Today YA author Joe Lunievicz is guest blogging here. I enjoyed reading his post; I hope you do, too! I think openings in books are just as important as Joe does. Take it away, Joe!

Don’t get me wrong – I love book covers. When I’m browsing in bookstores book covers are the first thing that either attracts me or pushes me away from a book. But after the cover it’s all about the opening line.

I know, as a writer, that I have to grab the reader right away. This has been brought home to me over and over again in writing classes and workshops, but it never really hit me until I read Scar Lover by Harry Crews. The first line is, Pete Butcher had not meant to speak to her. The next two paragraphs begin like this: He felt a little chill on the back of his neck, and with the chill came the thought that she wanted to tell him something. And, People were forever telling him something he did not want to hear. Something bad. And we’re off and running. I had to read this book because of the first line and what followed in the first three paragraphs. But the first line has to hook.

So I spend time on my first line.

I spend a lot of time on it and I think most writers do too. Andrew Smith, author of Ghost Medicine, In the Path of Falling Objects, and The Marbury Lens, has told me he rewrites his first lines over and over again until they are perfect.

So what should the first line do?

It needs to grab the reader, yes.

But it also needs to give a frame for all that will come. It’s a tall order, in just one line. In the case of the protagonist, Pete Butcher, in Scar Lover, the woman he meets and speaks to becomes the whole reason for the tale. It tells us about the trepidation of the protagonist, the hesitancy he has to meet new people because of the horrible things he has been told in the past, and the importance of chance in what is to come.

Look at Cheryl Rainfield’s opening line in her novel, Scars.

“Someone is following me.” I gulp air, trying to breathe.

Right from the start we are on a chase. The protagonist – Kendra – is afraid and we can tell immediately that she is also in danger. She’s talking to her therapist but the feeling of being not-believed, of being trapped begins with the gulping of air and continues in the next few sentences with, a voice that stings, hands that twist, words that are spit and lips that are dry. Everything follows from the opening line. In Cheryl’s case the tension level of the story is high from that opening line, continues with sensory details that speak to strong emotions, and promise a narrative that will not release us until the very last line of the book. Scars does just that. It grips, makes it hard to breathe, and makes us worry what will happen to a girl who is always looking over her shoulder to see who is following her.

In the case of my book, Open Wounds*, it took me four years to find the first line, even though revisions continued on other parts of the book for three more years. But when I found that line I knew that was the way I wanted readers to start the journey of Cid Wymann – the protagonist of my story.

“It begins with blood and ends with blood,” begins Cid’s tale. It’s 1936 and seven year old Cid Wymann has been looking at an advertisement in The New York Times for the movie, Captain Blood starring Errol Flynn – the Heath Ledger of his time. But Cid’s mother, we also find out within the fi

Reasons Not To Hurt Yourself
by Cheryl Rainfield

• Because you do not deserve to be hurt, not by anyone, not even yourself;

By Cheryl Rainfield, author of SCARS

Drawing by Cheryl Rainfield, part of the Love Yourself affirmation cards

I will be signing Scars, along authors Mahtab Narsimhan (The Deadly Conch) & Helene Boudreau (Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings) in Toronto on April 23rd at 1pm at Indigo Yorkdale. If you’re in Toronto, I’d love to have you stop by.

Check out the beautiful poster Mahtab’s publicist created to help us get the word out about the event!

I am always happy to personalize copies of Scars (or any of my books). If you can’t get to see me, you can always request a free signed bookplate.

If you’re a reader, and you like Scars–or any book by any author–one way you can help us is to write a review (even just a few sentences!) on Amazon, GoodReads, LibraryThing, your blog…anywhere people might see it. It really does make a difference. It helps let others know about the book. So please, if you liked Scars, consider leaving a review. I would be grateful. And don’t be shy about letting an author know you liked a book! We love hearing from readers.

I’m so happy and excited–Scars is a finalist for the 2011 SCBWI Crystal Kite Member Choice Awards! It’s such a good feeling–to have my work honored by my peers. (beaming)

I offer free bookmarks for Scars with tips on how to deal with self-harm; if you want some, just email me your snail mail address. You can also access the tips at my site. (You can also request a free signed bookplate.)

Jennifer Wharton, a youth services librarian at Matheson Memorial Library, had a fantastic idea on how to use the bookmarks. She told me that she’s going to put one bookmark into every copy of Scars that’s returned to the library. That means, when the copies get checked out again, that the library patron will have a bookmark with tips on how to deal with self-harm, right there in front of them. I love it!

