Opening Lines

Opening Lines June 6, 2018

Alec Cizak’s Atomic Fuel

Writer and filmmaker Alec Cizak was interviewed for the article on POD/digital digests that appeared in The Digest Enthusiast book four. Book six presented his story, “Atomic Fuel,” with an illustration by Brad Foster. The story begins like this:

“Sal Bridgewater sang along to a Nirvana tune on the classic alternative station, assured his empty passenger seat he didn’t have a gun.”

In May 2017 Alec and I partnered on the revival of his fiction journal Pulp Modern. We are working on the third issue of the rivival now, due in late June/early July. Also in July, Down & Out Books will release his latest novel, Breaking Glass, which continues the lives of characters introduced in the earlier Down on the Street (D&O 2017). DOTS was outstanding, so I’m eagerly awaiting Breaking Glass.

Opening Lines May 27, 2018

Selected from a digest featured in The Digest Enthusiast book six:

“I handed the guy the note and shivered a little bit because the guy was as big as they come, and even though he had a belly you couldn’t get your arms around, you wouldn’t want to be the one who figured you could sink your fist in it. The belly was as hard as the rest of him, but not quite as hard as his face.”
“Everybody’s Watching Me” by Mickey Spillane Manhunt Jan 1953

Opening Lines April 17, 2018

Opening Lines

Selected from a digest featured in The Digest Enthusiast book five:

“Their women came first.

“One was a blonde, one a redhead, one a brunette. They were tall, extremely so; as though height had been a determining factor in their present status. Among others. They were beautiful, in a spectacular fashion. It was not a friendly sort of beauty. Their blue-painted eyelids were held far down over their eyes; not in modesty, but in a sort of supercilious disdain. As though rejecting the stares they were long since used to receiving.”
“The Black Bargain” by Cornell Woolrich Justice Vol. 2 No. 1 January 1956

Opening Lines April 8, 2018

Opening Lines

Selected from a digest featured in The Digest Enthusiast book five:

“Strike in the nails, soldiers, and let our guest see the reality of our good Roman justice!”
“Worms of the Earth” by Robert E. Howard Magazine of Horror #22 July 1968

Opening Lines March 28, 2018

Opening Lines

Worlds of Fantasy #4 cover by Gerald Facey

Selected from a digest featured in The Digest Enthusiast book five:

“A crimson sun was sinking slowly in a pale-blue sky. Another evening was drawing on over the undulating hills of Macedon, and the tall poplars seemed to nod approval in the gentle breeze which rocked them to and fro,”
“World of the Ancients” by C.D. Ellis Worlds of Fantasy #4 1951

Opening Lines March 20, 2018

Opening Lines

Selected from a digest featured in The Digest Enthusiast book five:

“The telephone was ringing when I walked into my office. I thought I knew who it was, but I tossed my hat on the desk and answered it anyway.”
“Gorilla of the Gasbags” by Bill Crider EQMM Mar/Apr 2014

Opening Lines March 3, 2018

Opening Lines

Selected from a digest featured in The Digest Enthusiast book five:

“Some time has passed since I first told you about the Stranger Club up on West 53rd Street. I have spent part of it in the great lounge listening to stories of one sort or another, but they must wait, for, starting in this room last month, I have been led into as extraordinary an adventure as any I have been told and I must tell it as it befell. Perhaps the telling may help me to forget.
“Caverns of Horror” by Laurence Manning Magazine of Horror #6 November 1964

Opening Lines February 12, 2018

Richard L. Kellogg’s Fencer’s Document Caper

Comic artist and illustrator Brian Buniak, drew this wonderful collage of images for Richard L. Kellogg’s spoof, “Fencer’s Document Caper,” that appeared in The Digest Enthusiast book five. Here’s the opening:

“On a warm and pleasant afternoon in Boston, my friend Eagle and I were sitting happily in the upper decks of Fenway Park.”

Opening Lines February 8, 2018

Opening Lines

Selected from a digest featured in The Digest Enthusiast book five:

Jonathan Press cover — Jonathan Press Mystery J29 January 1947

“The Montgomery Hotel’s regular detective had taken his last week’s rake-off from the hotel bootlegger in merchandise instead of cash, had drunk it down, had fallen asleep in the lobby, and had been fired. I happened to be the only idle operative in the Continental Detective Agency’s San Francisco branch at the time, and thus it came about that I had three days of hotel-coppering while a man was being found to take the job permanently.”
“House Dick” by Dashiell Hammett Jonathan Press Mystery J29 January 1947

Opening Lines January 28, 2018

Opening Lines

Selected from a digest featured in The Digest Enthusiast book five:

“A most singular case.” mumbled Dr. Pertinnet, walking a dignified hopskotch among the checkered tiles of the sanitarium waiting room. “Can’t be unique, of course—nothing’s ever unique: must have been someone like Hallock in medical history. Just never recorded.”
“Hallock’s Madness” by William Tenn Marvel Science Stories May 1951