Your best first paragraph

[Brian Hoffman]

During writing group, several of us began talking about first paragraphs.  So, I was wondering if you would like to share the best first paragraph that you've written.  It doesn't have to be great literature, just the best you've done so far.  Here is mine.

“Working for God is never easy,” Detweiler said as he jacked a twelve gauge shell into the chamber of a cutdown Remington. Behind him four others loaded their weapons. They stood at the front door of the abandoned hulk of Lawrence Talbot Junior High School, three miles from Cle Elum, Washington. A light snow fell.

[I. J. Parker]

Dear heaven!  I had no idea.  Please thank them from me.  It feels so odd hearing this (and reading the occasional fan letter), when you consider I've lost 3 publishers and my agent for lack of sales and haven't found another one.  For that matter, my Kindle sales are only so so, though that at least is a venue that doesn't torment and humiliate me.  It also builds readership and it's steady.  More than I can say for print editions. :)

[Debbie Bennett]

Michael Redford died on his seventeenth birthday – the night Eddie picked him up off the street, shot him full of heroin and assaulted him.

Bit of a marmite opening. So far it's roughly 75% love/25% hate ...