You might also consider giving a bookmark (or all three) to someone you know who’s dealing with self-harm, or who works with people who deal with self-harm.

There are three individual bookmarks–Helpful Responses to Someone Who’s Self-Harmed; Alternatives to Self-Harm; and How To Stop Self-Harming.

Know another way to use the bookmarks? Let me know.

I’m glad the day exists, though I wonder how many people know about it. Self-harm is something that not a lot of people talk about, and when they do, there’s often shame. People often respond to self-harm with anger, blame, disgust, attempts at control…or they just don’t know what to do.

There are a few things I think it’s really important to know:

• Self-harm is NOT acting out, manipulation, or a failed suicide attempt; the person is usually trying to cope with great emotional distress, and trying to feel better.;
  
  
• One of the most helpful responses to self-harm is coming from a place of compassion. It also helps to educate yourself about self-harm.

More people are becoming aware of self-harm, and more people are responding in ways that help–but there are so many teens using self-harm that feel like they’re the only one, feel like no one understands them. I’ve received so many reader letters telling me that. So if you know someone who’s used self-harm–or even if you don’t–I hope you’ll take a minute or two to read some tips on self-harm, and perhaps be better prepared when you come across it. And for those of you who have used self-harm–I hope you know, and can take in, that you don’t deserve to be hurt–not ever, not by anyone–not even yourself! I also hope you’ll find ways to treat yourself with the same love and compassion that you would a friend. It’s hard, it takes time–but it’s worth it. You are!

Check out my tips on self-harm:
Helpful Responses to Someone Who’s Used Self-Harm
How To Stop Self-Harming
Alternatives To Self-Harm

and my detailed article What To Do When You Feel Like Hurting Yourself

Another *fantastic* resource on understanding self-harm is Secret Shame. It is the first site I send anyone, and one of the best-written sites with the greatest (in my opinion) understanding of self-harm, its causes and effects.

If you’re looking for a more detailed insider view of self-harm, you might consider picking up my book Scars.

I wrote a letter to my teen self at Dear Teen Me. I hope you’ll check it out.

It also features some of the art I did as a teen, including one drawing I mentioned in Scars.

As in any community, there will be differing opinions and views of what is right, what is healthy. I understand that. But to try to remove my book–which is about breaking silence, finding healing and safety–feels wrong to me, on so many levels. If you’re triggered by something, you find a way to deal with that trigger. You go into therapy, you deal with your past. You don’t silence others.

Yesterday, Amy from Kid’s Right to Read Project and ABFFE got detailed information from Boone County Public Library about the challenge to Scars. Apparently, the patron challenged Scars on the content, saying that it could contain triggers for self-harming teens or those who used to harm themselves but no longer do.

I find this response troubling. As most of you probably know, I used self-harm to cope with the effects of sexual and ritual abuse for many years. It is actually my scarred arm on the cover of Scars. When I cut, I did it in secrecy and shame. I hid it for years, never going to the doctor even when I needed stitches, for fear of what they would do. I was afraid not only of how they would treat me–many times people respond with anger and attempts to shame someone who uses self-harm–but also that they would try to stop me. And for many years, I needed self-harm to help me survive. I used self-harm many times as an alternative to killing myself.

One of the things I found the hardest about self-harm was the secrecy (which reminded me of the secrecy I was forced to keep for the sexual and ritual abuse), the shame, and the feeling so alone, as if I was the only one who had such pain, the only one who coped that way. It is so hard to have emotional pain, and then to have that pain increased by feeling like you’re the only one, or like you can’t turn to other people to talk about it and receive a compassionate response.

When my wounds had become scars and I had worked through the shame, I went around with my sleeves rolled up. I didn’t want to carry around the shame any more, and I didn’t want to have to have my past be a secret. I wanted to get people’s reactions over with. Sometimes people responded with anger, criticism, disgust, or by trying to shame me. I wanted to know how people stood with me, without having them suddenly find out and react. I also was hoping that I might someday see another person with their scars visible. The rare few times I met someone else out in the world with scarred limbs, I felt less alone. Once I gained a few survivor friends who also used self-harm, I felt that someone finally understood, and I didn’t have to explain. That was a wonderful feeling.

