How to use this Page

You acknowledge that this is unscientific, but even covering that poll result seems misleading. When two of the choices are diversity, and the only other two relate to the things that a lot of people don’t pay attention to (preview catalogs, press coverage, and interviews), it’s obvious that diversity will finish with a high percentage of the vote.

Consider a poll question like: “What character do you like most?” Choices: (a) Black Widow, (b) Vice, (c) Skateman, and (d) Toad. You couldn’t then write a post saying that 100% of readers prefer Black Widow.

Lack of diversity is and always has been a liability for mainstream comics publishers, and I’d argue that the sales numbers still show that people aren’t buying based on diversity.

(Also, love the site. Really. Keep up the good work.)

First and foremost for me is whether it’s a corporate owned intellectual property or a creator owned intellectual property.

I didn’t vote on that poll on twitter and won’t vote on The Beat’s poll because an important option isn’t included. (and frankly, since The Beat constantly gives sales reports I.m pretty surprised that it was omitted)

Cost.

The cost of single issue comics, most over priced, as compared to buying a collected book or original GN. I haven’t bought a single issue of a comic in over five years now. But not because of diversity, or reviews, or cover or any on that list. I find it’s just more cost effective to buy all the chapters in the book at one time. (and because I feel pretty stupid paying $5 for a 22 page chapter of a story)

Also, 95% of what I read is by cartoonists, not a creative team.

Some factors that influence me that were not part of the poll:

– Character. Marvel was my gateway into comics so I do keep an eye on their output. But a couple decades of Marvel’s seasonal events and churned out stories have gotten me to the point where I only really care about a bare handful of the characters, and almost none of them are A-listers. For example, I’m reading Captain Marvel for Alpha Flight, and the moment they exit the book or their treatment reverts to the standard nonsense, I’m gone.

– Cost (mentioned above). I’m more likely to pick up a $3 book by an unknown than a $5 book from an established franchise. $5 first issues are the reason I decided to give Extraordinary X-Men, the last Ant-Man series, and several other of Marvel’s recent offerings a pass. On the other side of things, $1 issues have gotten me hooked on quite a few Comixology Submit titles.

– Publisher. DC’s recent flailing for direction and Marvel’s clunky attempts to synergize their comics with other-media adaptations have both been something of a turn-off over the last few years. It’s one more barrier to getting me to buy their products and has lead me to actively seek output from publishers I feel have something more interesting to offer.

Wow, quite a few of my favorites made it to the list. :D

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is my favorite teen novel, and also any teen novel by Judy Blume. They were the great YA authors before YA literature was invented!

I really enjoyed Hunger Games. I tried to read Speak but couldn’t quite get into it. I haven’t read anything else on the list. Interesting list though. :)

I was surprised so many of my favorites made the list too. :)

I remember when I read FOREVER it was like a rite of passage. From a little girl to a young woman. Ha, ha.

I’m surprised how many trilogies and series made the list. It’s a good starting point. Lots of good stuff to choose from.

A few of my favorites made it but many that didn’t care for made it too. I guess no matter how you look at it, reading is subjective. :)

I love a good book list!
Mine are:

BLIND DESCENT by James Tabor
ON THIN ICE by Hugh Rowland
SHIP BREAKER by Paolo Bacigalupi
PERFUME by Patrick Süskind
WHITE CAT by Holly Black

Thanks for feeding my nosiness on what other folks are reading! My five most recent, including two I’m reading now:

Victory of Eagles – Naomi Novik
Tongues of Serpents – Naomi Novik
The Windup Girl – Paolo Bacigalupi
The Hakawati – Rabih Alameddine
Dark Curse – Christine Feehan

Oh, I’ve been meaning to read Ship Breaker and White Cat! And Windup Girl, though I think Ship Breaker is a higher-priority Bacigalupi for me. I read and loved The Hakawati last year, though I will admit that I sometimes had trouble keeping track of the many characters named Fatima.

I loved loved loved SHIP BREAKER and WHITE CAT. Highly recommended!

My 5 most recent:

NEVERMORE by Kelly Creagh
THE WHOLE WORLD by Emily Winslow
RESTORING HARMONY by Joelle Anthony
PICTURE THE DEAD by Adele Griffen
JUST LISTEN by Sarah Dessen

Great question!

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Dark Divine by Bree Despain
Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson
Matched by Ally Condie
Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

Currently reading: The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Ooh, this should prove interesting – and probably painful for my wishlist!

My last five were:

By Midnight – Mia James
Wicked Games – Sasha Wagstaff
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K Dick
Lucy In The Sky – Paige Toon
Wintercraft – Jenna Burtenshaw

Hmm, fairly eclectic!

1. Necromonicon – H.P.Lovecraft
2. Nemesis – James Swallow
3. The Remorseful Day – Colin Dexter
4. Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
5. The Last Don – Mario Puzo

Oh, Neverwhere is one of my favorite comfort reads, I’ve gone back to it so many times.

Last 5 books read….top 3 are currently being read….
THE CASTAWAYS by Elin Hilderbrand
THE CHOSEN HISTORIAN by Randi Ertz
CRESCENDO by Becca Fitzpatrick (ARC)
BEAUTIFUL MALICE by Rebecca James
KARMA BITES by Stacy Kramer

Up From Slavery – Washington
Laws of Thinking – Jordan
The Universe is Inviting You In – Horne
A Song Flung up to Heaven – Angelou
Ignore Everybody – MacLeod

I’m in the middle of City of Ruins by Mark Charan Newton right now, but here’s a list of the last five books I’ve finished:
-Stories ,edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio
-The Shining ,Stephen King
-Tome of the Undergates ,Sam Sykes
-River of Gods ,Ian McDonald
-Iron Council ,China Miéville

Good thing I’ve been doing a ton of reading on the commute this summer!

UNACCUSTOMED EARTH by Jhumpa Lahiri
THE GREAT LETTER E by Sandra Schor
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by Joan Didion
A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD by Jennifer Egan
THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA by Philip Roth
…and of course all of the Spring 2010 L&L Books!

It’s so hard to remember sometimes! I jump from book to book and sometimes I have 5 or 10 going at once, so it’s hard to remember which are the last ones I actually finished. But I can remember these as actually having finished them recently:

THE AGENCY: A SPY IN THE HOUSE, A.S. Lee
MATCHED, Ally Condie (this one’s showing up a lot today!)

And these are ones that I’m currently reading:
THE AGENCY: THE BODY AT THE TOWER, A.S. Lee
STRANGE ANGELS, Lily St. Crow
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES: THE AWAKENING, L.J. Smith
THE RED PYRAMID, Rick Riordan
THE TRUE MEANING OF SMEKDAY, Adam Rex

I really need to stop letting myself pick up new books before finishing the old, so I can find out how these books end!

Personally I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I mean yes she is probably cashing in a little on the name, hoping people will buy it because it's ANNE FRANK'S fictionalized diary rather than an unnamed girl. But writers can write about real life people and events so I think the problem people might have is more to do with Anne Frank's fame or how revered she seems to be rather than with the fact that she fictionalized someone's real life.

My vote: She has the right. Just because someone died under horrible circumstances or was a historical figure or is put on a pedestal does not mean that their memory is sacrosanct. By this reasoning, Jesus would be off limits, as would Hitler, Ghandi, Sitting Bull, Mother Teresa, Queen Elizabeth I, you name it. In fact, how could you ever justify writing about anyone but yourself, and even then you might be accused of lying. If someone died under horrible circumstances, all the more reason to get it out in the open, to let the "truth" become part of the communal discussion. That said, she does have a responsibility to try to get it right and not misrepresent, as much as possible (depending on how she labels it).

I think the difference between Phiippa Gregory and Anne Frank is time. There are still living people who survived what Anne Frank didn't. Not to mention their children, who were wounded by their parents' horrors. And THEIR children.

Once this gift (yes, heavy sarcasm intended) stops giving, then the time will be better for this sort of thing. But right now?

The wounds bubble too close to the surface, still. We need more time, and then fictionalizing Anne Frank will be as necessary to the understanding for many as is the fictionalizing of Napoleon.

We've fictionalized pretty much all the queens of England, as well as many other historical characters. This is no different. HOWEVER, that said, this may still be a too recent era of history to work with. I don't know.

On the flip side, would we want to tell people, "There are certain subjects you cannot write about"?

Although I think she has a right to write anything she likes, I wish that she would have written an entirely fictionalized account that didn't feature Anne Frank or Peter van Pels.

Not because people in the past should be forbidden subjects, but because I don't feel that Anne Frank or Peter van Pels are far enough in the past. They have family members and friends still living.

They're not a history lesson to those people, they're loved ones. The fact that only in the last 15 years did we find out that their last name was not van Daan, but van Pels, indicates pretty clearly that this is not yet the past.

I think we *can* write about anything we like. I just think, as a writer and a human being, there are some times when we should show restraint.

Writers can--and should--write about anything they want, but putting it in the marketplace and making money on it can be construed as exploitation. Is it in this case? I'm thinking yes.

Susan, I definitely don't agree with you. While having survivors/children of survivors of the Holocaust alive makes the topic more painful I don't believe it makes it off limits! By that logic we would have to be outraged by all media that describes the Holocaust or the surrounding events, Schindler's List or The Burning Times, The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas or novels or films about more recent historical events like Apocalypse Now. Should we not have had books like At Risk or the play Angels in America because AIDs sufferers still live among us? The fact is she isn't even rewriting Anne Frank's Diary, she's writing Peter's. What is most insulting perhaps is that the outrage over this book is not because it "desecrates" HIS memory but that of someone he once knew!

What did anyone think of The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank, by Ellen Feldman? The premise was Peter surviving the war and moving to America, so it didn't cover the time of the diary, but Anne was certainly a character (in flashback).

To me, the essence of being a grown up is just because you have the right to do something, doesn't mean you should.

Given the fact that every year some people claim that Anne Frank's diary is fictional, I think this was a bad idea.

For those who say not to write it, not enough time has passed: When you were a kid, were you told, either explicitly or implicitly, "Now, don't you tell anyone about what goes on in this family?" "You SHOULDN'T tell." I've heard that there were German people who knew what was going on in the concentration camps, but they tacitly agreed not to talk about it. When we don't talk about things, that's when they have power. So by saying she shouldn't write this, you're privileging power, control, shame, and guilt over truth, honesty, justice, and societal health.

In summary, I respectfully disagree.

Of course she has the "right" to do it, just as I have the right to think it's tasteless and unethical.

@Kelly, can I ask what exactly makes it unethical? Do you oppose fictionalisation of all people who were once living?

Whether she has the right to do it isn't my place to decide.

It is however entirely within my right to decide I have no interest in reading such a work.

I'll pass, thanks.

I was never too fond of fiction based off of real people and their stories.

Suzi McGowen's comment has the gist of it down.

