First Lines and Openings

In my Writing Fiction class, we had to write openings for stories.  Five per week, and post them on a class blog.  If anyone's interested in reading these nuggets of creativity, you can find them here: http://455fictionopenings.wordpress.com/

Today we had an award ceremony for these openings.  My classmates and I nominated lines within six different categories, and today we learned who won.  I won three out of the six categories.

Best Dialogue:
"So I got an e-mail from an April Diamond," Seth said, taking a long drag on his cigarette.
Lucy shook her head, "Sounds like a stripper."

Funniest:
He never understood the appeal of Marilyn Monroe and even standing by the statue on Michigan Avenue staring up at her gigantic white panties, Steve still didn't get it.

Best Overall (because it was unopposed):
I told him because I'm afraid.  Afraid of everything that might happen, and everything that might not.  Most of all, I'm afraid of being happy.

Actually, three of my openings were nominated for best dialogue.  It's fun because all of them sprang from real life conversations that I had before I submitted my first lines.  This one actually happened.  It's a part of a tradition of my school's chapter of the National Residence Hall Honorary to send out these cryptic e-mails from an e-mail account that's registered to April Diamond for the induction ceremony.  It's super creepy, I remember being confused about the whole thing and not really wanting to go to the quad after dark to be jumped by a stripper, because that's what April Diamond sounds like.  Luckily, people still show up and induction happens and everything's good, but it still worries me that one day someone won't come and won't even realize that they're a part of NRHH.  That would just be strange.

I personally don't think that my line was the funniest of the nominees, but hey.  There's a statue of Marilyn Monroe in downtown Chicago.  It's based on the still from Seven Year Itch with Marilyn's billowing white skirt.

Spring Break in Chicago.  Two of my friends are scandalized.

This statue is near the Tribune Tower, and honestly, I thought it was a pretty ugly statue.  I was more interested in taking pictures of the Tribune Tower, so this picture is one of a grand total of two pictures that I have of the Marilyn statue.  And I honestly don't really understand Marilyn Monroe's appeal, part of me feels like I should probably figure out because she's technically an American icon...if I'm correct.  But the Marilyn statue was kinda like The Bean for me.  I don't really get it.

My last line shouldn't have won, but it did.  Only because it was unopposed.  If it had gone up against someone else's line, I have no doubt that other line would have won, and it would have deserved it.  Meh.