At the kick off party we talked about starting a thread where everyone can post the first sentence or two of their books. Here it is!
I'll get things rolling with a few sentences from "Draguman."
A small shaft of suns light drifted into the mountain crevice exposing a glittering rock. Elvin’s sharp eyes saw the sparkle and decided that he wanted that rock for Della.
Note: Sendek is a binary star system that is why it is "suns" light, and of course the rock is really a dragon egg which starts a long chain of events that will hopefully make a good read.
----------
"If you are a mother and a writer then you have to make the time to write everyday. Because nobody is going to give it to you. I guarantee it. That means a lot of other things in your life have to go."
Nano 2008: Sendek--win
41,028 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 07 02
I don't have a title yet. I'm lableing my pages "Working Title: Book that is crappy but will become less crappy." lol. Gives me motivaiton. Well, I'm a little behind since all I could do yesterday durning NaNo Day 1 is stare at my computer. When I was about to give up and start in the middle somewhere these lines came to me. Crappy but will become less crappy:
She awoke to darkness, all encompassing, sense swallowing darkness. She panicked.
“Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic.” She chanted.
The little voice of reason in her head told her a little smugly that she had already begun to panic but that she could still hear and smell if she would just pay attention.
“Smell…hear, take a breath” she whispered as she begun her new mantra
Hope this is tantilizing...it needs work but it got me excited.
Any thoughts are welcome! :)
7,735 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 07 34
OK, I'll go. This is from "Bella Verita" (Beautiful Truth) a character-driven mystery featuring a reporter who digs things up that were well-hidden.
Leslie liked this place. She was protective of it, possessive. And there was something not right about the man at the other end of the bar. He was out of place here. She got up, and walked over there.
-- Paul
63,538 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 08 49
my first chapter is in my novel info now, but here's the first few lines:
--
It was early morning. The sky was that funny in-between shade, not dark enough to still be night, nor yet bright enough for dawn to have fully broken. It was the sort of blue you didn't get in England, at least not near anywhere of size. A skyline free of reflected light from gas lamps and other intrusions, despite the city two miles to the north. In almost any other circumstance the sky would have seemed beautiful.
“Coffee, sir?”
The lieutenant looked up with a start. Private Higgs had mastered the orderly's secret skill of approaching silently and speaking just a little too loudly when you were off somewhere in your own mind. It was unnerving, it derailed the train of thought and brought you staggering back to now with little warning.
“Sorry?” the lieutenant asked, for a moment still far off.
“Would you like some coffee, sir?”
Private Higgs proffered an enamel mug, from which steam rose softly in the cold pre-dawn.
“It depends,” said the lieutenant, with guarded joviality, “Is this going to be any better than the coffee from last night?”
----------“It is the coffee from last night, sir,” Higgs said, then continued after a short pause and some thought, “So probably not.”
http://www.irennie.com
877 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 11 41
Also have no title yet, but the book starts with the stalker's first victim's decent into hell:
The warm wind rushes past his falling form. He has a vague sense of danger, but cannot for the life of him remember why. He stares up at the earthy ceiling as it rises away from him. The air around him grows warmer with each passing second. He forces himself to roll and immediately regrets it. Below him, rushing up at incredible speeds is what appears to be an impossibly large, in both girth and width, burning lake. He puts his hands in front of his eyes only to find they are transparent. He tries to scream, successfully, as he continues to plummet. His own scream seems odd and airy as if not even human.
----------Gus Gallows
2008 Submission: The Kids of Shelter 9
Author of The Price of Honor - Book 1 of the Minotaurs of Algoron (Available on Amazon.com)
http://www.gusgallows.com
39,336 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 13 31
No title, and no editing.
More words here than I need, but here they are....
The morning was quiet but for the chatter of the gulls as Val came over the dune. The view made her catch her breath. A golden glow touched the horizon and the mild ocean looked nearly smooth, like fine grey slate. She smiled at the white of the wave spray touched by golden tones and continued to drop her gaze, looking happily at the expanse of warm brown sand. And then she saw it - the impossibly tiny sea turtle, struggling across that wide sand barrier to the waves. She lightly ran down the dune and scooped up the sea turtle jogging across the warm and then wet sand to gently place it in the waves. “Good luck,” she whispered as she released the tiny turtle to its journey.
Hmmm. Immediately I read and the inner editor kicks in. Dang it!
----------But I will not bend, I will not edit! Back to writing!
- Kimberly
39,336 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 13 31
No title, and no editing.
More words here than I need, but here they are....
The morning was quiet but for the chatter of the gulls as Val came over the dune. The view made her catch her breath. A golden glow touched the horizon and the mild ocean looked nearly smooth, like fine grey slate. She smiled at the white of the wave spray touched by golden tones and continued to drop her gaze, looking happily at the expanse of warm brown sand. And then she saw it - the impossibly tiny sea turtle, struggling across that wide sand barrier to the waves. She lightly ran down the dune and scooped up the sea turtle jogging across the warm and then wet sand to gently place it in the waves. “Good luck,” she whispered as she released the tiny turtle to its journey.