While writing a fictionalized diary of someone real is not that big a deal as long as it's clearly stated as fiction, Anne Frank's diary is a special case because holocaust deniers are constantly declaring the original fiction to begin with. Here you have something that people refuse to accept as true and something like this complicates matters more.

An author can't be held responsible for what a few crazies do with what they have written, but I feel they do have to responsible enough to be aware of the circumstances surrounding the subject they write about and consider seriously the impact of what they publish.

Hell, the book could mean nothing to anyone and fade out of memory without anyone caring. The idea of it just tickles me the wrong way.

WriterGirl, I'll not argue with your disagreement of my opinion.

I'm just going to say that I don't think you're part of a survivor family whose scars show oh, so clearly. To compare these scars to AIDS or to the attempts to show the greatness of common people (although was Schindler really common? Hmm.) in the face of such horror shows you don't understand the depth of the survivor phenomenon. There is such outrage among the second generation that Jews -- that their RELATIVES -- were led like lambs to the slaughter that books and movies of people who fought back are necessary. The truth remains vital, especially in the face of so much disbelief and distrust the doubters bring to the table.

Heck, author Steven Beeber was brash and brave enough to show how the Holocaust birthed an entire genre of music, one that is still vital and alive today. This is the power of the survivor phenomena. An entire genre of music. Think about that.

As for your other examples, the other Holocaust stories/movies have a validity because they seek to help with the healing process. This book, as I've seen it presented thus far (and frankly, I had a hard time dealing with Holocaust lit before realizing the depth of the dysfunction the event left behind, so I will not be reading this book, either), takes a REAL person and twists things around.

That is where the pain comes in. Remember the fuss over the book The Apple? A survivor made up a story that he passed off as real because he needed to heal, to prove there is kindness in the world, even if he had to invent it.

I'm sorry. The time isn't right. Yes, we should talk about this stuff. Yes, it belongs on its own shelf in the fiction section. Yes, further down the road, we can tout Historical Holocaust Fiction as possessing the same validity that Historical Queen Elizabeth holds.

Once the bulk of the pain has passed. And it is. Studies are showing that the third generation does not wear some of the trauma of their parents and surviving grandparents. Those scars are healing over. But I wonder. The pain, the horror... I thought I'd become immune to it until I heard it out of the mouth of a survivor who means a lot to me. Looking at someone you love and hearing these tales... it changes your life. It truly does.

There will be a time and a place for this sort of fiction. As someone for whom this event, which happened years before my birth, is still so very real, I'm just stating from the trenches that the time is not now.

I've read Meg Rosoff's article and I agree with her. People have the right to write these books, but that doesn't make it right or mean that the families of victims will be thrilled. My biggest fear here would be what another commenter said: that people unfamiliar with the story (and the history) will imagine that Anne Frank's diary is also a work of fiction.

I could give Rosoff a big hug for being another reader who wasn't enthralled with 'The Boy in Striped Pyjamas'.

I don't mind at all reading Shakespeare's Juliet long before she met Romeo or another angle of her that was not part of the original story. I even like Johnny Depp's release of Alice. It will be fun...imaginative...

I'm a bit late to the conversation, but I agree that time is the real issue here. Of course any author has the right to do this, but how soon is too soon to avoid being seen as opportunistic or cruel or any other negative adjective? Caesar and Abraham Lincoln were fictionalized long after their deaths. There are still people alive who went through the same thing as Anne Frank, who knew Anne Frank. Will writing about her in a fictionalized manner ever become tasteful, and if so, how long will it take? The comments here alone show that there's still dissension to the idea that we've already reached that point.

Just as long as nobody writes an "Anne Frank--Zombie"novel. There are lines of taste that I think shouldn't be crossed. Now, I must get back to "Abraham Lincoln--Vampire Hunter."

I'm slightly torn on this one. On the one hand, I think writers should be able to write whatever they like and it's up to the reader to choose whether or not to read it. After all, in in the end, it's the reader's choice, so there's no sense in blaming a writer for writing a book if you're going to pick it up and read it anyway.

On the other hand, I do agree with everyone who's said that the history is too painful and too near still. That said, everyone seems to be writing about and making films about Nazis these days; and people have fictionalized more recent historical figures, even if those historical figures had less horrific stories behind them.

So I suppose in the end, I don't really know. But I am certain that it's a reader's choice to read or not to read.

I don't think you can say that the book shouldn't be written without reading it. Even if it's a paradox, it's a knee jerk reaction. Why are we SO quick to accuse someone of "twisting the story" and "taking advantage"? You need to read the book before you pass judgment on it, especially when the author has gone to such pains to ensure its accuracy as much as she can.

Also, some people are saying its "too soon." Why? Why are we only allowed to discuss (because that's what this book is: a discussion) touchy subjects after everyone who can remember them is gone? Wouldn't it be better for us as a society to bring everything out in the open when there are still people who can contribute to the discussion first-hand? And who decides when "enough" time has passed?

Especially for those of us who aren't Jewish, I think we should welcome anything that brings the Holocaust to the forefront. I know, for me, we read maybe a paragraph in a history book about it and - that was it. Couldn't discuss it or try to figure out how something like that could have been so accepted. Wasn't allowed, wasn't important. Or maybe it was too horrible, too 'real.' Even as a child, it pissed me off. So maybe that's why I'm defending the book now.

I say let the discussion happen. And to be clear, the discussion needs to be about the events, the culture, how this happened and how to make sure it never happens again - not about whether or not someone should have written a book.

There are too many books with the "super-soldier who can run through a shower of bullets and only get a flesh wound while trying to local some missing artifact that will prevent a disaster from some ancient civilization" plot line.

Be original.

My husband mostly reads nonfiction and really enjoys social science books. Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Lewis, also PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL by Dan Ariely. He wants a book to give some kind of ground-breaking information that will change the way he sees things, or awaken him to something he's never thought about. But he wants it to be entertaining at the same time.

He's not big into fiction and in fact only reads the fiction I shove in his hands, but he might love Harry Potter more than I do.

I would love to see more books with heroes vs. heroines. Nothing at all wrong with a female who overcomes obstacles, but men face obstacles everyday just as much as women do...let's show more of that!

I'm an 'old-schooler', so I think my favorite male lead would have to be 'Hamlet'...talk about things to overcome! But a more modern example of a great male lead (a boy, but still male) is 'The Story of Edgar Sawtelle'.

And I agree with Todd on examples of 'bad' storylines for men...we love our action heroes, but we love guys who hurt and feel and love just as much.

I have no problem with heroic figures as protagonists in a novel -- in fact the "David and Goliath" plot still holds appeal for me and probably many others as well. However, I want to see the inside of "David" as well as the outside. I want him to have weaknesses as well as strengths, and views and convictions about life and the world that guide his actions. I have read enough books about the superman who can drive a car through city streets at 100+ without cracking up, fight off twelve other men with his bare hands, and demolish an entire squad of infantry firing a submachine gun accurately in each hand, and I'm tired of seeing this guy in print.

Granted, no one really wants to read about the "real world" all the time -- it's just too depressing to be entertaining. However, some extra realism in the protagonist's character would be refreshing.

On the nonfiction side, I love political and social history, especially 20th century. "Young Stalin," "Paris 1919". I also love empirically based books that meld philosophy and science. "Stumbling on Happiness" or "The Black Swan." I also like books that honestly tackle (not caricature) modern masculinity. "The Unforgiving Minute" by Craig Mullaney was awesome.

For fiction, I don't care if the protagonist is male or female, but if something is labeled "women's fiction" or "chick lit" I worry that the male characters will just be window-dressing. I like literary fiction that really gets into the characters. "Amateur Barbarians," for example. Interesting literary voices (like Junot Diaz, Jhumpa Lahiri, Dinaw Mengestu), but not if they have been workshopped to death (at least the case for Mengestu). Also, more science in fiction (not science fiction): "Intuition" (Allegra Goodman). And if you want to make me laugh, more parodies (as opposed to mash-ups).

I do not like YA fiction dressed up for grown-ups. You'll never catch me reading Harry Potter or Twilight. And I don't care to read an expose of the latest scandal du jour. I like a book I can keep on my shelf after I finish it.

(This is what you get by surveying wannabe authors - you get really particular readers. But thank you for asking!)

I miss John D. MacDonalds, Travis MeGee, and I would love to see more book like the early Elvis Cole books by Robert Crais. It seems that publishers have given up up P.I. novels. I want to read a book that excites me enough to go searching for the next book in the series.

On the fiction side, smart science fiction. I grew up with Star Wars, I want really clever bold big novels that are thinking versions of that. Michael Chabon writing Edgar Rice Burroughs books. Or literary science fiction. DGLM represents The Sparrow. More like that, please. Big ideas, with compelling characters. More books generally that are sciencey because this urban fantasy/wizards/deepak chopra thing has got out of hand.

I'm not a guy, but I share lots of books with my dad, brother and brother-in-law. I seem to like 'guy-ish' books (although I love romance books too!). In fact, I prefer a male protaganist. I like to read about ordinary men who are placed in extraordinary circumstances. I want to see how they react, not just action-wise, but emotionally too, because men do have emotions. They might not wear them on their sleeves, but they aren't machines either.
That's why some guy books don't appeal to me. The commando books where the men are overly macho and never afraid. That's boring. I want to see the guys doing the heroic thing even if they are terrified. That's real heroism. They don't have to be afraid for themselves, it can be for their family, their town, country, etc.

From personal experience, I know that agents don't seem to be interested in these kinds of books. It's all about women, YA and fantasy. Mostly young women in paranormal or fantasy settings.

Anonymous who posted at 1103, have you tried Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series? Six books in all and the author is a former naval officer, so the military aspect is spot on (even though set in the future and in space.) Also, the main character is great as is the premise. The first book is called DAUNTLESS.

I realize that my post came off like I don't like adventure or thriller stuff. I do, but make the male leade believable.

I read mostly science fiction, but I particularly enjoy stories where the character is in a situation that puts them under a large amount of psychological and physical stress (Battle Royale, The Long Walk).
I love intense action, and it's ok if the character is a super awesome super soldier, but I agree with Todd that they need to be able to feel/endure pain.

I have to agree with Kristoffer and Todd: I want a character to be normal. I don't watch 24 because I got sick of Jack almost dying 3 times in a one day period. I don't like reading books that have a 'superhero' that is indestructible.
It's funny, a lot of people seem to think guys want to be tough and feel no emotion/pain. Just because we don't want to feel emotion/pain doesn't mean we don't feel them at all.

The problem is women control prime time, all our male characters are in essence what women writers would hope and dream the "evolved" male would say.

Example (from FRIENDS):
Chandler: That Monica and that Rachel are pretty cute, is there ever going to be the chance that one of us would hook up with them?

Joey: Yes, I agree, they are cute, and smart too, let's show them lots of respect and see how things go.

