funerals go, it wasn’t too bad: cloudy, soggy, and a group of mourners that would make a Gorey print bright in comparison.
February 20, 2009 at 4:23 pm
In only ten more minutes it would all be over.
February 20, 2009 at 5:07 pm
It was the dead dog that started it.
February 20, 2009 at 10:01 pm
It had been about a week since his death and it felt as though life stood still.
February 21, 2009 at 12:44 pm
She looked into the mirror and knew she was going to die.
February 21, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Blood was everywhere.
February 22, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Thinking back on it, that summer was hot, but she was hotter.
February 23, 2009 at 8:21 am
Ruby heard someone screaming after she opened the door of George’s workshop; it was only when she gasped for air that she realized she was the one making all the noise.
February 23, 2009 at 11:03 am
Daintily sipping her tea, Miss Spencer looked down at Mr Eccles-Fitzgerald and idly wondered why there was so much blood.
February 23, 2009 at 11:08 am
Having just claimed the prize for traveling the farthest to the Linden family reunion, she could hardly disabuse them to protest that she was not at all related to any of them — whether by chance or inclination.
February 23, 2009 at 11:30 am
Suddenly, a loud belly-laugh disturbed the silence of the Imperial War Museum reading room.
February 23, 2009 at 4:17 pm
I never thought I would be the one to do it.
February 23, 2009 at 7:12 pm
She lived in a world that was made up of stories, where her best friends were the books she knew by heart and those she had not yet read, those were adventures she was eager to go on.
February 23, 2009 at 8:58 pm
If there was ever a time I needed whimsical panties that time was now.
February 25, 2009 at 11:33 am
I was born by the sea and to the sea I have returned, still with the heart of a young man, which has been both my blessing and my curse.
July 16, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Meet Art, he’s dying.