The Sun Down Motel

by Simone St. James

It was November 29, 1982, 11:24 p.m. By three o’clock in the morning, Viv Delaney had vanished. That was the beginning.

This line is unchanged from my first draft, which is rare! I rewrote the first chapter many, many times, because first chapters are important and you have to get them just right. Anything that doesn’t work in the first chapter, or anywhere else in the book, has to go. But I loved this line when I wrote it, and as I rewrote draft after draft, I kept it in. Having an original sentence make it to the final book is so unusual that I always celebrate it!