What to write, or which way does my muse blow

I've got two projects out in the wild looking for homes. In the current state of the publishing industry, I'm not confident either will find a place to land. I would like to be, and two years ago I would have been. Today, not so much. It's just the way the market bounces. So I'm trying to decide which of my gazillion ideas to write next, and I thought I'd toss out some first paragraphs, see what you guys think. These are the first five I could find without digging through my boxes of spiral n...