I was glad to see Novas comments in distraction no. 99 about story opening lines. A few months back, I tried to start a discussion on a writing forum about best first lines people thought they had written but nobody seemed interested.
I suppose putting a mountain of difficulty right at the beginning of a story practically encourages writer’s block, even before getting started, for some writers.
I’ve had this first line going around in my head a while now:
‘1967 I started my short story … It’s almost finished.’
Problem is, I’ve got no story to go with it … 
However, I am quite proud of a lot of first line I’ve written. Here are a few…
From Holiday to Murder:
‘Slain woman with rose tattoo naked in holiday home rural retreat murder’
the headline screamed.
From Kingfisher Blue:
She walked into Smokey’s Bar like the breeze that sometimes caresses your face on a gray day. Her fair, nearly blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail with two wisps hanging down by each eye. The bustle of the bar absorbed her into its midst and I lost track of her until she surfaced by the gamblers.
From Blooding of Amelia-Rose:
Amelia-Rose struggled to hang the wedding dress on the line. The water-soaked material was heavy and she felt the sadness in her heart well up as she gently pegged it up to dry naturally in the balmy air. Memories were revived with each peg - good memories at first but then many bad ones. Soon they began to overwhelm her so she tried to make the thoughts go away by imagining them hanging up and being refreshed by the healing morning breeze.
From Unwelcome Paradise:
Rod deposited the offending jeans and three socks on the floor of his bedroom where they belonged, found the stolen computer’s power button and switched it on.
From Burglars:
Alice sat neatly down at the kitchen table of her 3 bedroom semi-detached in the suburbs of London. The burglar slouched at the other end of the vinyl kitchen table.
How did she know he slouched, she wondered. After all, the grey packing tape that blindfolded her excluded even the slightest chink of light. But she did.
From The Farmer’s Story: Cool Waters:
Cool waters glisten enticingly under a diamond blue sky.
My time on this earth in this moment seems to hang balanced between the ebb and flow of the tide that rocks against our tiny beach … and the scream of the herring gull.
Shudder … It fair makes my spine tingle reading them!
However, I’d better call an end to this post as I guess it’s becoming a bit self congratulatory
Anybody else got any good story first liners?
Bye for now
Rob
(Rob Hopcott - online author and lover of great first lines)
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