When in the real world, Joey would have said

Joey: Yes, I agree, they are cute, Monica's got a tight *** and's got that look like she needs to get ****, and Rachel, well, a few beers in her and she's a gimmee. High maintenance, but a gimmee.

Chandler: Let's 'em drunk and see how it goes!

Joey: Yes, that would save about 7 seasons and 200,000 pointless chat sessions.

See? Guys want guy characters that are written like guys, not like emasculated pretty boys.

My reading tastes have changed. In the 90s, when I was heavily reviewing books, I read a lot of mysteries (all kinds: cozies, P.I.s, British cop stuff, and the greats).

Now, I'm publishing a nonfiction collection of writer anecdotes and thinking about a thriller (so I'm biased), and I'm not reading as many mysteries.

Here's what I've been reading for pleasure lately: the Jasper Fforde series (here's a clue: high concept, fun but some social satire) -- and while I haven't read his "Shades of Grey," my wife and son have and they LOVED it; the Invincible superhero comic book collection (really, really done well; I also loved "Soon I Will Be Invincible"); Terry Pratchett (fantasy, but funny and also social satire ... see the connection?).

Naturally, I've been dipping into thrillers, but I haven't found one I liked enough to stick with it. They seem overused: the Device That Can Destroy The World; the Serial Killer From Hell; the Horrible Secret From The Past.

I'm not sure what I'm looking for. I loved "Da Vinci Code" (hated the writing) because that dam thing MOVED. Maybe that's it.

Perhaps there's room for another high-concept Innocent Gets Caught Up In Weird World story. It worked for "Men In Black," didn't it?

Stacey --

Good questions. I can’t help you with categories that I look for, because I read for writing more than for story or topic. I’ll read anything that, by my definition, is well-written. I’ve learned that that rules out adventure (fiction, anyway), thrillers, mysteries, fantasy, action heroes; that stuff all looks the same to me, from cover to blurb to plot. I read little or no fiction these days--I’m not being a book snob, I just like what I like. Last novel--last year--was Deirdre McNamer’s Red Rover. Will start (again) Styron’s Lie Down in Darkness in a day or two. Just finished This Quiet Dust, a collection of Styron's essays, and before that The Balloonists, by Eula Biss; she is, if the word means anything, a writer, as was Styron.

I think that The Lost City of Z (was that really adventure???) is about as poorly written and sloppily edited a book as I’ve seen in years, and I cannot understand its popularity. My wife enjoyed it.

I look for books that are organic--there was a story to tell--not books that capitalize on trends, and I realize that if publishing had to rely on me people would starve.

I’ll read--and recommend and give as a gift--anything literate, again, as I define it. Doesn’t have to be dark. I prefer the real world, which is not without humor and grace.

I like books with neat pictures. To help you figure out what's going on. And books should come with free snacks. Chips and soda. Maybe just a coupon so you can get them from the gas station or something. 24/7. Pictures and snacks.

What I'd like to see less of:

Tattoos - I mean, really people, what's that gonna look like when you're 45... or 75?

Vampires as romantic figures - Do you think a gazelle would view a lion as a romantic figure?

Angels/Fallen Angels - I know this is the up and coming trend, but I'm tired of it already. Women complain about the impossible-to-live-up-to supermodel stereotype. It goes both ways people.

What I'd like to see more of:

Characters with a brain - I love reading a story where I can "match wits" with the characters. Can they come up with a solution before I do? Or one I didn't think of? Love that.

Realism without Gratuitousness - What I mean by that is stories can be real without being overly vulgar, sexual, or violent. I was very disappointed in GRRM's Feast for Crows. Over the top realism in my opinion. I can't root for any of the characters he's really focusing on any more because they are all depraved, disgusting, etc. Hopefully that makes some sense.

As a creative writing major, I have a lot of male writer friends, and they all seem to be getting on the dystopian train lately. A lot of them are big proponents of The Handmaid's Tale, and books in that vein. Lots of them are sci-fi fans as well, though it seems like they enjoy the more technological-based ones, rather than aliens, space ships, etc.

My best friend will read just about anything that isn't labeled chick lit, but he's got a huge soft spot for mysteries and thrillers. He LOVED Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (which is also an incredible movie, if you don't mind foreign films).

My guy friends also seem to be fans of memoirs. Mary Hong Kingston, Mary Karr, etc. I don't think it bothers them that the protagonists in many of the books are female, but I know a few have commented that they'd like to see more male protagonists.

Oh, and David Sedaris. They (me, included) all love David Sedaris.

I'm into character studies right now, (and I realize the following list is movies) like "There Will be Blood" and "Schultze Gets the Blues." Good satire/social commentary really gets me too. I think Chuck Klosterman is extremely entertaining. I also read a few essays by Heinrich Boell recently that really had me rolling. "Es wird etwas Geschehen" is a must read.

What I want to see the most of is more high concept fiction that breaks every genre boundry. Stuff like Geek Love, House of Leaves and The Raw Shark Texts.

If I can't get that what I would like to see is more horror. Real horror, not Leisure Press horror. Leisure prints mostly man vs. monster fiction where you don't care about the men or the monsters. If I don't care about the characters, make me care about the monster. If I don't care aboue either one -- don't publish it.

What I least want to see is Fantasy. Fantasy is for 14-year old D&D geeks. You outgrow that trend around age 25 and never look back.

YA is all the rage right now, but I think that the genre is about to burn out on itself. Not every book is Harry Potter and you can't make a dumbed down version of Battle Royale interesting for more than one book (ie, The Hunger Games). After reading The Maze Runner, I'm done with YA fiction forever. That book was crap and I can't wait for the trend to burn out and disappear.

Young guy, midwest, fantasy bias, creative writing program influence. This is what I say:

Blending sci-fi and fantasy and realism. A little more mature HIS DARK MATERIALS with a few more machines.

Male protagonists that aren't crippled by their problems. Male protagonists that aren't above their problems.

Female protagonists or characters that have the confidence to be both strong and meek. I'd like to see grace again. Or at least someone aspiring to it.

Characterization. Like, even the small things can change a person.

You know what I'd love? A novel like an intensified 1984 written by Rushdie and edited by Hemingway. That'd be a trip.

Gritty, honorable love.

And, of course, everything Murray Sandman said.

I love John Steinbeck's work. He had the ability to create male characters who are the real deal with guts, grit and dirt etc - the unsung hero!

V.G

I liked the men's adventure magazines like Stag, Argosy, pulp-style stories... I remember reading a great story called "We Sank Tojo"s Monster Sub!," with an illo of a mariner flying boat dropping bombs on a sub the size of a carrier while it was launching manned rocket bombs to attack the plane....Good times...The only place you can find that stuff is at Pulp & Dagger, a website for writers who like stories written "in the Grand Tradition" of the 1930's and 1940's.

I can't presume to speak for all men, but for me, I don't really mind that most realistic fiction is by and for women because I don't want to read about real life. I read fiction in order to escape from real life.
I like stories where stuff _happens_. I do not care about gorgeous sentences. I don't mean stuff has to blow up (though I don't mind that) but I don't enjoy contemplative or atmospheric. I like stories.
Perhaps this is why I read very little literary fiction.

Female here, but I prefer male protagonists. Some things I'd like to see:

1) Realistic, contemporary YA.
2) Adult books with YA-like pacing.
3) Historical fiction that isn't a romance.
4) More heroic protagonists in general. Flawed doesn't have to mean depraved or angsty.
5) Stories set in college.

I enjoy fun social &/or political satire, especially if they are quirky and/or sacrilegious. Some authors that come to mind are Christopher Buckley, Christopher Moore, Chuck Palahniuk, Phillip Jennings. Fun, sharp wit and a decent story.

I tend to buy old books from charity stores. Why? because there are so few authors doing anything new.
This is, I think, due to agents who are mostly women, (o-kay there are a good few male agents, but most are over 50 and just looking after the clients they already have and not interested in new talent(if I'm not right put a list of ten here))

Publishers no longer look for writers, they sit and wait for agents to bring writers to them. Agents look at what sold big last season because "that's what the market wants."
This has been the way of things for over 20 years now and all the while everyone in the industry is crying over falling markets.
Of course the market is falling, because the industry is narrowing the market every year. Lets not pretend it is anything to do with the economic climate. Fact is a generally bad economic situation is good for the book industry because a book is the best value entertainment money can buy, work it out dollar per hour and tell me I'm wrong. The lady agent, gets a query letter. Sees it is from a new author and checks the creds. It's from a grad, who has learned from the same teacher as all the other grads to write in the same way as all the other grads. The subject matter, while not exactly the same, is close enough to last season's big seller that the section of the public that read last years blockbuster might well go this year's "refreshing and innovative" new author. And so the great new talent is just like the great old talent.

Why don't guys read books? Because agents don't look at manuscripts that don't have a love interest. Because agents wont take a chance on a book that does not follow formula.
This is why the male readership has fallen away, because there is nothing on the shelf to buy. I reckon 40% of the market has fallen by the wayside because no book is better than a bad book.

I'm not saying everything on the shelf today is bad, just it is only suitable to a selective audience.

Someone here mentioned Stigg Larsson's 'Dragon Tattoo, well that's the last new book I've read and if it had been the first book I'd ever read, then I would never have read another book in my life. It's a tired, same old, same old plot, it's obvious after 5 pages the girl is still alive. The characters are over laboured. The seine setting is just plain dull and worst of all there's a hole in the plot that a train can be driven through. As a story it just does not work.
But it sticks to the formula and so it gets published.

Most of the guys posted here I agree with, a book needs action, but not super-hero action. Action with conflict of emotion. Human action, when it's dangerous the hero gets scared, when he's with a girl he sometimes gets nervous. And sometimes he does normal everyday things, like take a dump. Heroes with frailties, like real people.

Hemingway, Micky Spillane, George G. Gilbert, Robert A. Heinlein, Raymond Chandler, how many of these would be accepted as a client by an agent today? Easy to answer - NONE. because they didn't write to the formula. Most agents (and I'm not saying the ones who provide this blog, coz I don't know the crack with them, but at least they promise to read everything sent) say they are looking for "a new and strong voice" but what they seek is the old voice in a slightly different pitch. Meanwhile the most part of a generation of male book readers have grown up with nothing worth reading.

Thanks for doing this contest. It was a lot of fun. One more way you guys are earning that 'Best Blogs' award!

The winner was my second choice. It's good to know that I have somewhat of an eye for what's good.

Thanks for the great contest. So many fun first lines!

Congrats to the worthy victor and all the finalists, and thanks to Jim for giving props to my first line. It was fun, encouraging and informative to be a part of it.

Thanks for the opportunity! I'll definitely be querying you when the time comes :)

Please post updates about 'K' and if the ms is as good as the first line. It made me want to read more. What a shame we have to wait!

This was my favorite and not just in the poll but from when it was first posted.

Congrats all around.

Congrats to the winner!

Congratulations to the finalists and the winner! Yay!

