First a word about vacation: zzzzzzz. It's completely cozy and restful, with the rare exception of my stress dream last night, in which I was given only 20 minute's notice before having to interview Kofi Annan on camera about some cross promotion between the forklift company and the U.N. and a children's book we were working on together. I was extra happy to wake up today and find that that assignment wasn't really happening.
In other news, last night we played the vacation novel game. Here are our offerings:
You
can find the article that inspired the vacation novel game here.
1)
Nick
took one lingering look at his address book, rose from the table and sighed.
2)
Reagan
stood in the hall of her new office, in awe of her own achievements, when a man
walked past her and asked her for a coffee.
3)
When
she saw her own name on the door it did not register, and with trepidation she
knocked.
4)
In a
different time, Nick would have chased a feminist broad like Regan (Regan! What
the hell kind of name is that?) around the desk.
5)
Regan
sat in the plush waiting room of the city’s larest and most prestigious law
firm, trying to conceal her nervous jitters.
6)
Regan’s
dreams were no mere flights of fancy.
Capital Crimes
(My Sister’s Keeper, Berkeley)
1)
Homicide
detective Isis was jolted out of her morning reverie by the ringing telephone.
2)
Sirens
rang out in the usually quiet neighborhood…Davita Grayson was dead.
3)
Davida
Grayson’s life didn’t just slip away, it was teased away by a sharp tool the
the jugular, as a hand covered her mouth from behind.
4)
“This
one has a liberal-elite-meets-tea-party-conservative-in-a-dark-allley written
all over it, Amanda”.
5)
The
Women’s Association of Northern California, Conquistadores Chapter Number 16,
was housed in a sumptuous turn-of-the-century, Beaux-Arts-touched-by-Gothis
castle topped by crenellations and turrets and constructed of massive blocks of
mauve-grey Deer Isle granite from a long-dead quarry in Maine.
6)
“God,
that is so depressing,” thought Isis, as the cellphone in the vic’s purse began
to ring to the tun of “Celebrate Good Times”
Ahab’s Wife, or
The Stargazer
1)
The
toll of the bell in the plaza signifies the start of a new day, which held no
promise to be any different than any of the previous days in the town of
Newcastle.
2)
Captain
Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last.
3)
The
seagulls were mobbing around something only they could see, an avian version of
the men pushing and shoving nearby.
4)
She was
a miserable woman who spent her days knitting sweaters that would go to no one.
5)
I don’t
know what’s worse – the deprivation and loneliness or his homebound hunger for
the sea.
6)
Millicent
unfolded the weathered parchment again, its script now unreadable, stained by
her tears and the salt of the sea
7)
She
always expected that when her husband died the sea would not relinquish his body.
1)
Peter,
with work and his true love, Melissa, was very confused in life.
2)
Jameson
walked out into a D.C. that was swampy and miserable – “and the weather sucks
too,” he wisecracked to no one in particular”
3)
Peter’s
feet ached in his slush-covered shoes, as he huddled in the warm vapors of the
sewer grate.
4)
A dull
roar from the streets of Washington cascaded up in to the open windows of Peter
Jameson’s office and for a split-second he was able to get Melissa Corley out
of his mine – then the phone rang.
5)
Peter
knew something just didn’t add up.
6)
Peter
Jameson hadn’t heard a sound since 7pm.
7)
It was
a typical day for DC: humid, bright, with the scent of political scandal heavy
in the morning haze.
Which are the true first lines of these novels? The answers in tomorrow's post.
