I Challenge Thee to a .... Writing Exercise!

As this is post #100 I decided to make it a challenge to my reader or readers. This is a writing exercise I did some years back and I just rediscovered it today in my file cabinet. The idea is to write ten opening sentences for novels/stories. I believe it's meant to be a help for those struggling with writing the 'perfect' opening sentence for your work. Anyway, I'll show you my ten sentences, and then you can write your own--- in the comments, or at your own blog, or on the restroom wall, wherever.

Opening Sentences

1. "Don't touch that!" the man screamed, seconds before the explosion.

2. If Mary had known that the old book would eventually cause the murder of 75 people, she would have gone into the antique shop instead.

3. The governor knew, of course, that Red Jack was innocent, but he had no intention of stopping the execution.

4. They moved to Wisconsin the year Maia turned thirteen, and things would never be right again.

5. I knew it was a bad idea to stow away on the Andromeda, but I'd rather be spaced out the airlock than stay on the station even one more day.

6. The suns glared orange in the sky ar Aminton killed the last thousand of the Iliani rebels. The last of them, women and children mostly, might have been permitted to live, had any of them thought to ask for mercy. But the sheer weight of those who had gone before them drained off all their hope, and they died, silent.

7. The dragon was small, blue-eyed, and in my living room.

8. "Don't you even b'leeve in God, Charlie?"
"Nah," Charlie told his kid brother, "there isn't no God, not for real there isn't."

9. Reggie was dead, but that didn't mean he wasn't planning on attending the wedding.

10. The day the world ended, Jennie had a terrible fight with her ex-husband. Not a physical fight, of course. Ron was too smart for that.

I've noticed that a couple of these are more than one sentence. Oh, well.