Entries that include hate propaganda, racism, gratuitous violence, pornography, and vulgarity (beyond normally accepted literary standards) will be disqualified.

All entries must be submitted in English.

All entries must be the original, and unpublished, un-produced, un-optioned work of the entrant. The entrant ensures that he or she is the sole author of the work and that it does not infringe on any existing copyright and the entrant bears full responsibility for any claims to the contrary.

Entrants must be 18 years of age or older. Younger entrants must have their entry submitted by a parent or guardian.

Each entry will consist of 350 characters or less (including spaces - longer entries will be truncated), and should be the opening of a larger work, or created as the opening of an intended larger work - either a book manuscript, a screenplay, teleplay, a magazine article or short story, a poem or sonnet, a libretto or lyric, a letter, memo, a speech or dissertation, or any other literary work, either fiction or non-fiction. Self-published work is acceptable. Blogs and electronically distributed works are accepted provided the entrant has not received payment for such work. The work from which the entry is derived does not need to be complete, or even begun. But it should be obvious from the entry that it is (or will one day become) the opening line of "something."

Writers are welcome to submit an entry that has been previously submitted to other contests (including this one), and are free to submit the same material siimultaneously to other contests.

An entrant may enter as many opening lines as he or she cares to, though for each opening line, an entry fee of $5.00US must be paid via credit card using the online order form provided, or as an alternative, by check/money order via U.S. Postal Service to: Zirdland, PO Box 3318, Oakton VA 22124 accompanied by the online order form, printed and legibly completed.

All entrants must provide a valid e-mail address and postal address. Writer's contact information, including e-mail addresses, remain private. We do not sell or otherwise distribute entrant's information.

All entrants will receive a confirmation e-mail to verify their entry and provide a receipt for payment. No other receipt will be sent.

Once entered, an entry may be withdrawn by giving notice via e-mail to: YourHost@ThatFirstLine.com, at least 24 hours before the contest deadline.

There will be a preliminary judging to identify 10 finalists. From those 10 entries, a winning entry will be chosen and an award of $500.00US will be paid to the successful entrant within 30 days of the announcement. The winner will be solely responsible for paying any taxes that may apply.

All the entrants will receive an e-mail notification of the chosen finalists and contest award.

All entrants will be solely responsible for determining the legality of this competition within their own country, state and province and that their participation falls within the statutes and boundaries of their local and regional laws.

Entrants are prohibited from contacting the judges during the competition. Any entrant who attempts to contact a judge will be disqualified and their entry fee forfeited.

All entries must be received before the contest deadline. Those entries received after midnight on the deadline date will be automatically entered into the next contest and a confirmation will be sent via e-mail of such entry with the anticipated award date.

All 10 finalists will be announced on our web site, and distributed to publishers, editors, literary agents, film producers and the news media. All 10 finalists' entries will be displayed. In addition, the winning entry will be publicized separately. The winning entrant may be asked to provide a head-shot (photo) and additional information. All entrants agree to the potential promotional use of their name, location, entry, and likeness in the event they are chosen as a finalist or prize winner. Personal information (email address, home address, etc. will not be made public).

Entrant's credit card information is not stored.

Entrants must provide all the information requested on the Official Entry Form or risk disqualification. If disqualified, the entry fee will not be refunded.

Any mailed entries received will not be returned.

All rights to the material submitted remain with the writer. Each entrant agrees that ThatFirstLine.com (and parent company Zirdland.com, LLC) may use the material as set forth in this agreement. Those entries that are not chosen as finalists will not be made public.

If entrant is using a pen-name, his or her legal name should also be provided, framed by parenthesis in the "Your name" field of the Official Entry Form. Award payment will be made in the winner's legal name.

Zirdland.com, LLC reserves the right to extend the contest deadline or cancel the contest at its discretion, and in the event of cancellation, will promptly return all entry fees to entrants.

Employees and contractors of Zirdland.com, LLC and their families are prohibited from entering this contest. Judges, family members, and co-workers of the judges are also prohibited.

Zirdland.com, LLC accepts no liability whatsoever for any claims of damages, real or perceived, by any entrant(s) as a result of their participation in this contest.

A $500.00 prize will be awarded to the entrant judged to have submitted the best opening line. An award will be given to the entrant receiving the highest number of votes from the participating judges. The decision of the judges is final.