We’ve all experienced that wondrous undertow of being pulled, irresistibly, into the world of a new story. How does that happen? What alchemy of seduction and entreaty summons us to stop everything we’re doing and continue reading?
I invite you to consider this question and post an opening line of yours, however provisional, on this thread. If you’re too shy (yet) to do so then go ahead and post the opening line to a book you love. Allow me to start:
“He came after Homer and before Gertrude Stein, a difficult interval for a poet.”
This was my first line when I started my current novel project, but I had to let it go. Maybe it will come back into the book. . . I still love it:
When Gigi Martinez cursed her own descendants to psoriasis, rashes, and blisters on their left pinkies, she was praying to God instead of the goddesses of the Americas.
So interesting, Adela! The curse seems in response to something immediate, and it leaves me wondering--as Esperenza did--what the long-term impact could be. I'm actually re-reading Leslie Marmon Silko's 'Ceremony,' and I think there's something of that amazing book that you might find interesting (if you haven't read it already). Thank you for sharing!
This is the opening from a new novel titled 'A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens'":
It was Christmastime in Miami, and Hugo hadn't been sleeping well because every time he tried, he'd feel his indebtedness drop into bed with him, this invisible thing; sometimes it would take hold of his hand, kiss him, then wrap itself around his chest so that it hurt to breathe, or it would slap him awake and demand attention.
The guard stood at the kitchen counter, breaking apart cloves of garlic. Ernesto watched as she lined them up in a straight line like soldiers. My short story, “The Last Lock”
This was my first line when I started my current novel project, but I had to let it go. Maybe it will come back into the book. . . I still love it:
When Gigi Martinez cursed her own descendants to psoriasis, rashes, and blisters on their left pinkies, she was praying to God instead of the goddesses of the Americas.
So interesting, Adela! The curse seems in response to something immediate, and it leaves me wondering--as Esperenza did--what the long-term impact could be. I'm actually re-reading Leslie Marmon Silko's 'Ceremony,' and I think there's something of that amazing book that you might find interesting (if you haven't read it already). Thank you for sharing!
I like that, it's funny and has me wondering if the curse didn't work properly. Lol
This is the opening from a new novel titled 'A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens'":
It was Christmastime in Miami, and Hugo hadn't been sleeping well because every time he tried, he'd feel his indebtedness drop into bed with him, this invisible thing; sometimes it would take hold of his hand, kiss him, then wrap itself around his chest so that it hurt to breathe, or it would slap him awake and demand attention.
This is wonderful....the embodiment of indebtedness as a creature of the night....
LOVE this!!
The guard stood at the kitchen counter, breaking apart cloves of garlic. Ernesto watched as she lined them up in a straight line like soldiers. My short story, “The Last Lock”
Wow. This suggests so much history ...
“Feliz Navidad, abuelita,” Rita walked in with a Macy’s box and the smile that for 30 years she had practiced almost to perfection.
That practiced smile is very intriguing! Yours?
Yes, it's a book I had put away and now reworking the beginning
Alyssa Stern used to think pooping during childbirth was the most embarrassing thing she would ever experience.
Haha! Is that yours?
It is! Novel in progress.
Haha! Such a great opening.