{"id":386,"date":"2026-01-29T07:11:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T07:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/?p=386"},"modified":"2026-01-31T15:13:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T15:13:53","slug":"first-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/first-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"First Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At some point not too long ago I created a document with the opening lines of all my books. I had forgotten about it but I just now came across it. You might enjoy reading them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPainting can be an evil mistress. She can love you tender and she can love you raunchy, and she can rip your guts apart.\u201d
Until the Dawn<\/a> (fiction by Alec Clayton, 2000)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArt has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.\u201d
As If Art Matters \u2013 Modern and post modern art reviews and commentary<\/a> (nonfiction by Alec Clayton, 2003)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScully\u2019s New York Times was still on the floor from Sunday when the delivery guy dropped off the Monday paper.\u201d
Imprudent Zeal<\/a> (fiction by Alec Clayton, 2004)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was always the chance, however slim, that some nutcase in the crowd would pull out a gun and blast somebody away.\u201d
The Wives of Marty Winters<\/a> (fiction by Alec Clayton, 2007)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis may be confusing, so try to keep up.\u201d
Reunion at the Wetside<\/a> (fiction by Alec Clayton, 2010)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDavid Lawrence\u2019s many fans were surprised when he began performing his monologue, Water, Water, which ran six months Off Broadway before becoming a surprise hit on DVD.\u201d
Freedom Trilogy Book 1 \u2013 The Backside of Nowhere<\/a> (fiction by Alec Clayton, 2009)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBitsey can\u2019t sleep.\u201d
Freedom Trilogy Book 2 \u2013 Return to Freedom<\/a> (fiction by Alec Clayton, 2012)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCalling Bitsey Ashton a square peg in a round hole would be like saying the Titanic was a motorboat that sprang a leak.\u201d
Freedom Trilogy Book 3 \u2013 Visual Liberties<\/a> (fiction by Alec Clayton, 2015)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never understood how my twin brother grew to hate me.\u201d
Tupelo<\/a> (fiction by Alec Clayton, 2016)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a loudmouthed, fun-loving, rabble-rousing, perverse woman.\u201d
This Is Me, Debbi, David; Bonus: Nine Stories<\/a> (fiction by Alec Clayton, 2018)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe world in which we live is at this moment seemingly in a state of flux, with an unprecedented upheaval of preconceived notions about religion, art, and philosophy.\u201d
What the Heck is a Frame Pedestal Aesthetic?<\/a> (nonfiction by Alec Clayton, 2020 \u2013 (originally published as the graduate thesis A Ground for Today\u2019s Art: An alternative to the Frame Pedestal Aesthetic<\/em> in 1970)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was, so far, the most shocking moment in Eva McRoy\u2019s forty-one years of living.\u201d
Teacher<\/a> (fiction by Alec Clayton, 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was the summer that Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney were murdered by the Klan.\u201d
Locked In<\/a> (fiction by Alec Clayton, 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was the Sumatran tiger that killed Hairless Harlan Johnson\u2019s young bride.\u201d
The Descendants of the Pirate Pegleg Josiah Johnson<\/a> (fiction by Alec Clayton, 2024)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At some point not too long ago I created a document with the opening lines of all my books. I had forgotten about it but I just now came across it. You might enjoy reading them: \u201cPainting can be an evil mistress. She can love you tender and she can love you raunchy, and she … <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,9],"tags":[20,18,25],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-writing","tag-alec-clayton","tag-books","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nFirst Lines - Alec Clayton - Writing etc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/first-lines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First Lines - Alec Clayton - Writing etc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At some point not too long ago I created a document with the opening lines of all my books. 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I write for OLY ARTS (Olympia). My novels, published with Mud Flat Press, are: \"Teacher; This is Me, Debbi, David;\" \"Tupelo;\" The Freedom Trilogy (a three-book series consisting of \"The Backside of Nowhere,\" \"Return to Freedom\" and \"Visual Liberties\"); \"Reunion at the Wetside;\" \"The Wives of Marty Winters;\" \"Imprudent Zeal;\" and \"Until the Dawn.\" I've also published two books on art, \"As If Art Matters\" and \"What is What the Heck is a Frame-Pedestal Aesthetic? 1960s Revolution in American Art Revisited.\" All are available on amazon.com or can be ordered from your local bookstore. I grew up in Tupelo and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and have been living in the Pacific Northwest since 1988.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.alecclayton.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/author\/alecclayton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":393,"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}