Squawk Radio
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
ELOISA'S FIRST LINE CHALLENGE!
When I first heard that a manuscript of mine was going to be published (Potent Pleasures), my main response was kind of a dazed curiosity. I liked the book. But I was absolutely dying to know why an editor in New York City would like it. "What could it be?" I asked myself. "My scintillating prose? My devastating dialogue? The fact that my hero and heroine cleverly make love in the Very First Chapter?" Ok...I was hoping it wasn't just delight at my couple's rapid union. So I asked. I've never forgotten my editor's answer.
"Oh, the first line," she said calmly.
I tried desperately to remember the first line and couldn't.
This editor I'd never met but who sounded so sane on the phone went on cheerily, "Yes, I knew the moment I read the first line that I was going to buy the manuscript."
The First Line? What about my carefully crafted plot? Didn't she really mean that the decision was made after reading the heart-rending scene in which the heroine almost dies in childbirth, only to be saved by the hero?
By now, I imagine you'd like to read this sale-worthy first line. Ha! Here are five first lines. DON'T go on the comments and tell which books they are! That'll ruin it for everyone who doesn't know. Tell us if there's one you don't know (or can't guess). I'll post the answers at on Friday sometime...
But more importantly, fish out your favorite book and post its first line!
Here goes:
1) "I see..." said the vampire thoughtfully, and slowly he walked across the room toward the window.
2) It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness...
3) Charlotte was one week short of seventeen when her life changed, falling into two halves like a shiny child's ball: before, and after.
4) There are some men who ener a woman's life and screw it up forever. Joseph Morelli did this to me -- not forever, but periodically.
5) It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
When I first heard that a manuscript of mine was going to be published (Potent Pleasures), my main response was kind of a dazed curiosity. I liked the book. But I was absolutely dying to know why an editor in New York City would like it. "What could it be?" I asked myself. "My scintillating prose? My devastating dialogue? The fact that my hero and heroine cleverly make love in the Very First Chapter?" Ok...I was hoping it wasn't just delight at my couple's rapid union. So I asked. I've never forgotten my editor's answer.
"Oh, the first line," she said calmly.
I tried desperately to remember the first line and couldn't.
This editor I'd never met but who sounded so sane on the phone went on cheerily, "Yes, I knew the moment I read the first line that I was going to buy the manuscript."
The First Line? What about my carefully crafted plot? Didn't she really mean that the decision was made after reading the heart-rending scene in which the heroine almost dies in childbirth, only to be saved by the hero?
By now, I imagine you'd like to read this sale-worthy first line. Ha! Here are five first lines. DON'T go on the comments and tell which books they are! That'll ruin it for everyone who doesn't know. Tell us if there's one you don't know (or can't guess). I'll post the answers at on Friday sometime...
But more importantly, fish out your favorite book and post its first line!
Here goes:
1) "I see..." said the vampire thoughtfully, and slowly he walked across the room toward the window.
2) It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness...
3) Charlotte was one week short of seventeen when her life changed, falling into two halves like a shiny child's ball: before, and after.
4) There are some men who ener a woman's life and screw it up forever. Joseph Morelli did this to me -- not forever, but periodically.
5) It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Eloisa James, 11:23 PM
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