First Lines....

At the Capital Region RWA meeting last weekend I listened to a great speaker/writer, Joanne Rock, author of The Knight's Return.  She talked about first lines.  Okay guys and gals, this isn't about your pick up line.  It's the first line in the books you read or the first line in a magazine article or the newspaper article.  This line catches your attention long enough to get you to read on to the first paragraph, first chapter and hopefully the rest of the story.

I've taken a second look at some of the books I've read and analyzed why I bought the book.  Of course I read the back blurbs, but I always open the book and read the opening paragraph.  I looked first to Sarah McCarty's Caine's Reckoning; "He hated the sound of a woman's scream." This tells me he's a good guy, and there's a woman that needs help.  That's a perfect beginning to a romance.

Allison Chase's (first book in Her Majesty's Secret Servants series) Most Eagerly Yours begins; "Guests came to Thorn Grove today, and with them came the knowledge that the close little world I have shared with my three sisters these past eleven years will change, change for always."  This tells me things are going to drastically change for the narrator.  Intrigue.  Of course I know it's a romance.  (In the second book of the series) Outrageously Yours; "Ivy Sutherland slapped the morning edition of the Times onto the counter in front of her."  This gives me intrigue again and emotion.  And yes, I've read the first book and wanted the second for a good read.

Then I moved to a Louis L'Amour's Over on the Dry Side; "All that spring, I was scared."  Short and quick but it says a lot about the narrator.  There's a feeling in the air about danger that he brings to that sentence.

So I looked at the first sentence of my manuscript Moonlight Lady; "Alison shivered, but it wasn't the cold rain in Chicago that chilled her."  I think this conveys intrigue.  You know she's got a problem that's bothering her.  Don't worry; the hero comes in later in the chapter.  I will definitely keep an eye on the first sentence, first paragraph, first chapter and hopefully carry you all the way through the book.

Thanks so much for stopping by.