Thursday, September 21, 2006

Did you write one of these?

A few of the openings came to me in comments anonymously, or I lost the email, so if you happen to recognize any of the following as the start to your novel, email me so I can give you credit for your work (if you want it) and so you can give or deny permission to include your brief excerpt in an anthology of New Beginnings.

Stacy Warner watched her husband push his breakfast back and forth across his plate. He didn't like it. 8:30 in the morning, and already she was a failure.

Gravel plumed behind the squad car as it turned right, roaring through the pines toward the light in the distance. The radio crackled. “Lyd. Lyddie, honey. Stop the car.

"We're all crumbling to the shore," the General said, "but I fear that I'm closest to the waves."

Alaya leapt into the stream, savoring the feel of water lapping at her ankles. She spotted a frog and focused on it.

Morgan, King of Glevissig, swore and shook his fist at the hillfort.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The one about the General sounded familiar, and eventually I remembered commenting on it over on Absolute Write, where the author is registered under the screen-name Anthony P. Steerpike. I could pm him there if you like.

Evil Editor said...

Sure, give it a try. It may be someone who no longer visits EE, and knows nothing about the book.

Anonymous said...

I sooo need a second coffee.
I lazily started reading about a third of the way down, and so was thinking, "Gee, this one has real continuity problems..."
Will go cafeinate myself.

Anonymous said...

That's funny...

none said...

Looking at the first one, I think now it'd be stronger if "He didn't like it" was deleted. If he's pushing it across his plate, that shows he doesn't like it. So the novel can go onto the next bit straightaway.

Just a belated, probably useless, thought. Wonder how long it would take to examine a 100k novel three lines at a time...

Anonymous said...

Can't take credit for any of those, but I see my Technical Virgins dropped off the query-crit list. Will I see something on it here in the future?

Evil Editor said...

When a title drops off the Queries Waiting List, it magically jumps to the Critiques Completed List.