The First Line

I just discovered thefirstline.com, and I've found some inspiration for a short story. They provide the first line of a short story and hold contests every quarter. It would be cool if I could get a short story published while working on my novels. Here's what I have so far, more to come:

 

Rachel's first trip to England didn't go as planned. She and her fiancé, Eric, had been planning this week-long London getaway for months. It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation to unwind from months of wedding planning; their lavish wedding was to take place next year for various reasons, and they didn’t feel like waiting until their honeymoon to take a vacation together.

The flight arrived at Heathrow International Airport a few minutes ahead of schedule. Their luggage was among the first off the plane, and they took a taxi to their hotel. Once they arrived at their hotel, they decided to take a nap before dinner. After a restful nap, they had dinner at a fancy restaurant. After dinner, they went back to their hotel and made love.

In the morning, Eric offered to go out and bring breakfast back to the room. Rachel enjoyed sleeping in, especially when it meant she got the whole bed to herself, so she thanked him, kissed him, and buried her head in the down pillows.

A couple hours later, Rachel awoke with a start. Eric should have returned with the English muffins and fruit by now; where could he possibly be? She looked around the room to see if he had dropped off breakfast and let her sleep while he went for a run. She couldn’t find any sign of breakfast, not even a crumb.

Rachel became worried. It wasn’t like Eric to just disappear without telling her where he was going. They had noticed a market a block away from their hotel, and Eric had said he was going to run down there and bring breakfast back. That shouldn’t take two hours, Rachel thought to herself.

Glad they had decided to bring their cell phones rather than leaving them back home in Denver, she dialed his number quickly. She was startled to hear his phone ringing in the pants he had worn to dinner last night, which were draped over the armchair haphazardly – they had come off rather quickly last night.

Why hadn’t he taken his phone with him? She wondered. He must have decided he didn’t need it for such a quick trip.

Feel free to add your input, this is just a rough draft cranked out in 20 minutes.

murder mystery notes

Ooh, serial killer looking for perfect body parts?

Let’s see, Oedipal complex, trying to build his mom from parts?

?, or ?. Start as ? student? Maybe ? who also ?

Where keep body parts? ???

Good looking, maybe a player? Maybe married?

Where murder, dismember? Storage unit? Would be a good place to keep a freezer full of body parts.

Ooh, maybe two story lines – one with ?, ?; one with ?

How find victims? Stalking? Craigslist? 16^th Street Mall? Hookers? Homeless? College girls?

Maybe a second main character, a female cop chasing down the serial killer – I love the parallel story lines – maybe ???!!!

How does SK avoid leaving evidence, avoid getting caught?  Gloves of course, maybe raincoat. Would rinse well

My preliminary notes, but it IS a mystery, so I took key words and phrases out and replaced them with ?. That way you all can be surprised!

My "kids"

While I'm sure many of you didn't (and maybe still don't) agree with me getting another dog, watching the way way Hailey and Dillin interact makes my heart soar. When Hailey licks Dillin's eyes or Dillin licks inside her ears; when Dillin drags her around by her tail or when she humps him furiously; when they talk to each other in a language only they understand. All these things make me a happy, complete mother. Dexter was intended to be an only dog; he preferred human contact to being around other dogs. But Hailey and Dillin need each other - neither is complete without the other.

Some of you know that Dillin was bitten by another dog a couple days ago. He's healing just fine. I was supposed to keep the two of them separated for a couple of days, but I just couldn't keep them apart, so I've been letting them play under close supervision. Dillin's face seems to be healing just fine. I like to think interacting with Hailey is such a positive experience that it counteracts any negative impact playing may have.

Anyway, I think my whole point here is that I neither need nor want human children; any mothering instinct I may have is fulfilled by my fur kids.

Getting started

They say the best thing an aspiring author can do is to write every single day. I figure a blog is the perfect way to do that. Some days I might just talk about life, some days I might do some creative writing. This could be the perfect platform to share some of my writing with friends and family. So welcome to my world!