Line-by-line Novel Opening Contest: Round One Winners

Congratulations to the 75 Round One winners in our Line-by-line contest. Our judge, agent Natalie Fischer of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, had a hard time eliminating 25 of the original entries based on the first sentence submitted. In the end, the reason for elimination was that the 25 entries she dropped just didn't make her feel compelled to read the second sentence.

In accordance with our rules, the following contestants are invited to submit the first two sentences for the next round. Entries must be submitted via comments to this post by Tuesday 6/29/10. If desired, you may edit your first sentence to correct grammar or punctuation, but please submit it together with the second sentence.

Congrats to everyone who entered. Remember, each of the top 25 will receive some form of feedback from Natalie Fischer or one of our ten fabulous author volunteers. And good luck in the next round!

#1 Kat Zhang

Adie and I were born into the same body, our souls’ ghostly fingers entwined before we gasped our very first breath.

#2 Creepy Query Girl

‘How do you punish someone who’s already dead?’

#3 Pam Harris

"It's not that I'm ugly or anything."

#4 JayceeKaycee

The shriek of my cell phone in the quiet classroom meant only one thing: the killer had found us again.

#5 Natalie Aguirre

“You don’t know what it’s like not knowing if you’re like your real mom or dad,” Jasmine said.

#6 Christine

Mary Kate Stewart secretly hoped that her Calculus teacher would get hit by a taco truck.

#7 Hanna C. Howard

I am told it is wonderful to be beautiful.

#8 Stina Lindenblatt

It was like leaping off a ten-meter platform when you’re terrified of heights.

#10 Robyn Campbell

Anna threw open the barn door and smiled at Fancy, who stamped her foot and stuck her head over the stall opening.

#11 L.J. Boldyrev

There’s a dead girl in the trunk and all I can think about is how white the trees are.

#12 Marquita Hockaday

I’m in hell.

#13 Sangay Glass

Yeah, it was gross, but with only seconds to spare Aleksandra really had no choice.

#14 cchant

My hope of living a normal life in Lindenville faded faster than my fifteen dollar jeans the moment I got to the school bus stop.

#15 Dunnes in UK

Ellen’s forehead cracked painfully against the window as her Aunt’s ancient pick-up hit a huge hole in the questionable country road, waking her from the most bizarre dream.

#16 Janice

Ann stood in the foyer, pulling off her gloves and then her coat, and considered how little the war had changed things at home.

#17 Courtney Lowe

"Screams ripped me from sleep."

#18 Jenn Fitzgerald

Madame Bhut’s Finishing School in the town of Whut was known across Amalthea as a respectable place to send your daughter if you were hoping to marry her to a gentleman; not for producing evil queens with ideas of world domination.

#20 Heather

Amidst the never-ending fires and screams of defiant terror, Abby collapsed to the ground, feet twisting inward, eyes unwilling to stay open, and desperately wishing to pass out.

#21 Buffy Andrews

I have a secret.

#22 Margay

"I always knew my name would get me into trouble one day."

#24 Natalie C. Markey

Water churned all around like a water sprout encasing me in a prison.

#25 C David

The old van in the woods had been rooted in middle school lore since ages past.

#26 jamilamosi

My hands went numb as the officer gently told me the news.

#27 salarsenッ

The test began like all the rest, although the dead corpse look was different.

#28 Cambria Dillon

Whoever said cell phones made life easier was full of BS.

#29 Leah Odze Epstein

The day my parents tricked Rachel into signing herself into the "Program," they tricked me, too, bringing me with them as a decoy.

#30 Ebyss

Ellyssa, a.k.a. Subject 62, sprinted through the dark alley after escaping from her long-term captors who she’d thought of as family for eighteen years.

#31 Holly Dodson

Mandy Samkirk had no warning of the life-changing events about to unfold; only the lingering worry from a recurring dream that nagged at her thoughts.

#33 Heather Trent Beers

The last day of fifth grade should mark the beginning of a fun-filled summer for a girl.

#34 amongdahlias

Riding to school with Max Holden is only slightly less traumatizing than riding the big yellow bus.

#36 A. Grey

Life is so much easier without underwear.

#38 Julie Musil

This day is going to suck.

#41 Valerie

I died before I was even born.

#42 Jess

Unfortunately for the Fredalia Tigers, Regina Brinkwell chose a crucial moment during the last soccer game of the season to lick her lips.

