First Five Paragraphs

Wow, I've been away for a while. I really have no excuse for my absence except for a few edits and moving, and the fact I don't really have anything interesting to write about right now. I led the most boring life. All I do all day long is edit (my own books and others) and write, broken up with cooking, cleaning, and laundry.
Yawn!

So I've decided to copy/paste a few things hiding on my hard drive that I've been trying to finish for a few years now. (I have a few more unfinished ones, but those are meant for my other publishers.) Here's the totally unedited first draft of the first five paragraphs of a few of them.

The Brotherhood Covenant is set in the future, generations after a world-wide biological disaster killed a majority of the population and changed many of the ones left behind. This started as an erotic short that my husband loved. (Of course, it was one big sex scene.)

Intercultural Research Medical Center

New Hope Annex

2117

The male newborn’s cry pierced the air of the office the moment Doctor Amy Gale placed the tip of her needle onto his arm. Her finger gently caressed over the top of his still pink head as she lifted it from his skin and glanced up at the grinning nurse. “Hold him still, Mary.”

“He’s a frisky one, isn’t he?” the elder matron said. “Maybe this little one will be different.”

Amy only shook her head. Yes, he is loud and strong.

“You mustn’t give up hope, Doctor Gale.”

“This one does seem…different from the others,” she agreed tentatively. “His lungs are certainly powerful.”

The Treasure Myth is about the ghost of a murdered World War Two solder wandering around an even older plantation house. There is a mystery in this one too. Rumors say the ghost sent his family jewels and other small objects he'd stolen from overseas before he returned home. (The heroine is related to the ghost.)

            Susan Nichols remembered this man. Hard as the wood and steel of the hammer clamped in his rough hands, coarse as the splintered and jagged floor under his bent knees, ten years hadn’t changed him at all. Unwanted memories flowed into her mind, memories of hands as soft as a piece of silk, of loving words echoing from a deep bass voice.

She would recognize Jed Forrest anywhere. “What are you doing here?”

“Who’s asking?”

“Susan Nichols,” she said. “Thelma Rogers is my aunt. Rogersville now belongs partly to me.”

He stood from the floor. “You’re her new partner?”

Winning the Bet is the tentative title for a short, erotic I just started writing a week or so ago. I thought of this when I was sitting at the VA clinic a few weeks ago, waiting to get blood work done. The hero is based on a young neighbor who lives on the first floor of my apartment building. Yum!

            "So, what number do you think he picked?"

Maggie glanced over at her fellow phlebotomist and shrugged. What would it matter? No matter what number he had, one of the others would get the privilege of drawing his blood. Most likely Robin. She'd never been that lucky -- or underhanded -- to win one of their dumb bets. The only time she would ever win a bet is if they decided to change the usual routine and start betting on who would draw blood on the oldest man or the fattest woman. Those she would no doubt win, but definitely not the hottest guy she'd seen in a long time. One she'd seen somewhere else before, but where?

"He'll be one of the first ones in," Karen continued. "He was sitting out there when I came in fifteen minutes ago."

Maggie pushed the question away, and glanced up at her friend. "No matter what number he has, you know who will get to work on him." She sighed. "Robin."

"Maybe it'll be you this time, girl."

I'm in the middle of another edit for a July release with another publishers, so I probably won't be able to work on either of these story. But when I do, I'm wondering which one I should finish?

Personally I'm thinking Winning the Bet.

What do you think?