What If? Exercise 1

My mom bought me a new book for Christmas: "What If?" by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter.  It's a book full of writing exercises for the creative writer.  

Exercise 1

Write ten opening lines for ten different stories.  Try to make it suck the reader into the story with that one sentence.

1)     The brass snapped decisively as Trevor clicked closed the clasps of his briefcase and stood from the table, wondering if it were possible that his dreams had really all just come true in an instant.

2)     Jenny cracked the gum in her mouth as she looked out the filmy window of the salon and watched Leonard Maynes wave his handgun around haphazardly while lumbering down the middle of Main Street.

3)     It was unseasonably cold for early May but it didn’t do anything to keep the smell of death out of the air as Detective Jukes looked over the blue-tinged skin of the nude body laying face down on the merry-go-round in Peace Park this fine Sunday morning.

4)     The barn door screamed and banged as the wind blew it open and closed, giving glimpses of the orderly hay bales within but it was the eyes peaking out at him from the 2^nd-story windows of the large dingy white farm house that really irritated him.

5)     The blare of the oncoming pickup’s horn tore Lana’s attention away from the cigarette she was trying to light with trembling hands and back on the road where she righted her little coupe back into her own lane and cursed the day she’d ever set eyes on Brian Baker. 

6)     The service station was closed and the mastiff barked aggressively against the glass as Stark looked in the windows to see where the cash register was located.

7)     The lights of the rooftop bistro atop the Towne Royale hotel were seductive, the music tempting, the greenery provocative, and yet none of it was necessary as he landed his eyes on Ema Lane with her mane of auburn hair, long curvy legs and lips that made a man beg for more lies.

8)     I’ve always hated the smell at funerals and this time was no different.

9)     Jake sat in the undersized chair outside the principal’s office and stewed.

10) Two parka-clad bodies huddled over a hole in the ice sat motionless until the sound of gunfire cracked across the ice-covered lake.