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  • Best opening lines from contemporary authors
    Part 2

    Carol Vorvain

    05-Feb-2018

    Best opening lines from Writers Boon authors

    Carol Vorvain (@writersboon) is an Australian international lawyer, mediator, author and founder of Writers Boon. Her books, When Dreams are CallingWhy not? - The island where happiness starts with a question and  A Fool in Istanbul - The adventures of a self-denying workaholic have been featured in a number of travel magazines including the International Traveller magazine and can be found in libraries, bookstores and on Amazon.

    To me, opening a new book is like landing in a foreign country. Those initial few seconds are always unforgettable. They draw me in or … they spit me out. And I have to gasp for air.

    In homage to the torture that each author goes through to find the best hook, each month I am posting some of my favorites lines written by Writers Boon member authors.

    Funny or unexpected, clever or shockingly abrupt, mysterious and bizarre, here they are.

    J.M. Robison
    "Thundering hooves on cobblestone rattled vibrations up her body. She hunched over the animal’s neck, cloak tugging against her throat as it swirled behind her"
    The War Queen

    Nick Stockton
    "In a little suburb of Washington D.C, not too far away from the subway line, lived a boy, a Monkey, a Puppy and a Lion. The Amazing Adventures of Monkey, Puppy, and Lion: The Day of the Flying Pot Roast

    Richard Gradner
    "Halim’s head spun. He could feel the presence of the mythical creature as it snorted and nickered, throwing its head back with a neigh. His head was filled with her infinite beauty, like a creature divine, created by the gods to give man hope, aspiration and love for the Creator and all of His beautiful creations. Halim watched the unicorn rise onto its hind-legs, its imposing frame towering high above him and his father, its fore- legs pawing the air like an enchanted beast that had come down from the heavens above, its body framed by the light of the luminous moon behind it."
    Unicorn

    Lisa Chaplin
    "What is the color of regret?"
    The Memory of Cardamom

    Steve Altier
    "The world outside sounded menacing as loud thunderous cracks rained down on the home."
    Lizardville The Ghost Story

    Elizabeth Bailey
    "The butchers were at it again. Slicing his life away, chopping his story into mincemeat and feeding it piecemeal into forever."
    For One More Tomorrow

    Tabitha Vohn
    "You have to be brave to get old."
    Tomorrow is a Long Time

    Cathryn Hein
    "Harry Argyle never saw the horse. Not fully. He saw something with a huge black arse and, knowing that hitting things with big arses never turned out pretty, he swerved."
    Summer and the Groomsman

    Rich Ritter
    "Azure eyes searching the distant sun-dappled hills above the polished rim of a porcelain cup, Muireall Anne Ravenscroft sipped green tea."
    Nor Things to Come: a Trilogy of the American West

    Erik Schubach
    "I poked Nessie in the arm as she sat on the corner of my desk, on top of the contract she was sitting on that I needed, and said, 'Poke.'"
    London Harmony: The Pike

    Emma Bradley
    "Silence dominated the entire house."
    The Miracle (The Firebird Trilogy)

    Catherine Taylor
    "There are rats in her room. There are lice in her hair. I want the lazy bitch out of my house."
    Master

    Elissa Grodin
    "Two women sat at a corner table, huddled in conversation over a pot of rosehips tea and a plate of small cakes."
    Death by Hitchcock

    Joanie Holzer Schirm

    "At any other time, I would have enjoyed a hike through the bucolic Czechoslovakian countryside of golden barley glistening with the first shoots of early spring, but on this occasion, as I’d just escaped the cutthroat Nazis, I wasn’t dressed appropriately."
    My Dear Boy

    Rebecca Clare Smith
    "'Stop!' the word escaped in a gasp even as I opened my eyes, gun clutched beneath cold fingers while breath turned to white vapour in the air."
    Forgiving Zander (#2, Survival)

    Larry Landgraf
    "Sean woke up from a dream, the same dream, screaming just as he had the previous three mornings. The vision of him strapped to a table and a doctor standing above him was still vivid in his mind. A bright light shone from above and everything was fuzzy. The doctor was masked and the scalpel glistened in his hand. Two masked nurses watched as the doctor made his first cut."
    Into Spring - The Next Generation

    Donalie Beltran
    "He imagined it was a funeral much like any other, but what made this one different was the fact this grave would hold his headless father."
    Murder Is A Family Affair

    Richard Todd
    "The quiet of the crisp morning is broken by the sounds of clubs rattling in golf bags as people walk in and out of the clubhouse and down the cart paths toward the first tee, the screeching of carts starting and stopping, the sound of drivers making contact with little white objects followed immediately afterwards by curses and gibing comments from others, and the bellow of the starter's voice over the public announcement system."
    The Golf Rules (Stroke Play)

    Catherine E. McLean
    "Terror seized Darq, waking her, jolting her to sit up, her heart pumping as if the Dujaki's scramble horns blared of an incoming attack."
    Jewels of the Sky

    William Schnorbach
    "Dr. Alberto Moreno sat in Judge Oliveira's courtroom, knowing that he'd walked into an ambush."
    Einstein's Garden

    Stephen Thompson
    "Sydney is one of the few largely intact Victorian cities left in the world."
    Victoriana Sydney 1837 - 1901: A Journey in Photography

    Lissa Dobbs
    "Land's End sat at the edge of the world."
    A Walker is Born (The Chronicles of Ethan Grimley III Book 1) 

     

    Tip of the Day:
    If you're a writer and you have a quote from one of your books that's funny, witty or wise, please share it with the world on Quozimus - the book discoverability tool that gets your book noticed. 

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