Hmmm. Immediately I read and the inner editor kicks in. Dang it!
----------But I will not bend, I will not edit! Back to writing!
- Kimberly
0 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 18 19
Shit. 40. Forty. I turned forty and it hit me that I don’t have that much more time on this big blue ball and I guess I’m pretty lucky I made it this far.
----------Call me Lou. Lou Driver. That’s my porn name if I was ever to be in porn. Maybe I’ll tell you my real name but not just yet, not necessary for what we’re doing here right now.
I wake up and I’m forty. Divorced. Fat. Father. Forty. What the fuck? It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Stay married, be a father to a bunch of kids, bang my wife 2.5 times a week and just kinda go with it until I died of old age, got killed in a drunken accident, or just plain keeled over from a heart attack – which seemed the likeliest of scenarios.
I guess we gotta go back a little bit to figure out who I was and what I am to figure out just what the fuck it all means right now and why I needed to change or be forced to change because that is my one biggest fear other than flying. Change. It sucks. Everyone says its good and necessary, I say bullshit, let me just run on autopilot without any change, die and see if its heaven, hell, purgatory or oblivion.
"if you’re going to try, go all the
way.
otherwise, don’t even start."
-Roll the Dice
by Charles Bukowski
10,323 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 18 45
"She beat the shit out of them."
(drums, of course)
No title yet. I called the file "Stix", but that's not a keeper.
:-) Jen
9,042 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 18 47
"One day I'll perfect the Ice Cream sandwich. Then the world will bend to my will. No purple death rays, no army of mutated animals, no pyramid scheme that leads me to the white house. Just a good Ice Cream Sandwich. Do you know anyone that can resist that? Even the lactose intolerant and vegans will cave for good Ice cream." ~ J.B. Scooter. Author of "If You're Reading This Book I'm Smarter Than You." 4th Smartest Man in America and current resident of the Guilford County Jail.
This actually isn't the first part of the main text. I forget the name of it, but it's that little thing that appears before chapters of some books that kind of related to the overall world or theme of the book.
37,528 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 19 32
It sounds like everyone is off to a great start! I love all of them, kudos!
----------"If you are a mother and a writer then you have to make the time to write everyday. Because nobody is going to give it to you. I guarantee it. That means a lot of other things in your life have to go."
Nano 2008: Sendek--win
16,292 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 05 54
My WIP is a middle grade mystery called Heilville:
In the town of Heilville there are three certainties.
If you look out any window, you will see snow.
If you look for it on the map, you won’t find it.
If you leave, you can’t ever come back.
And if I stand here, right on the edge where the gravel road to my house meets the beginning of my day, I can hear the rumble. Or more like feel it. It’s the vibrations we are curious about when we are little and can no longer feel as we grow up. I can hardly feel them now beneath my feet. They use to travel all the way up to my head. Now they don’t make it past my ankles. Dad says that the senses get dull with age. That’s why he adds Tabasco to his eggs and hot peppers to his hamburger helper. To remind his body to feel something.
13,308 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 06 25
I've been agonizing over this since seeing the first post. This is my first NaNo and I'm nervous as all heck. Current title -- The First -- but I'm sure that will change. Genre: Fantasy/Vampire
I knew what he was the moment I laid eyes on him. The way he moved through the club. People automatically parted to let him pass. The way his clothes hung from his frame... almost floating around him or clung to him, emphasizing the muscles hiding underneath. The chisled features of his face...ehancing the velvety smooth complextion of his coco brown skin. All the way up to his unnaturally bright green eyes.
My mother always said.....White eyes witch….Red eyes shifter……Green eyes vampire. Yep, this fine specimen of a man was a vamp and I was definitely in trouble, because he was heading straight towards me.
There!!! I did it!!! I actually shared my scattered thoughts of my first novel effort. Whew!! I feels good! :)
32,200 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 07 15
No title or anything like that yet, unfortunately.
Here goes.
I don’t remember much from before I was taken. It’s not that I was taken all that long ago. No, it’s more that I just can’t remember. My teachers call it temporary amnesia. I call it another way I am slowly being driven out of my mind. I can remember almost all of my last day at home, but, before that, everything gets hazy.
It was the summer before my freshman year of college. I don’t remember where I was going to college, but I know I wasn’t looking forward to it. I remember being rather apathetic towards everything, actually. I can recall thinking that it was the worst summer yet. I remember being sick that day, as in physically ill. And my boyfriend had dumped me for my so-called best friend. I remember that mainly because I was burning pictures of him and anything he’d ever given in me in the fireplace on the hottest day of the year. I went for a long walk in the woods. My mom had made meatloaf for supper. My dad and I discussed philosophy after dinner. I finished packing everything for college. And I went to bed with my cat, just like any other day.
The next morning, I woke up screaming.