This was a great contest, Jim!

All the best. Nice idea!

Congrats to the winner and all the finalists! :)

Thanks again for running the contest, Jim! This has been a really fun way of getting to know you.

Congrats to K and all my fellow finalists! : )

Like everyone else I just wanted to thank you for having the contest Jim! I never expected to be a finalist so you brightened up my week!

And congrats to the other finalists and the other people who entered. Everyone had terrific lines! Of course the biggest congrats goes to K but that's understood :)

My only regret is that you don't rep young adult. But no worries, I'm sure the rest of the agents at D&G will be just as awesome!

Two thumbs up! One to you, Jim, for such a great contest and to K for taking that coveted prize!!! Hopefully, K, we'll all be able to read your story one day!

Btw, I appreciated all the comments, both positive and negative, about my first line!

Congrats to K! A query-less review is a wondrous thing ... don't blow it. ;o)

What a fun contest! Thanks for doing this!!

Congrats to the winner! Good luck to the finalists!

Congrats to K! What a fun contest - thanks for doing this, Jim. :)

Thanks for all the congrats, and thanks Jim, for having such a cool contest! I'll be sending you my manuscript soon :)

Congrats to all the finalists as well!

I wish you could critique every single entry, both Anonymous and Jim. I'm enjoying your reactions to these! But I'm sure you both have lives...

Wow, Jim! Thanks for taking the time out to explain your picks! That was very cool to read.

Any chance of revealing any others you had difficulty deciding over?

Great post! I agree with most of your disagreements with anonymous! LOL Captain Stupendous got my vote but they were all good in their own way. Thanks for taking the time to let us know your thoughts on these.

Would love to know what those other three you keep rotating in your mind are!

I didn't get a chance to read them the first time around, but I definitely want to go back now. The reactions to these are fantastic. And I agree; Thomas Buttermore is a great name. :) Thanks for sharing these!

I don't know what is more funny.

The fact that Jim acted without any ethic in this contest when he didn't inform the participants he desire a specific genre, because I think that the maximum lines in the contest based on this choices would had been 30 at most, and not almost 300, so... satiric claps for you Jim and a reminder for everybody else, he don't really represent this company, Ms. Jane do, so don't think bad about Dystel & Goderich because usually Jim don't evaluate your queries.Or...

...the fact that he actually respond a anonymous commentary, that said actually... what we all think about the choices Jim made. What shows he was not even sure about the choices he made, and that in my language is lack of charisma.

So...in the end what really matters is:

-If you have any horror story and you trying to publish it, don't chose Dystel & Goderich to represent you because they don't have currently a good employer for you. For the others genres, they are the best.

Sorry about the hard words Ms. Jane, but I really like you agency, but the black sheep's always mess the white reputation.

In response to Anonymous 11:29: Huhhh???

@anonymous. Jim has given us an opportunity to have our ms read with out any strings attached. I can't believe you can't appreciate that. What you have just written is horrendous in my opinion. Jim has only done us a favour. who ever said he was obligated to take time out of his day to do this for us anyway? I think he deserves applause.

anon 11.29- what are you on about? From where I'm sitting there appear to be several different genres represented among the favourite lines and none of them are horror, or at least the first lines don't indicate whether they are or aren't. Jim offered us a fun competition with a really awesome prize for OUR benefit. I'm sure he has enough work to be getting on with and yet he still gave us this opportunity. How can you be so dismissive of that?

Bitter trees bear bitter fruit.

I'm trying to figure out if Anon 11:29 purposefully used horrid grammar, or if therein lies the reason for his/her bitterness.

Anyway, here are a couple of my favorites that didn't make the cut.

-- "I greeted his tombstone the way I always did -- with a swift kick"

-- "Someone should have cut me off after the 4th Bacardi and Coke."

-- "Tess Garibaldi wished she believed in miracles, because she sure as shit needed one right now.

-- "I killed my father with a birthday wish.

There were others that I liked a lot too, but these were my favorites.

Dear Anonymous: Really, what I see in your post is an emotional reaction to being rejected. Rejection smarts, and I'm so sorry that you're having a rough go of it. But I'm going to give you some advice from a very sincere place in my heart, and this is knowledge I come by the hard way. Also, keep in mind that Jim is my agent - has been for 7 fabulous years - and to say that I ABSOLUTELY ADORE him would be a gross understatement. I can truly say that I consider him one of the best people I know...in other words, I really DO know his character, and I can suggest to you with absolute certainty that he was not motivated by anything other than offering something really cool for burgeoning writers. He acted without prejudice, even though, to you, it seems like he didn't.

The thing you have to realize is that venting hurts YOU. Jim is very likely unaffected by your comments because he's been in the biz long enough to understand that when people take a verbal swipe at him in reaction to a rejection - it has much more to do with them than him. As you can see from the above, Jim's got some serious fans; not one in you, obviously, but I think you can learn a really valuable lesson from this, and that is; when you are given some criticism - do not react. Do not respond. And above all - do NOT post snark on public blog. If it hurts too much to look at it, set it aside, take a few days, come back to it when you won't feel so wounded, because there are likely some precious pearls of wisdom in there that will help you in the long run. In the meantime, just breathe, sugar, just breathe.

All good calls Tracy! And all near the top of my leader pack. Something about the first one kept needling me. I wasn't sure if it read a little forced--I wanted to read more, but I didn't know for sure that I was 100% on board. I have no real critique of the Bacardi line. It definitely works. It just popped sliiiightly less than some others for me. Tess Garibaldi...how close she came! And the birthday wish...I agonized over that one. It felt spot on, but I wondered if it felt too much like it could come from any number of paranormals. But they are all very good lines.

All best,
"The black sheep" :)

I am fascinated by the discussion going on here. Clearly we all see things differently depending on where we sit.

LOL!! As much as I would love to put my first line in here, I won't. :)

Actually the one line that made me laugh (my absolutely favorite) was (drumroll)

"I greeted his tombstone the way I always did—with a swift kick."

I loved the snarkiness of it. I thought it was a great opening to a story that made me want to read more. And I thought it did great at giving a glimpse of the MC's personality.

Don't worry winners. I liked the others too. :)

But the line above would have definitely been on my top nine.

I would like to know if something like the top five runner-ups in this contest. Some one liners that were close but didn't make it for whatever reason. Then I would like to know exactly why they didn't make it.

Once again...Grats to all the winners. Good luck!!

I loved these two, plus number 4 on your list, Jim.

"With the exception of the two uniformed police officers on the front steps puking into evidence bags, Ellen LeeAnn Walsh's building looked like a hundred other slightly run-down Italianate Victorians in San Francisco."

"I greeted his tombstone the way I always did—with a swift kick."

I do think that it's a momentary decision. If something grabs you at that moment - you'll read more. It could well be that if you go back later and examine what grabbed you, it no longer feels the same way to you. But the grab moment? Priceless :)

This is anonymous 1:09 and 2:08 from your results post, not the one who posted at 11:29 today.

Thank you for outlining your thought process on what attracts you to these first lines.

In the end what matters is your opinion, and in fact your opinion will hopefully make you and your clients some big bucks.

My point of view is from someone who is now line editing a manuscript and trying to get rid of all the cruft – all the it/there/that/had and awkward and passive sentence constructions affecting readability and pacing. These words are essential to writing but their use in a first line is a red flag for overuse and abuse throughout the manuscript. A manuscript with an overabundance of such words is one which often times needs to be liberated from dead weight and can be improved with more descriptive phrasing.

As Mark Twain once wrote:
Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very;" your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

Which perhaps led Nathaniel Hawthorne to follow:
Easy reading is damn hard writing.

Anyway, thanks for the contest. Thanks for the blog.

Oh, Jim, I love your "black sheep" sign off. You always make me laugh.

I also love Victoria Laurie's response. So wonderful and sweet.

To Anonymous 11:29- Seriously? Please don't. I'm not represented by Jim and never have been, but I have sent him material before and he's always, without fail, been incredibly encouraging, polite and kind about it. Also, as many people have pointed out already, this contest was a lot of fun for most of us, and it was a very generous thing for Jim to do! Sorry about the vent, but your comment kind of ticked me off.

One of my favourite lines that didn't make it was, like many other people, "I greeted his tombstone the way I always did—with a swift kick." Such a fun line!

to anon 11:29:is amazing how somebody that don't have the decency to show us a name(hey!just like me)can make such a revolt in people.i bet he's just a problematic kid that is now laughing at us in front of his computer.

JC

Dear Anyom 11:29,
If you feel the need to rant while employing horrific grammar and sentence structure try to do so in a place not littered with word lovers. You know, some place that is not heavily populated by writers, readers, editors and literary agents. Try perhaps your local facebook group or may haps even the neighborhood 7-11.

I'm going to echo The Alliterative Allomorph and ask if you could reveal the "almost" first lines...the ones you liked but just didn't make the top 9?

Please? So very curious.

Thanks for the insight, Jim! That was really interesting. I'm going to add another vote for you to reveal the runners-up. :)

I just read all of the entries, and this is the one that jumped out at me:
"Perhaps the hissing should have tipped me off, but honestly, life so far hadn’t prepared me for feral desk accessories."

Great run-down of your favorites and why. I liked having the comments from Anonymous as well. Would love to see comments on more.

Thanks for posting these! It was illuminating to see where our thought processes ran along parallel lines and where we diverged completely. Even for the entries I would not have picked (only because there were others I liked better), we had some pretty similar critiques. I think this kind of exercise is very useful for future clients of yours; as writers, we want to find agents who will share our vision for our careers, and being able to peek inside that agent's head in advance can help us figure out whether you could be that agent.

"I killed my father with a birthday wish" was one that really stood out for me.

black-sheep follower.

I also want to say that this contest spurred me to go back and look at the first lines of my favorite books as well as the ones I truly loathe. While I mostly find I love the first lines of those books I liked I also find that I would have voted for some of the opening lines of books I can't stand had they been listed here.

I was personally intrigued by this line:
"A lot of people still think I'm a terrible person because I didn't call the police right away."

I'm a sucker for horrible events and I want to know what horrible thing happened and just exactly why did they not call the police right away?

Excellent post! Thank you.

I don't know how I missed the 'tombstone' one. That I loved (though I had to wonder if the next line was something about it always resulting in stubbed toes).

My vote for best of your top nine went to "Captain Stupendous fan club" without a doubt. My runner-up was the 'five husbands' line.

Great contest and very entertaining reading overall.

Anonymous 1:09 and 2:08 likes:

Jimi Hendrix had a lot of explaining to do. (How do we get the dead to explain something?)

