I’m just starting to put something down as a start to my third novel. It doesn’t even have a working title yet, but I have a first line I like. I truly have no idea whether this will eventually be in a book, but it is a starting point, and we always need one of those. Here it is…
On the last night of his life, Ricky Sullivan had the best lap dance of his life.
I think the first chapter is the most important in any novel and the first line is the most important line in the first chapter. So when I find one I like, I’m inclined to try to work with it. It’s complicated of course, to build a whole mystery around that first line. It already contains a lot of information… the victim’s name, the fact that he dies and that he was enjoying himself to some degree, at least during some part of his last day on earth. So, as I said, it’s a start. We’ll see what I can make of it.