This month, we’ve got empty roads, Victorian romance, tango, and more. To submit a first line, email booklifeeditor@booklife.com.
CHARLIE SUISMAN
“It’s a good forty minutes until sunrise and the roads of Arnold Falls are empty, except for one silver Rascal mobility scooter making its way toward the courthouse.”
Clara Colby: The International Suffragist
JOHN HOLLIDAY
“We may never know why three-year-old Clara Dorothy Bewick was left behind in England when her parents and three brothers departed for a new life in America.”
Dead Week: A Cassandra Sato Mystery
KELLY BRAKENHOFF
“If Cassandra Sato had to pinpoint the moment enthusiasm for her dream job faltered, it was when her weather app displayed a morning temperature of thirty-eight degrees with a projected high of forty-two.”
Desperately Seeking Novelty: A Memoir about ADHD and Adaptation
SANDRA AMAU-DEWAR
“ ’Is this kid on Ritalin?’ demands Dr. Bailey, the gray-haired physician who will soon be performing emergency eye surgery on my six-year-old son.”
JAN MAHER
“Elephants paced restlessly, their immense feet beating slow syncopations.”
Intoxicating Tango: My Years in Buenos Aires
CHERIE MAGNUS
“I should have left when he hit me; just packed up my piano music and my cat and left Buenos Aires behind me.”
Just the Way He Walked: A Mother’s Story of Healing and Hope
KATHLEEN POOLER
“For twenty-three years, I feared my son Brian would die from his addiction to alcohol.”
The Lord Chamberlain’s Daughter
RON FRITSCH
“As soon as Fortinbras learned Ophelia was still alive, he sent her a message asking if he could pay her a visit.”
The Lost Letter: A Victorian Romance
MIMI MATTHEWS
“Sylvia Stamford smoothed out the skirts of her plain, dark gray gown, as she followed her employer, Mrs. Dinwiddy, down the stairs.”
MARILEE EAVES
“In early spring of 1962, while I was living in a locked ward at McLean Hospital, no longer hallucinating, in therapy every day and recovering from the psychotic break that had landed me there, an attendant came to my room to tell me I had a phone call.”
Tell, or the Adventures in Themiddle
L.N. MAYER
“Though few people have heard of Thepending, those who have could hardly give you directions on how to get there.”
JOE PULIZZI
“Besides intermittent periods of sleep and steady drinking, the PopC account consumed my life for the past three weeks.”