"Mary Kate Stewart secretly hoped that her Calculus teacher would get hit by a taco truck." (the absurdity and alliteration of a taco truck, although strike "that")

I've finally figured out my problem: All these years I've wanted - expected - a full moon, every single night." (a romantic idea, a thoughtful protagonist)

"Perhaps the hissing should have tipped me off, but honestly, life so far hadn’t prepared me for feral desk accessories." (funny, unexpected)

"Salt. He tasted like salt." (two lines technically but so was one of yours; intriguing - what is the person doing)

"What size boots you wear?" the old man hacked as he led Nick through the open-air morgue, his hand already hovering close to the feet of the nearest corpse. (irreverant, like the tombstone one mentioned earlier but the protagonist is more sympathetic than one who does the actual kicking)

Zahra could smell the old ndovu, a great pachyderm; for three suns now, she’d tracked him. (Nice names and unusual word! I search out the dictionary.)

"I pressed my shoulders into a wooden armchair in Mrs. Wintour’s antechamber, clasping my hands together so they would not tremble with cold and anxiety." (strong tension and mood)

I swallowed my Altoid the moment the rebel hottie across the reading room drew his attention away from his book and busted me staring at him.
(the addition of Altoid and rebel make the classic situation more unique)

Thanks for giving us your perspective on all the first lines you chose, Jim! I'm so pleased you laughed out loud at mine (even if it could have used an em dash ; ).

P.S. to Anon 1:09/2:08/6:32--I liked the Jimi Hendrix one, too!

1) Note to self: Jim likes mythology. *g* I think what throws me off on this one is the sequencing. "Next time" to me implies future tense, but then we get past tense. And weeping jars with rage, IMO. But I'm definitely curious about why, like Jim said.

2) This comes across as ... not vague so much as tempting. Again, makes me curious. My only quibble is that when I read the sentence, my brain wants to fill in an "it" at the end, which probably changes the meaning!

3) I'm with Jim on this one. Love it. "Or something" fits with "pretty sure" for a casual voice. I want to know more about this character, who capitalizes "Catholic" but not "pagan" or "baptist," and I want to know how her sister got a Catholic funeral if she committed suicide!

4) I love the language play here - the fake-Latin, and then the "to which." The character is sharp and snarkish, and I like that a lot.

5) Absolutely disagree. I love that the sentence starts out in such an ordinary way and gets progressively more zany. This is the one that made me lol! I love the names, I love the voice.

6) I feel like it should be Hakebourne. (Maybe I should quit reading Ludlum? *g*) I am immediately curious about who would say this and why.

7) This makes me wonder two things: what kind of thing is this? and the front desk of what?

8) LOVE this one. Love the brash, confident voice, love the semicolon. Love the setup: she's had other women's husbands, but never one of her own.

9) I like "left-coast." Is it that common to say "left coast" instead of "west coast?" The sentence seems a bit passive, but Thomas Buttermore is definitely a memorable name. A writer who can come up with that, and with "Twinkies and white guilt," has got my attention for at least a little bit more.

Okay Jim, you asked for it! I went back and reread all the entries, including Facebook. I tried to break it down to just a few favorites, but it was so hard! There were around 40 that I really liked, so you can imagine the difficulty to end up with 7! I didn't want to repeat some of the lines which have already been mentioned and happen to be part of my favorites (I, too, like the swift kick, the full moon, the taco truck, Tess Garibaldi, he tasted like salt, Bacardi, etc.). Here goes in no particular order:

"Sixteen years ago I left Balmer, Alabama as a black boy. I return today as a white man."
(I'm hooked. How does a black boy become a white man and why would he want to return to Alabama? No offense to anyone living in Alabama!)

"Jocelyn stared at the guy sitting across the table from her, wondering how he’d react later – when he was drowning."
(How does she know that he'll be drowning later and why? It got my interest.)

"I never wanted my wedding performed by an Elvis impersonator, yet I found myself standing beside my fiancé and looking at the King."
(I like the "voice" here and the irony of the situation; sometimes you get exactly what you don't want!)

"The longest journey of my life began with an argument about chips."
(So true! How many times does something that seems so insignificant becomes a major turning point in one's life? I'll read on.)

"Catalina Flores de la Peña's tongue got her in more trouble than any other part of her body, even though there were far more likely candidates."
(I like that it's so descriptive without putting it all down in words. Great name, you just know that this woman is trouble, and yes, I want to know more.)

"In the many millennia Gabe had spent watching over his mortal charges, not once had he ever thought of breaking the rules."
(It brings to mind "City of Angels" a film I love so I'm intrigued by the subtlety of what may make Gabe think of breaking the rules.)

"It was all fun and games, until Ashley fell over the cliff."
(Yep, that will end the fun and games, but now what? How did she fall, was she pushed? Does she survive....is she hanging to a tree limb? I'm interested.)

Thanks for this, Jim! It's just fun to read the lines, even if (like me) you didn't take part in the contest.

One that nobody mentioned that intrigued me: "He awoke in the dark to the screams again. His hands were automatic spiders for the gun."

Wow! I'm so thrilled you chose mine, Jim! I'll shoot you a query if I don't win the popularity contest. : )

Oh, wow. I just saw the comment above mine, but I think the competitors are great! Good luck to everyone! : )

It's funny how subjective this whole reading thing is, because I jotted down my Top 10 list last week -- and none of those were the finalists. Not that these aren't some good lines, just not the ones that would have caught my attention the most.

#4 had me rolling and thus, got my swanky-ass vote!

The 5 husbands first line cracked me up - that one got my vote, although I liked them all. Great contest!

Yup - number 4 made my list too :)

I agree with Tracy, it's amazing how subjective this is. The lines above are all great, but only two of them were on my personal Top 10 list.

Ara Burklund: I wouldn't be discouraged by Anonymous's comment if I were you.

Thanks for such a great, entertaining contest, Jim!

Forgot to mention, the 5 husbands line got my vote too. How very clever!

Great contest. Thanks for hosting. I have cast my vote.

It must have been hard for you to choose, because I saw lots of great lines. A lot. Ones that made me want to keep reading to see where it would lead.

Grats to all the finalists.

Good luck to everyone!

Two or three were on my top ten list. The Thomas Buttermore line got my vote. Fun contest, thanks Jim.

Thanks, Sangu! It's true that taste is totally subjective. : )

I can't decide yet! They're all so good. But my favorite isn't in there. Good luck, everyone!

Wait, what, I'm actually on this list? Yikes! *^_^*;;

Some great contenders here--I really like the five husbands one, and the Captain Stupendous fan club one as well! Good luck, all!

#1 feels too close to pre-existing mythology
In #2 what does"it" refer to?
#3 Am I the only one missing a verb?
#4 "had decided" versus "decided" and the
second "or" with "something" dilutes the
power of the sentence
*5 better stated if it didn't start
with "There"
#6 Okay, but classic problem
#7 extraneous "that," what is the "thing"?
8) The one I voted for, even though it
sounds kind of cheesy like Mae West. Best of the bunch.
#9 This sounds more like a right-coastie
to me. I don't know any educated Californians
who eat Twinkies.

These are all great! I voted :) I also want to add one that I really liked, which didn't make it to this list:
The worst part of spending three years in and out of sleep clinics is having to room with the chronic bedwetters.
(No, it's not mine!)

Like everyone else, only a few of these caught my eye in the initial read-through; one or two I thought were boring and another one or two too gimmicky. That said, I can see why you would have picked each and every one of them, and how they might hook other readers. And yet I'm shocked by the absence of certain lines I found fabulous. Like everyone else said, it's completely subjective. So while the winner's line will be recognized as fantastic, don't feel discouraged if yours didn't make it this time around. I'm sure someone out there likes it. :-)

Maybe it's because I'm on my mobile but I can't find the link to the results. Where are they!? Thanks.

Some of those are really fun! Voting on one of them was a bit hard.

Wow I'm so flattered that mine was chosen. Quite a few of the others had caught my eye when they were posted as well. I don't expect to win but thanks so much to anyone who votes for my line. It's so exciting! (#4)

How long it took me to decide proves what good choices you made.

Lesli Muir Lytle

Oh, tough choices! This was fun.

Wow - so you definitely have a strong preference for first person narrative. Seven of the nine finalists are first person and 5 of the 9 begin with "I" or "I've." I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on first person vs. third. Thanks for the fun contest!

No offense but No. 1 is the only decent one in this line up. When I read the entries last week I found so many more that were much better than these!

I love the 5 husbands line, a classic

One of my favorites made it to the list, yay! Regardless of which ones have been chosen, I enjoyed the opportunity to read so many first lines.

I just glanced at some comments and would like to respond to one of the anons. The use of "had decided" in this case is necessary, IMHO. And the "or something" seems to me, is part of the narrator's voice, and I don't feel as if it's diluted the sentence.

And no, I didn't write it and I don't know the writer.

Wow. I made the list! Thanks so much for picking mine. There are a LOT of awesome first lines here!

Wow- I'm surprised how rude people are.

It's a "one persons opinion of the top 1st lines" contest, people!

I think they're all great. Are they my top 10? I have no idea- I'd have to read them all- but seriously, people are questioning his personal top favorites? That's weird.

Heh. Olivia, if you're surprised by how rude people are, you don't spend enough time in internet message boards. :)

I did tell people to let me know if they thought I was an idiot for my choices, so I literally asked for it! I do reiterate my request that everyone be polite to the other writers. Don't single any lines out for your criticism. This should be about supporting each other, not tearing each other down. Literary bloodsport is so last century.

I'll break these down line by line on the blog tomorrow to explain why I chose each one. I'm also going to ask then that people nominate some of their own favorite lines.

Anonymous 3:57, good eye. I don't think I noticed my first person bias here. Will have to think on that and go through my client list to see if that bears out on a larger scale! Expect updates in future blog posts.

From Anonymous 3:57:

I think I noticed that first person bias because I write narrative nonfiction and have a journalism/academic background so I typically try to avoid first person. I don't know much about YA, but it seems that the intimacy and immediacy of first person (as opposed to the filtered analysis of third person) would have the most resonance for teens, so your choices make sense to me. Thanks again for the fun!!!

Ah! I like five of the ones out there! Oh no, I can't pick!

For what it's worth, I would have given #4 at least 3 pages to see where it went. I was mildly curious about #8, but would bail if the first 3 paragraphs weren't stellar. As for the rest, I probably wouldn't have been looking in those sections of the bookstore anyway. My taste is clearly quite different from Jim's. So, I doubt I'll be querying him.

Lots of interesting beginnings here. Can't wait to see what happens. For my money, I'd like to read more of #4 though!

Like some folks, #8 caught my eye -- but only because I've seen it/heard it before and because it's too close to "How many husbands have I had? You mean apart from my own?" (Zsa Zsa Gabor)

My friendly critique of #8 from a marketing standpoint is that the narrator might not be too sympathetic, especially in this day and age of tawdry celebrity sex scandals. Monica Lewinsky. Rachel Uchetal. Michelle "Bombshell" McGee. Please, we get enough of these sensational confessionals in the tabloids! But maybe I'm too conservative, and want to be both entertained AND enlightened when I read, which may explain my bias toward third person, narrative nonfiction. It's still a great one-liner, though, and goes to show how subjective the publishing world is! A great "take-away" lesson for all of us. Good luck to all the finalists! SE

The five-husbands line is awfully close to the first line of Doris Lessing's "To Room Nineteen," which I seem to recall begins, "I've had so many husbands, I don't need a husband." Probably an innocent case of convergent evolution.

