My friends and fellow writers Mary Robinette Kowal and John Arkwright have both tagged me with this challenge, so I’ve decided to do it. The rules are: Go to page 7 or 77 of your latest work. Read down to the seventh line and then post online the next seven lines or sentences. Then head off and tag seven more writers.
So, the following are the seven sentences following the seventh line on the seventh page of “The Game of His Life,” the short story I finished less than seven times seven hours ago:
“Mr. Devil,” said Jimmy, “you may be the source of all evil, but that don’t mean you know how college football works. Just to be clear, we’ll play by NCAA rules, with overtime to break ties, so there’s no advantage.”
The Devil laughed again, and I swear the room temperature dropped about ten degrees. “Fair enough. We have a deal. To make sure the game is played fairly, the refs will be from Heaven. And I appreciate your spirit enough that I’ll even give you one advantage: home field.
As for the seven writers I shall serendipitously tag with this challenge, I choose: Nancy Fulda, Michael A. Burstein, Terra Le May, Ted Kosmatka, Caroline M. Yoachim, Floris Kleijne, and Amy Sundberg.