Best First Lines of Books. How many of these books have you read? I'm going to go back and count. But first . . . lines. . .

kate scurries to open latest document.


It was the traveler's first long-term assignment and he hated nearly every moment of it.
Hmmm. Could be improved.

Here's the first line of Lori Devoti's current WIP:
It was the fear he smelled first, a pheromone-laden scent almost irresistible to the hell hound within him. She was here--somewhere.

Her two published books are contemporaries set in Missouri--clearly she can write a variety of genres. . .

Comments

  1. Megan Frampton3:20 PM

    Thanks for that link, Kate! Don't sell yourself short; your first sentence is intriguing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bronwyn Parry1:54 AM

    Okay, so I went and read the 100 opening sentences. Some were good. Some were pretentious-aren't-I-a-great-literary-author
    twaddle.

    Of course styles change and I'm not really at all anti-literary (just anti-it-must-be-good-because-it's-'literary')
    but there weren't all that many that actually made me stop and savor them again.

    And you're first sentence is damn fine, Kate - character, emotion, plot and questions packed into just 16 words.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lori Devoti12:47 PM

    Thanks, Kate! Hopefully, an editor will think so too. (G)
    Lori
    http://www.loridevoti.com/blog

    ReplyDelete

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