Good luck to everyone. I hope the Facebook entries were counted too, this isn't even on FB today so I would have missed it. Will come here directly in the future. Thanks for the contest.

Can we vote for more than one? I'm torn between the funeral line and "I saw her do it before she did."

The only two that really grabbed me were the Hermes one and the "things like me existed" one. (Some of the others were pretty short, so I'd read another couple lines before casting judgement.) But we can only vote once...

DGLM- True I don't frequent message boards. I guess I was mostly surprised that so many people posted snarky comments anonymously. I figure if you're gonna say it, own it.

And I've reconsidered. You did ask for it. Hehe

Thanks, Jim, for picking mine among so many great first lines! There were quite a few that made me want to read more....and hopefully, one day I will.

Eh, mountains of clever in these lines, but clever is to today's publishing biz what HFCS is to food: a poor substitute for real flavor.

Sadly, the two that merit company with Call Me Ishmael, Happy Families Are All Alike, and It Was The Best Of Times have so far received the least of votes.

I had to vote for #4, too! It made me spit out my coffee. :-)

This seems very subjective - more about what kinds of topics interest you than how good the writing is. Just a thought.

I have to agree with Anon 8:42. I do think that #8 is a very clever line, but if I remember correctly (and forgive me if I don't), the genre was either a memoir or fact based fiction (or similar) and that made the author deeply unsympathetic to me and the line a complete turnoff.

Anon 2:55 - Isn't everything subjective, especially in the publishing world? "Don't send your mystery or horror manuscript to an agent looking for romance." "Don't ask an editor to read your YA manuscript when he or she only deals with non-fiction." Just because you're subjective doesn't mean you overlook good writing!

Suze - I went back to look at the genre, she says "....mine is a non-fiction book proposal that I'm working on,...." which doesn't necessarily mean that it's a memoir or an autobiography. For all we know, she could be writing a book about the life of Mae West or Zsa Zsa Gabor!

Great contest!

First line of Eternal Knight:

Hadde crouched behind the rotting trunk of a fallen tree.

Oh fun! Here's the 1st line from one of my YA urban fantasy mss:

"Darkness was deceptive - under the blanket of night, it was almost easy to pretend that no one knew she was there, that she was safe."

"Entering the Junior Handlers Dog Show should be fun, may be embarrassing, but Kitty Walker had no idea it would be dangerous, Kitty had bigger worries."

Congratulations on pronouncing the volcano name - I'd need a few more vowels before I even attempt it.

Thanks for this opportunity

A fierce pounding on the door to my room set a tsunami-like jolt of pain rushing through my brain.

Love the NY Times link, although I'm not sure I'd dare try to pronounce it. We just call it "that bloody volcano" here in the UK, anyway.

Awesome contest idea, and great entries so far! I think it would be pointless/unfair of me to enter, as you're already considering my manuscript. Not to mention my first lines suck. Always.

But, just for fun, here's a first line I'd LIKE to start a novel with:

"I sat down to tea with Death, Desire and Rage."

One day.

"This time, Alysseren caught a glimpse of the Inner Sanctum before the reverend caught her."

Lots of awesome first lines posted - many books I'd be interested in reading based on them! Anyway, here is mine, from my YA fantasy The Oracle of Delphi, Kansas:

My mother has been in mental institutions most of my life.

First line, lit fic:

"I've finally figured out my problem: All these years I've wanted - expected - a full moon, every single night."

Here goes nothing:

"I killed my father with a birthday wish."

Does this apply to fiction only?

Here goes!

"He was given the ability to control life and death."

Here's mine; to be overly-analytical it's the first line of my MS but technically two sentences. Will you allow it?

"Sixteen years ago I left Balmer, Alabama as a black boy. I return today as a white man."

Yippee, a contest! I love contests.*G*

"When I was a kid, I found a human skull. But that wasn’t the bad part."

What a fun idea! Here's mine (literary fiction): The summer that Philip Johnston was transformed by the eclipse, wildfires dotted the southern California landscape.

"No one would ever say sensitivity is my forte."

Here goes nothin':
"Perhaps it was the lack of caffeine talking, but they were almost positive the sun was closer than normal."

From my historical horror novel:

"The Jack Ketch," I said from the horse, "where they bringing the bodies?"

My first line isn't all the exciting but here goes...

The Memoirs of the Big Bad Wolf (the title is just a working one)

"The night air was crisp and clean, cool upon her skin."

Well, since I already have an agent, I won't be participating, but it will be a lot of fun to read all the entries. Can we still vote if we don't enter ourselves?

Fun contest! Here goes:

"The purple crystal on the table only made my palms sting at first."

The opening line of the prologue or first chapter? I'll give both to cover my arse:

Prologue: "Envision a place immersed with magic, a place unseen to mortal eyes on an isle set off on its own."

Chapter 1: "Something was wrong."

-Witch Way To You
a historical fantasy romance
by Lindsey Edwards

"The line of sleepy Sunday morning coffee worshipers shuffles forward."

Well, I'm constantly changing mine. Here's the current opening line:

"Everyone has something they'd like to change about their life."

Thanks for the opportunity.

A large part of me wanted to walk right over to Tomas Murphy and beat him senseless with the bill of my feathery duck hat.

Sounds like a fun contest!

"I was the girl everyone had forgotten, but that didn't mean I had to stay wherever they decided to dump me."

First line:

The truth about high school exists under the bleachers.

"It happens to most people."

First line:
Terror gripped Jaya's chest as she gasped awake.

This is a great contest. Thank you.

Here's my first line:

Moments like these were rare, not to mention brief.

"In the many millennia Gabe had spent watching over his mortal charges, not once had he ever thought of breaking the rules."

Hi Jim! Miss you guys! Hope all is well :)

"I saw her do it before she did."

Cool contest!

First line from my adult novel:

I don't know why I assumed that, even on my birthday, there wouldn't be someone out to kill me.

First line from YA novel:
I found the gun by accident.

Fun contest!!!

Here's one of mine from a YA ms:

"Homo sapiens sluttiwhen drunkus. The subspecies to which I apparently belong."

What a great contest. And so many awesome entries already.

Ellyssa, a.k.a. Subject 62, ran through the dark alley after escaping from her long-term captors who she’d thought of as family for eighteen years.

Great contest. Great opportunity. Here's my 2 cents':

"They had conducted rescue missions in seedier areas, but Ellie couldn't place any of them at the moment."

"I knew I was in trouble when I saw her walk into the Gay and Lesbian Center."

Alright here it is:

A piece of paper, that's what started and ended this whole mess

Oo, I'd like to play. Young adult:

"Salt. He tasted like salt."

"Alex stared at his misshapen shadow."

**Sorry about that. I forgot to note genre so I deleted the above comment.**

Well, I never would have guessed that's how it's pronounced!

Thanks for the contest opportunity, Jim. 6.2 seconds, well that is reassuring. Lot of great first lines here! I'll give it a go. This comes from my YA Historical/Paranormal fantasy, FATED.

"Noises where there should’ve been silence."

Thanks again!
[email protected]

For as long as I can remember, I’ve heard whispers in the shadows.

How many can we post? lol

I chewed my lip and stared down at the mahogany casket with dry eyes.

Death was mercy and for the moment, preferable to sitting in the driver's seat of Pete's 1967 Mustang.

“Tell me again what we’re doing in the cemetery at midnight?” I asked, tossing a lock of hair over my shoulder.

I gotta admit I love this one. ;-)

"Someone was watching me again."


First line of my YA urban fantasy

Great contest! Thank for the opportunity!

I walked into math class and scoped out the sub; easy prey.

from REVENGE OF THE PINK GRANNY PANTIES

Wow, some of these are great first lines. Make me wanna read more.

The bomb isn't heavy.

--> from my YA contemporary, Listen. Thanks!

My MS isn't anywhere near finished. But I thought I'd just share my first line.

"Daniel Elijah Cole, just nineteen years old, died because of me."

:)

Awesome contest! Here's mine:

"I died before I was even born."

Awesome contest - I'm looking forward to what reading everyone else posts.

At rest, the young girl's eyes looked identical, but when she glanced around the room, the left had trouble keeping up with the right.

"Life seemed so unimportant …and wasn’t it really?"

YA Paranormal

"Holliday was either born twice or not at all; I forget which is true, but it's certainly one of those."
-Colin Hill

Colin's sign language interpreter flanked him at school like an extra appendage, but between his last class and football practice, he navigated the hallways of Broadview High alone.

It's hard to believe that such atrocities were committed in such a beautiful place.

"We heard it fall."

by MAB

My first line from my YA:

"Death by tortoise shell. Not very imaginative, but it did the trick."

My completed novel is MG, which you don't seek yet, so I'm submitting the first line from my YA novel. It is unfinished, and I understand if you decide to limit it to finished mss. only.

"Cedar can't decide which is more stubborn: her heart or Finn's mind."

Thanks for the contest.

"The Vaseline on her face itched."

These are great lines, mines pretty simple, but here we are from the prologue of my multicultural/literary YA:

I opened my eyes slowly and drowsily, trying to draw the connection between the keening wail of the fire truck I heard outside and my aching head.

Aw, why not? From my MG novel:

There are four Captain Stupendous fan clubs in Copperplate City, but ours is the only one that doesn't suck.

Here's mine!

"He hated killing people right before Christmas."

Good luck everyone.

Okay. Here's mine form my YA urban fantasy novel.


From chapter 1 - “Alright! I’ll send you a post card.”

Here's my first sentence:
It didn’t take long for Phoebe to figure out Jeremy wasn’t coming back for her.
Cool contest! Thank you!

I opened the tan suitcase; the smell that slithered out was potent.

Okay, this is the first line from BRAINEATER JONES, a horror/mystery novel:

"I woke up dead this morning."

At least the amazing photos of the volcano do justice to that name.

First line from my current Urban Fantasy:
The van smelled like potato chips and stale coffee, and the constant but irregular squeak of Junior Agent Alan Michelleti’s chair had killed any chance of sleep.

First line:

Her skin was like cream, soft to my touch and sweet to my eyes.

Well, considering I've been wondering about my first line lately (though I am NOT touching that page until I'm done), this seems a good prospect to dive in.

"Jereman was dead."

Thanks for the opportunity!

My first line from FATED MISHAPS, a YA historical fiction.

"I will never be Lady Hakebourn."

"I am the first one to notice the three strange men approaching our village."

THE NEW ZERO--YA fantasy

Good contest!

"Muzzamil Hassan was one week past his sixteenth birthday, and if the day went as planned he would not see his seventeenth."

