First Line Friday: Gimme a 1, and a 2, and a 3!

Oh, I LOVE working on First Lines...not because I always intend to finish the story but sometimes that great line just pops into your head in the middle of grocery shopping, taking your kiddo potty, or people watching...does it happen when I sit in front of Buffy (my lappy MacBook Pro) ready to write?

I am going to share with you 3 opening lines.
1-My WIP.
2-A favorite from a favorite book.
3-A wannabe novel first liner.

1-In my latest WIP which is my Amish grandmother's "memoir" titled SEASONS this is the first line:

I'm an old lady.

Short. Perhaps not the most evocative line but it's a start.

2-A Favorite from a Favorite Book:

Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.

Wow...now THAT is a mouthful. It is the first line of...of course, Anne of Green Gables...and the first paragraph! I'm not sure many writers, readers, editors, agents, pub houses...etc...would appreciate SUCH a long first line nowadays. But I sure enjoy this one.

3-A Wannabe Novel first line:

The darkness always increased Anna's sense of hearing.

Again, it's not perfect...but perhaps one day this will be the first line of a story I'd love to write.

What are your 3 lines! Please, share with me!

by Elizabeth