This month brings us late assassins, nautical conception, and a girl without dreams. To submit a first line, email booklifeeditor@booklife.com.

Before the Court of Heaven by Jack Mayer

“The assassins were twenty minutes late.”

The Hope Store by Dwight Okita

“My name is Jada Upshaw. I started out as a girl without dreams and grew up to be a woman without a future.”

Hardbarned! by Christopher J. Driver

“I have straddled the line between blue collar and white and have stepped boldly with two feet into both worlds.”

Life After the Undead by Pembroke Sinclair

“I will never understand peoples’ fascination with the apocalypse.”

Passages Through Pakistan by Marilyn R. Gardner

“I was conceived, I am told, on the Queen Mary.”

Chase by Sydney Scrogham

“Real life has run out of good stories for me, so I live my own.”