My Entry in the 2010 Book Passage Mystery Writer's Conference Challenge

The Challenge: Introduce a new character in three sentences.  No physical descriptions allowed.

My entry:

“Game over, get ready to die,” the peppermint on the killer’s breath flashed me back to the gum my mother chewed to cover up the liquor when she kissed me goodnight. The cold press of the knife against my sweaty throat became my father teaching me to shave in the bewildering months after puberty. That’s when I relived the thrill of brandishing the razor at Pop the night he raised his fist at Mom and knew I had the determination to bring death to my would-be assassin.

The other entry I wrote which I chose not to read at the conference:

My instincts screamed earthquake as the vibrations radiated out of the sidewalk through my leather soles, up my calves, and echoed under my sternum. My brain processed the odor of burning rubber a few milliseconds before the buzzing in my throat assaulted my ears as a very low frequency bass rumble. It was the silence that buckled my knees when George killed the stereo, stepped out of the car, flipped the keys at me, and walked into the restaurant.