This month we’ve got soiled doves, symbolic assassinations, and more. To submit a first line, email booklifeeditor@booklife.com.

Silver Line by Jill C. Baker

“Let me be perfectly clear. I was never a soiled dove, a lady of the night. I was a dance hall girl, an entertainer—there’s a distinction.”

The Lupanarium by Adele Leigh

“The first thing you noticed about the girl was that she had no nipples.”

Ashes Like Bread by Jean Hoefling

“It is a mystery, the things we are born to know.”

My Summer (with Robots) by Marsh Myers

“When I was in sixth grade, there was a great controversy when my teacher, Mrs. Gumenick, claimed I symbolically assassinated one of my classmates through a story I’d written.”

The Suicide Gene by CJ Zahner

“The face in the casket was her own.”

Seals of Eternity by Edita A. Petrick

“He needed to get a human body.”