Here are the first lines from each chapter of a novel called Threnody that I wrote in 1994 and threw away. It’s actually much better this way.

1. Harper Juno had nothing to write about.
2. Harper met his painter friend Silas every Sunday for brunch at a place in San Mateo which specialized in wheat germ.
3. Harper sat in his narrow office at Elazaro Productions and wrote the word “hybrid” in the Black Notebook.
4. “So what do you have for me, Mr. Juno?” Feddema said, not looking up from the sheaf of papers in his hand.
5. The next month was blissfully complicated for Harper.
6. Lincoln Juno was thoroughly tired of strained carrots.
7. Link’s birthday party raged on out in the living room.
8. Harper Juno stood at the foot of the mountain of salt.
9. The note on the refrigerator said: “Went to get some dinner. Be back soon.”
10. It was now the tragic and violent story of Blazes Boylan, his wife Molly, and the evil Dr. Marcello.
11. It was on the news the following Wednesday.
12. Montgomery Keats hated all things shredded.
13. The next morning, Threnody 111 hit bookstores nationwide.
14. Harper showed Gordo and Birdie his father’s gun.
15. Billy Rubin, liver specialist, had a craving for imported beer but there was none to be had.
16. Harper opened one eye and saw himself, frozen and jittery, on a TV screen.
17. Harper Juno now had blond hair, no beard, and small round spectacles that wrapped their loving arms around his ears.
18. Billy Rubin was taped to a plush easy chair in their small, tidy, air-conditioned room.
19. The next day Wallace Riley burst into Bejamin Mallory’s lush, book-lined office, frantically waving a handful of papers.
20. The traffic loosened up and started moving as official announcements came over the radio that the bomb threat had been declared a hoax and that everyone should discontinue their panic.
21. Lincoln Juno liked the smell of rain, though he was still too young to explain that to his mother.