Sci-Fi Writer Creates Fun New Game on Twitter

Science fiction and horror writer, Marc Laidlaw, has recently climbed the heady heights of viral fame thanks to one of his humorous tweets.

On March 2nd 2017, he tweeted an idea of how to make any first line of a book more interesting by simply adding one more line… “And then the murders began.”

One of our favourite authors, Neil Gaiman, even got involved suggesting a line from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.

Here are a few choice examples we could think of… 

1. “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. Then the murders began.” Ulysses (1922) James Joyce

2. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Then the murders began.” 1984 (1949) George Orwell 

3. “Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French. And then the murders began.” The Luck of the Bodkins (1935) P.G. Wodehouse

4. “It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me. And then the murders began.” Earthly Powers (1980) Anthony Burgess

5. “The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play, so we sat in the house all that cold, cold wet day. And then the murders began.” The Cat in the Hat (1957) Dr. Seuss

6. “Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do. And then the murders began.” Alice in Wonderland (1865) Lewis Carroll

7. “The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. And then the murders began.” The Wind in the Willows (1908) Kenneth Grahame

Can you think of any more hilarious examples?

Tell us in the comments or on our Facebook page and on Twitter.