Over the years, I heard some beliefs in various communities about self-harm that were not true for me. I heard social workers saying that people who used self-harm should hide their scars because it would trigger other people who used self-harm to hurt themselves. As if self-harm is simply something that we do because we see it. My self-harm came out of trauma and deep emotional pain, and the triggers of my own memories and abuse conditioning. Seeing another person’s scars never made me in turn hurt myself. It always made me feel less alone.

But perhaps some people get triggered by seeing others’ scars. I understand triggers. There are SO many of them out there in the world for me, created by the abuse and torture I endured. But I don’t go around telling people they can’t do or say the things that trigger me. If they’re friends, I might explain my trigger, hope that they’d understand.

I’m not talking about something like the recent visually graphic YouTube videos of people cutting themselves. I would find that painful, disturbing, and triggering to watch. But showing healed wounds that are scars feels very different to me. As does talking about it in a way that is healing.

Scars is about finding healing and understanding, and sharing that. I share

Scars is being challenged at Boone County Public Library in KY. This makes me sad and angry. Preventing any teen or reader from reading a book that might help them, might speak to them, seems so wrong to me.

When I was a teen, being horribly abused, I felt so alone and isolated. Alone in being sexually and ritually abused, alone in being queer, and alone in using self-harm to cope with horrendous abuse. Feeling like you’re the only one of any traumatic, hurtful, or shameful experience is painful. When you add social shaming on top of that, for all of those issues, it can feel unbearable. I desperately needed to know I wasn’t alone, and as an avid reader, I searched for reflections of my own experience in books. I never found it, not the way I needed–but I did find bits of experience that I could identify with, even though they weren’t my own, in books like Judy Blume’s Blubber (I identified with being bullied as a teen, since I was), Lois Duncan’s Down A Dark Hall (I knew what it was like to have the adults around me show one social face, while doing horrible things in secret), Anne of Green Gables (being initially unloved) and many more. Those books are part of what helped me survive my abusive childhood and teenhood. But I still, always, searched for a book that would be more true to my experiences. I never found it–and that is a big part of why I wrote Scars. It was a book I needed for myself.

It turns out that it was a book that many other teens needed, as well. I get a number of reader letters every week, and in so many of them, I hear from teens who have been in emotional pain and felt utterly alone in the world and not understood by anyone until they read Scars. Many of those teens also tell me that after reading Scars, they have managed to stop using self-harm, or reduce self-harm, and many of them have been able, for the first time, to talk to others about their pain, or go into therapy. Those letters are such a gift–knowing that Scars is actively bringing positive change into so many lives. Many of the teens experienced abuse, but some did not. Some were simply queer, or in emotional distress, and didn’t have another outlet.

Since self-harm is usually kept a secret–there is so much societal shame and blame around it–many people who self-harm go years without getting help. I believe that talking about the painful issues is one way to encourage people to find someone to talk to, and to get help.

I’ve also heard from many readers who have never been abused and never experienced self-harm themselves. Some of them have known friends who’ve used self-harm, and after reading Scars, they understand a bit better, have more compassion, and feel more equipped to help their friends. Many other teens have not known anyone who used self-harm, but write to me saying that they have more compassion for people in pain, in general. And a few people have told me that before they read Scars, they could not understand how anyone could ever hurt themselves, but after reading Scars, they got it. I have been hearing, over and over, how much Scars is helping others; it is what I hoped for, and more. To remove Scars from the bookshelves means preventing a lot of teens from finding understanding, safety, and encouragement to find help. It means preventing others from having a bit more compassion for their fellow students. Scars is a book I desperately needed as a teen–and it is clear to me that many, many teens also need it. Keeping it from teens is a reinforcement that no, you’re not okay as you are. That you should feel shame for being abused, being queer, or coping in a way that hurts yourself. For being different. Removing Scars, is, to me, removing some compassion, insight, and understanding from the world.

I hope you’ll join me in raising your voice against censorship.

I am so honored, excited, and thrilled! A reader created fan art for Scars! And it’s beautifully done, too, depicting a scene early in the book. Just…wow. (beaming) That is such an incredible compliment for a writer to receive. As are all the wonderful, wonderful reader letters I receive! I love hearing that Scars has moved people.

Have you ever drawn fan art for a book? Ever sent a letter to a writer? If you have a favorite book, you might want to consider doing so. Authors love to hear from our readers!

PS If you click on the small image, you can see it much larger, in more detail.