First Lines: June 2021

This month, we’ve got enveloping fog, gunfire, a writerly memoir, and more. To submit a first line, email booklifeeditor@booklife.com.

Denied by Mary Keliikoa

“After nearly getting killed during my first murder investigation, I’d spent a good portion of the last months holed up on the couch nursing my arm where the bullet of a Ruger LC9 claimed a chunk.”

The Eighth Master: Art, Architecture, and an Untimely Death by J.D. Rutherford

“Thick, damp fog enveloped the woods on the eastern slope of Howell Mountain.”

Enemy Combatant by David Winner

“He had suffered neither stroke nor seizure, but those happenings in the Caucasus still afflicted him.”

The Place Beyond Her Dreams by Oby Aligwekwe

“I had just turned ten the day Okem came to live with us.”

Skein of Fates by Leslie Ann Moore

“Deana woke to the sound of gunfire below her bedroom window.”

The Steel Beneath the Silk: A Novel by Patricia Bracewell

“It was well past dawn when the corpse arrived in the city.”

Word for Word: A Writer’s Life by Laurie Lisle

“This is a memoir about living a writing life—wanting to be a writer, becoming a writer, and being a writer—as acts of self-expression, self-assertion, and womanly survival.”