The opening of my second novel.

Good luck to ...me!

[email protected]

Thanks! From YA novel, THE SECRET OF GABRIEL ADAM:

Gabe kept a wary eye on the church bell.

Cool contest!

Here's mine:

"I wondered if the girl sitting at the front desk knew that things like me existed."

Thanks, Jim, for such a wonderful opportunity for someone! Like others, mine is a non-fiction book proposal that I'm working on, so I suppose that I don't qualify either, but I wanted to give you my first line just to participate.

"I've had five husbands; none of them were mine."

Thanks for a great opportunity!

Here is the first line of my commercial women's fiction novel, THE SORBET GUY:

Matt Lehrer’s college roommate was a politician above all else.

Here my first line
The closed iron gates stood tall behind the guard, Marjorie Fisher wanted inside those gates but more importantly the great HE wanted her inside the gated community of Glam, Alabama.
Happy reading and writing,
Annie

YA Urban Fantasy BIRTH OF A FURY

Mary wiped her eyes; they were bleeding again.

Thanks for the contest.

If we can enter again here is another, if not this is cheat # 1 of 2.

DEATH OF A SMALL TOWN GOSSIP

Adelaide was 75 years old and could easily live another 30, which annoyed most everyone in Brent Falls.

Cheat 2?

YA Fantasy APPRENTICE DEFIANT

Jeremiah couldn't figure out how Darrah had planted the purple worm in his arm.

I've already had fun reading through everyone's first lines - boy, there's some great stuff out there! Thanks for the contest!

"Tess Garibaldi wished she believed in miracles because she sure as shit needed one right now."

Heh. Much fun. :)

First Line:

"You hunk of English shit!"

Blowin' smoke around the planet causes contest!
First line: Hot winds flowed across the desert to Great Salt Lake; cumulus clouds, roiling thousands of feet high, obliterated the moon.

Oh, fun!! Thanks for the contest!

"Pino propped his chin on the shovel handle and stared at the bones nestled in the bottom of the coffin."

YA comedy PLUMB

"Go through the gates of Hell and head out to the back forty: the Belling High School cafeteria is right there."

Thank you for this opportunity.

I've already queried you, but who can resist a contest? :)

YA fantasy

"I’ve never had a birthday cupcake—might help if I had a birthday."

Can't resist a contest! The entries so far are really great, too.

From my YA, Redemption is a Road

"The leaves were just turning that brown of death and flying in waves from the trees."

Thanks for doing this, I've loved reading the entries!

"I greeted his tombstone the way I always did—with a swift kick."

I love this blog!

From my contemporary YA:

Most Joes said I got a wild streak longer than the neck of my B.C. Rich guitar.

Love this!

First line from my Paranormal YA.

"I’ve seen them before, the men whose white wings sparkled opaquely and glimmered in the sunlight, walking around the same as the rest of the population, blending in eerily well—only because I seemed to be the one person who could see the abnormalities protruding from their backs."

-Lisa B.

First line of my middle grade historical fiction novel, Mercury's Daughter.

"Your Majesty, all I have ever loved is about to burn at the stake."

-Nicole Marie Schreiber
www.nicolemarieschreiber.com

Great post!

My first line: I shouldn't be on this plane.

Sounds like fun :) This is the first line of ALWAYS READ THE FAE PRINT, a humorous urban fantasy:

Someone should have cut me off after the fourth Bacardi & Coke.

Just found this. Great idea.

My first line: The fluorescent light reflected in her big, brown eyes.

Amie McCracken
www.iamalivephotos.blogspot.com

best

best

"The lights of the moon still shone on the shores of Lake Deagwn when a little figure covered with a hood and carrying a case with a shoulder strap sneaked out of the castle gates."

Young Feminine Medieval Fantasy

Elda Veyller

Pure awesomeness:

First line from YA ELLA'S DANCE:

Ella stared at the white alabaster urn the funeral director had given her.

First line:

"Father had told me that by the time I was ten
Great Heats I would know most everything I needed to know, and what I would care about then, I would care about for the rest of my life."

Historical Fiction -- "Great Heats" -- set in the year 1000.

"The wind blew from north in a soft morning of June, the light frost hung up in the hills drawing them white as snow, painted by the shy early rising sun."

Historical Romance

Ricardo Veyller

I lost my mind today, but it’s OK, I’ve been expecting it to happen ever since I was ten when I overheard my mother tell some of her friends, “When women go through the ‘change,’ they go crazy.”


HOW EM FOUND HER CHA CHA - Women's Lit

Thanks for the opportunity.

My first line:

"Livia had once taken an off-world lover. Long, long ago, when she was learning how to arrange her life suitably."

Thanks for the opportunity - looking forward to seeing your final thoughts on so many first lines.

Tonight was meatloaf.

Fun contest. Looks like there are lots of entries already, but I'll still give it a shot:

The land is cold and lonely, distant peaks flashing skyward, bounding up from the deepening shadows of the hollows in their wake.

This is cool, reading everyone's opening line. I don't know how you agents pick between so many creative people.
Alright, I know this isn't one line, but if I just posted,"In," it would make no sense. From my novel Proving Ground:

In.
Out.
In.
Out.
Breathe Laura, breathe, I chanted to myself as I pulled the massive doors open.

Great contest!!! Here's the first line in my manuscript:

Jocelyn stared at the guy sitting across the table from her, wondering how he’d react later – when he was drowning.

Great idea!! Thanks.

"The knife sliced through, coming out clean on the other side, but it always did when Aunt Eliza did the cutting."

I'm pretty sure my sister had decided to become a pagan or a baptist or something before she offed herself so I don't know why we were having a Catholic funeral.

(YA)

YA fiction

His foot slipped. He pitched forward clutching the baby as he fell.

I'm cheating because the first line is two words.

From MG FREAKY FRANK
I have a secret. I know things. Lots of things. About people. Like I know that my math teacher, Mr. Bugg, is going to pick his nose and wipe a boogie on the back of his yellow smiley face tie....

YA Fiction:

He must have watched me from a safe distance, like a crocodile observing its prey.

"I wasn’t sure if, or how, I liked the way the dim lighting danced over my unclothed body, but was grateful that it was more dark than light in the bathroom."

Thank you, Jim, for the oportunity! This novel might be more Rachel's taste since the protagonist's name is Adelaide! Genre: Fiction based on a true story.

"I never wanted my wedding performed by an Elvis impersonator, yet I found myself standing beside my fiancé and looking at the King."

"Death—defined as the end of life—the word alone makes people sad."

"With the exception of the two uniformed police officers on the front steps puking into evidence bags, Ellen LeeAnn Walsh's building looked like a hundred other slightly run-down Italianate Victorians in San Francisco."

"Professor Morgan's fingers slid around my wrist and stopped me mid-step."

Cassandra spotted the Doom Painting at a flea market, and it called to her with a crotchety, insistent voice that couldn’t be ignored.

"A woman is a weapon."

Sweet contest. Here's the first line of Callarion at Night:

"Killing the priest would be simple."

I leaned forward, my wiry red hair hung over Mom’s face as I checked her breathing--still steady.

"I killed three people while I was there. Two were up close and personal; one wasn’t up close at all, but was much, much more personal."

YA Fantasy

I'm loving eveyone's opening lines... I already have my two favorites and I want to see if they jibe with yours! Thanks for the fun :)

"If you walk down the grand staircase of Osthegn Castle, you will see a family portrait."

Perched on the scaffolding, Gabriel felt the walls constrict, remembered each stroke of graphite on parchment, each thwack of setting maul to stone above the nave.

I squeezed the trigger, the noise of the gun deafening in the confined space of the elevator.

Rhonda leans against the door jamb mining an ear with a pinky, jeans slung beneath hipbones, head tilted to the splintering wood.

The warm, summer evening was mine to do with as I pleased, something very foreign to me, and my ability to make a decision was lost.

You've been chosen.

from Shadow of the Long Life Brigade.

-NAP

Sounds great and thanks.

Urban Fantasy

“Alexsi! Someone saw a Bigfoot near the Native Forest,” Professor Ludtz exclaimed from his massive oak desk on the other side of the office.

YA zombie thriller:

"He awoke in the dark to the screams again. His hands were automatic spiders for the gun."

"Faint purring was keeping me awake."

After school, the girls congregated in the park to get high.

Here it is...

"The housemaid’s scream is as sharp as the shards of Venetian glass surrounding the corpse."

A howl unraveled, waking Nevada; as the cry faded eyes closed, tense from neck to knees, she strained to understand.

I have seen myself die countless times, though death has never laid claim to my life.

“Tessa!” I nearly jump out of my seat when she wails, crying that her gum is stuck up her nose.

Forty-eight hours ago, the man Elizabeth was willing to sacrifice herself for before this council of vampire elders, had been the very same man who killed her.

From LINCOLN'S DIARY, a modern suspense novel:

Burying Mom was a start, but the harder job would be digging up the truth.

Cool contest and LOTS of entries. Good luck to your eyes!

My thumb stumbled over the rubbery cell phone button for the hundredth time.

--Edgy YA

Thomas Buttermore was your typical left-coast college kid, raised on Twinkies and white guilt.

Here's mine, from "47 Echo":

"What size boots you wear?" the old man hacked as he led Nick through the open-air morgue, his hand already hovering close to the feet of the nearest corpse.

Cool! From my novel Branded (Fall of Angels):

"This was the time of night when panic started to set in."

First line:

The text message came that night, when Ian was in the library.

Sneaking out of the house on a school night wasn’t something Maya would normally do.

From my YA contemporary/adventure fantasy novel:

"The dazzling golden sunlight faded away and the dense gloom of the underground cave closed in around them."

Among the legion of unfounded, self-manufactured terrors that he masochistically nurtured prophesying his own demise, Emmett's most dreaded and certain prediction had always been that some rapacious, smoke-colored spirit would discover him vulnerable, tease the germ of his glum soul from its mortal tether, and entrench itself in that bleak hollow; and by his letter, it seemed to have happened.

Good luck, Jim, and thanks for the opportunity. :)

MG Paranormal

"I always thought books were boring, a waste of time, but not dangerous. I was wrong."

What a wonderful contest, with a most generous prize. Thank you, Jim.

Paranormal Romance seems out-of-step with the presented genres, but what the hey...

From LOVES FREEDOM, my (nearly “finalized” 92,000 word) paranormal (time-travel) romance.

"Wellington’s parting orders hammered through Ashland’s thoughts, keeping pace with the hooves pounding beneath him."

YA fantasy:

My papers scattered everywhere and my books fell with a loud thud as I braced my arms for impact against the cold, hard floor.

Here's mine:

The baby floated face down in the tub.

First line:

Catalina Flores de la Peña's tongue got her in more trouble than any other part of her body, even though there were far more likely candidates.

