Story Hook

Went to a writing workshop yesterday, which included a section on hooks. As an exercise, we were told to write a hook, "enough that a reader could get at least a sense of what kind of story it is. A romance? An epic fantasy? A horror story? A story about your cat? An epic horror story about your cat?"

So naturally, I wrote this. And when he asked for volunteers to read aloud, I couldn't resist  . . .

The eyes watched me.

The rest of the cat stalked down in the valley, disemboweling cattle and tormenting sheep, but the rest of the cat didn't matter. It wasn't dangerous. Only the eyes could hurt me now, because the eyes were the windows to the soul, and I was already dead.

I wrote another prompt too, for the fun of it, for a short humorous story I've been meaning for years to write -- "Financial Wizard."  It's about time to do that.