First Chapter Redux

I've completely reworked the opening chapter for my book. I'm posting an excerpt below. It is the murder set up in much the same way that Law and Order shows you the crime in the first few minutes and then tells the story of the detectives solving the case. The commission of the crime itself is not in my my posting (you can read that in the published version, hopefully) but you will read what happens just befor the murder. It is not really a full chapter but more a lead in to Chapter One. I welcome any feedback you are inclined to give.

Monday, February 9th, 11 PM


John Reinke was walking his date home down 2nd Ave. past bars with solitary drinkers and couples
coming and going, convenience stores with Asian shopkeepers sitting behind counters overcrowded
with items you didn't need, an all-night diner or two, closed laundromats and the entrances to second
and third floor apartments.

There was the usual army of homeless asking for handouts. Some of their stories were elaborate and
well-thought out backed up by “documentation” that almost looked real but wasn't. Like the fake
minister who had done great things for the needy of his church and proved it to you by opening up
the cheap fake leather notebook he was carrying and showed off the photo copies of the newspaper
articles written about him. If you looked closely you could see the lines where the banner from the
New York Times (or the Post or Newsday) was pasted over a photo of him and a fake article about his
good deeds. If you could put on a good show like this and could tell a good story as well you made
money. Others who did not have the talent, the patience, the intelligence or were just too strung out to
put together an act that would draw you in usually went away empty handed. Panhandling, like
anything else in the great city, was highly competitive. Only the strongest survived.


John and Molly tried to ignore them all. That was what you did if you wanted to retain your sanity
and get anywhere close to on time. They had both learned this quickly after moving to the City a few
years ago, he from North Carolina wanting to become a successful actor, she from Westchester County,
geographically close but culturally light years from where she now lived.


It was a crisp,clear late winter night. The kind of cold that focuses you and makes you more aware
of everything around you. The people, the lights, the City itself were more sharply defined and John
loved it. John loved the weather, the City, it's people and places in a way that natives usually don't. His
love for New York was the kind of love that only people from someplace else experience. He had
arrived two years earlier and had sworn, after having been in New York for only a few weeks, that he would never leave, never live anywhere else. New York was the most exciting place he had ever been
or could imagine ever being. His acting career was just taking off so there was no reason for him to
leave. He would be here forever. Forever, for John Reinke, was not to be too much longer.

More tomorrow.

Bill Browning, writing from Starbucks, Ansley Mall, Saturday, 20 March 2010.