From A STORM HITS VALPARAISO, set during South America's wars of independence

www.davidgaughran.com

From PERDITION

He quit his job at the high school amid rumors that his wife was sleeping with the history teacher.

(Science Fiction)

Layne sat on the end of his bed, head in one hand, datapad in the other, and decided he hadn't slept enough to face either message.

My manuscript is not yet complete, but I couldn't resist this:

Zahra could smell the old ndovu, a great pachyderm; for three suns now, she’d tracked him.

"I pressed my shoulders into a wooden armchair in Mrs. Wintour’s antechamber, clasping my hands together so they would not tremble with cold and anxiety."

From VAN DIEMEN AT 17 (YA/Women's Fiction)

Excellent contest! Here is the
opening to my manuscript:

Sometimes the brain can’t process what it sees. When something is so wrong, so horrible, the brain refuses to recognize it. That was the case when I walked into the Keeper’s house, intent on getting a nice, steaming cup of tea to warm my cold hands and delivering an invitation to a party.

Rebecca
http://rebeccatlittle.blogspot.com/

Does it matter if the MS is finished? Mine isn't.
If so, ignore this post, I suppose. My ms is YA fantasy.

"People screamed in the streets, clinging to their loved ones as they tried to escape."

Thanks for a good laugh Rebecca T.!!! Your first sentence is so true! "Sometimes the brain can't process what it sees."!!! The contest is the first line/sentence of your manuscript, not the opening paragraph. Others have made the same mistake, and I'm not trying to be mean by bringing attention to it, but your first sentence just brings a humorous touch to your error.

"With the evening terminator chasing away the day, the eastern edge of the city was just starting to twinkle."

Here's mine: "The new Cadillac with the gull-wing bumpers had smashed, accordion-like, into a tree, steam spewing from its radiator.

I watched from my bed as the snow started to fall; a few light flakes at first, in the blue-black darkness, then sharp gusts of wind pushing the swirls to their final resting place on the barren lawn behind my house.

Here's mine:

One warm and sultry summer night, long after the lights had been turned down in his room, Vladdie the Lamb opened his bedroom window and began to howl at the full moon.

I always knew it all, or at least I thought I did. But nothing could have prepared me for the next twenty-four hours.

YA Urban Fantasy - The Innocents

As Maxfield Parrish Clark crosses Prospect Street, he catches sight of the canal bridge, its rusted girders glazed and shimmering in the rain, and his breathing eases up for the first time all day.

Great idea. Very cool!

"Aldric gazed at them through the gilded mirror."

I swallowed my Altoid the moment the rebel hottie across the reading room drew his attention away from his book and busted me staring at him.

Philip could not believe his eyes. His Amarantha. Sweet Amarantha - a temptress in the silver moonlight.

From FROZEN IN TIME - Historical fantasy.

For as long as he could remember, Little Jemmy had dreamed of being free to do as he pleased, of raftin' down the Potomac with his brothers and sisters, of climbin' the old Mulberry trees just beyond the stables; he even dreamed of learnin' how to read, but Jemmy wasn't allowed to do any of those things because he was a slave.

Thanks for the cool contest.

Here's my first sentence:

Everything I'd ever read said not to go inside, and to call the police from a neighbor’s house, but I entered anyway.

Hope you found some peace in jail; you never will again.

BREATHE - Gay Erotic Romantic Suspense

Oops! My book is upper MG; kindly disregard!

YA paranormal:

The ground was as dry as the Communion wafers I received every Sunday at Mass.

I am not afraid.

From DARKNESS, a contemporary dark fantasy in progress.

From my manuscript Sublime:

I heard my sister’s screams coming from inside the infirmary, and the broken chair in which I sat waiting for her to die, discarded and forgotten, clung to me as much as I clung to it.

A loud, sharp knock at the open doorway startled Lieutenant Derrick “Toons” Hutchinson just as he was finishing a cup of his favorite, blueberry, yogurt.

LOL Fun contest.

Ronnie’s friends noticed the two men entering the yard because they stood out in their black suits, but Ronnie noticed them because she couldn’t poke into their minds to see who they were and what they wanted, and that had never happened before.

From JOURNEY - YA fiction:

It was all fun and games, until Ashley fell over the cliff.

Before my eyelids crack open I know it has happened again.

"I had to choose between the angel and the mermaid."

Now I'm off to learn how to pronounce that volcano name.

It began with a fire, Aisa told me once, and it grew with a kiss.

Here goes:

"I stood at the urinal staring at the crudely made sign announcing the upcoming company-sponsored blood drive when the man in the stall next to me started talking to himself"

"She ran and panic choked her as her heart thumped painfully against her chest."

From- HEARTSOULS- epic fantasy

Great contest and some intriguing posts. The first line of my manuscript:

Novak smelled her before he saw the body.

It started with the weak voices of a few scattered shoots of grass.

Nine astronomical units into space should be enough time to figure out the mystery of who I’m supposed to be.


So many AMAZING first lines. Thanks for holding this contest!

"I cannot stomach the coast."

Contemporary women’s fiction (contrary to how the first line sounds, it isn’t a romance novel :))
"She was so beautiful, sitting in the desk in front of his podium, always smiling, asking questions, flipping her long chestnut hair and laughing…the sound so contagious."

Thanks for a neat contest:

Auntie Jayne with a Y is the root of all my problems.

"The longest journey of my life began with an argument about chips."

Ooh, I want to play!

First line: Forget writer's block, artist's block was a bitch.

I need a good therapist, an astrologer, or at least another pair of eyes - better yet, an army of winged monkeys.

I stood with my paws hanging over the side of the door, my head stuck out the window and my nose pointing into the wind.

Mine is the above post. It is MG. Is that genre allowed?

Echo - YA suspense

The monotonous sound of the television set seeped into Olivia Mariner’s ears.

I was a tree shaking in a terrible storm but the wind was inside my body.

From my historical novel:

Almost a year to the day after Didymus's father sold him into slavery, the Nabataean sent the other slave, a Jewish man named Nathaniel, to the great city of Petra to purchase a pair of camels for his caravan.

There must have been at least 1,000 people.

Thank you for this contest! Here is my first line:

When I was born, all of the demons in Hell cashed in their chips to vie for me.

Margay

My husband had circled an unusual newspaper ad, "handsome, young man seeking to escort experienced, wealthy woman" and penciled in: You can have this guy, I get Uma Thurman.

I certainly hope these multi-sentence "first sentences" are disqualified. I'm sure we all would love to show the first two or three sentences of our manuscript, but those aren't the rules.

Though Barry was no stranger to failing, the current scale of failure impressed even him.

"The red numbers haunted me."

First line: “Hey, Dad? It’s Taylor. Um, I’m kind of in jail.”

Genre is YA

First line from my YA fantasy, Weavers:

The worst part of spending three years in and out of sleep clinics is having to room with the chronic bedwetters.

I knew things were bad when I had to pee in the woods and I couldn’t even get that right.

First line from a crime novel:

This was the uncertain part of Keith Kardain's job, not knowing if or when he'd have to kill someone.

From my teen novel THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ROBBIE TAY:


Lightning flashed several times in quick succession, like an anime cartoon.

From my novel: Quest For the Best

When I was a kid you didn’t spend time worrying about your future because things were pretty well set.

From my YA urban fantasy:

"I raged. I attacked. I conquered. Oh, please, who was I kidding? I’m a lazy ass."

Checking my Email and Facebook accounts is like an addiction for me.

She was naked,abso-freaking-lutely naked.

--From my paranormal mystery "Shadow World."

RK

"Disappearing can be so inconvenient."

"Shana is dead and it's all my fault."

Standing fully clothed under a cold shower when you are pissed off is nothing less than stunning.

From my narrative nonfiction/memoir:

When the sky outside began to darken the neonatalogist entered the room - she had dark brown skin, darker brown eyes, and glided quietly across the room like a shadow.

Here's my first line:

"My biggest fear in life was finding out God didn't exist. But after what I've done, my biggest fear is finding out he just might."

Hope you like it.

Here's mine:

I was part of a building complex in New York City whose seven buildings were destroyed on September 11, 2001.

This is the first line from my contemporary YA novel, Butterfly With Broken Wings.

If you had told me a few years ago that in the near future I would lose my independence and everything that defined me, I’d have called you crazy.

Laura Ann Dunks

When your best friend’s a werewolf, things can get interesting.

If I could say only one thing, it would be this – you chose your life.

From THE NANCY WHO DREW - a memoir

From my mystery novel:

"The color pink, no matter what the shade, had never done me any favors; today was no exception."

First line:
He waited.

One abstract string binds me to Padre; a mutual exchange of knowledge.

Horror

Thank you for the opportunity.

I don't know if "end of day" means end of business day or midnight, but here goes just in case:

I was wearing pink Converse at prom.

Thanks!

From my YA fictional memoir/novel:

We were standing together, naked and shivering, when the heavy metal doors slammed behind us and we heard the gas hissing in, and then suddenly, through the fog, we heard shouts coming from outside - "The twins! Where are the twins?" - and the chamber door opened to reveal Dr. Mengele.

I should have had a plan of some kind, because that was the kind of person I was.

Aww man, I just missed the deadline.

But for the sake of other readers maybe giving feedback on it anyway...

"Intersecting beams of refracted light cut through her, glaring so violently she could no longer bear to see."

Whoops, like another contestant, my story is upper MG too - please disregard my entry. Sorry aobut that.

Congrats Robert!

This was a great little contest. I really enjoyed it.

This is so exciting! I won, I won! I want to thank my fellow nominees with whom I must share this award (but not literally, because sharing a water bottle is gross). And a big time thanks to the good people of Dystel & Goderich. I should also thank Ayn Rand, but somehow I don’t think she would approve of being thanked. She would want me to revel in the glory of my own selfish pursuits, thereby strengthening society as a whole the way our big banks have been doing (I’m sure objectivism sounded much more convincing in the 1957). So no thanks, Ayn. Incidentally, I am currently enjoying Ayn Rand’s The Art of Fiction, if any other writers/book lovers are interested. It is by far the most hilarious writing guide ever written, but I don’t think it was intended to be. Rand routinely lists books she considers not to be in the same league with her own superior fiction. That’s comedy gold!

Thanks, D. Antone.

Also, It’s a Wonderful Life. I have a soft spot for Jimmy Stewart.

Advent. Candlelight. Smelling Christmas trees. Hanging stockings (still). I grew up in New England, so a green Christmas just doesn’t feel right to me… I love watching snow falling outside. And watching LITTLE WOMEN with my sister in Brooklyn — even though it’s not necessarily a Christmas movie, it is because we say it is.

As much of my extended family as possible gets together on Christmas eve and exchanges presents between families. (Then each individual family exchanges presents amongst themselves on Christmas day.)

wassail!

Didn't you just love the piece in Shelf Awareness about the blogger who offered a free burrito to everyone who spent $50 in his mother's bookstore? Don't miss that story!