#43 Angela Ackerman

When Mom and Dad started throwing around the D word, I never imagined an old folk’s home would become my Post Divorce Relocation.

#44 Christine

Was he following her, or was she being paranoid?

#45 Tara

My name is Rufus William Gunther Chase, but people who know me call me Spoon.

#46 CL

What kind of animal sounds like a woman singing?

#47 Margaret Nichols

The bonfire in the middle of the grand plaza of New Tikal sent sparks up to greet the low-hanging stars; the stars Mau B'ah-Pakal hoped were still speaking to him, because no one else was.

#50 Traci Van Wagoner

My hand hovered over the latch, my stomach churning.

#52 Marilyn Hilton

If you're marked for trouble, it will trail you like a homeless dog, looking and acting like love but smelling like the shady bend of the river.

#54 shanini3

There was no mistaking the darkness on the eastern horizon; they were coming.

#55 Melissa Gill

The truck hit Milo.

#57 Sheila

Jacob shook the bamboo bars of his cage, but they held fast against his skinny arms.

#58 Tracy

Dearest Mother;

I know you’ve been wanting to know the latest gossip from this end of the underworld, but the truth is, that there hasn’t been much going on since his Evil Lordship succumbed to death by piano.

#59 JD Spikes

It wasn't the first time a good idea had come back to bite me in the ass, but i was afraid it might be the last.

#60 authorwithin

The cries from a flight of ravens echoed through the forest as they struggled to escape from the trees behind me.

#61 Ara Burklund

"Homo sapiens sluttiwhen drunkus--the subspecies to which I apparently belong."

#62 Liz

Freedom is feeling free, and separate ain’t equal, no matter what the law says.

#63 brenda

If this were a movie, you'd be hearing Elvis music right now, the soundtrack to my life.

#65 Suzanne Lilly

Jynx first found out about her father’s secret life by accident.

#66 Christine

Dragons are actually more curious than cats.

#67 shelley

"I'm never getting out of here."

#70 Amanda P.

Whispers of an outsider’s arrival have been flying between the mouths and ears of the Forsaken all day.

#71 mshatch

For Lucy, it began with a package; a small, unobtrusive, brown-paper wrapped package.

#72 PaigeC

We stood side by side in the dark, me holding a pack of matches, my best friend holding the gas can.

#73 Angela Ackerman

Not many people look down at a dead goldfish and wonder if that’s how they looked the day they died.

#74 jrmosher

Artificial lights brightened beneath the protective red dome, giving the illusion of morning over the campus of Red Cloak School.

#76 Deb

Crowded, loud, annoying.

#78 Kelly Hashway

I’d heard of signs of the apocalypse, but I didn’t know that one of them was a crazy guy wandering out of a forest and into my favorite hangout.

#79 Renee Pace

I am suffocating inside my plastic lined steel barred cage; dying with the thickening silence and quiet sobbing coming from the other room.

#81 Carol Riggs

Day #236: Status log…Dark Troy emerges from the rest station, yet finds himself still stranded in the High Desert with the zombie villagers.

#85 Angela Townsend

Sassy Smit was seven years old the afternoon she found Leroy Jebber dead.

#86 Alison Wells

First off, I just want to say I did not invite the aliens to drop into my backyard.

#87 Angela Townsend

Gloomy shadows crept across the tired oak floor, stealing what little light peered in through a set of stained glass windows.

#88 Bonnie Staring

I stared at the smoke drifting up from Erika’s fingertips.

#89 ann

As we follow Jax in the dark up the wide stone steps to the library, I feel like the marble lions on either side are somehow watching and will keep us safe, no matter what.

#90 Emily Casey

Ghosts can be so rude sometimes

#91 Jennifer

Don’t let them lock you in the closet, Nancy!

#92 andyland

"Shit, I may as well be dead," my mother said the day I killed her.

#94 Melissa Hed

Angela Fortunata woke up with a thump and a whack.

#95 Stefanie

The newspapers all said it was an accident.

#97 Annie McElfresh

Life lines.

#98 Authoress

Kate Raddish lived on an island and could not swim, which made her an anomaly from the start.

#100 Jordyn

In seventh grade math they taught us that a triangle is the sturdiest shape, stronger than rectangles or pentagons or anything else.