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Linda Conrad | First Lines and New Beginnings
July 1, 2010
I just love having a new book on the shelves. Especially when it’s also the
beginning of a brand new series. This series is a bit different for me. When I was young, I had a thing for
stories that might have come straight out of the Arabian Nights. I watched all
the Sinbad and Ali Baba movies and loved the adventure stories where a warrior
hero rode in on a white horse to rescue the independent heroine from an evil
sultan. But then, I also watched I Dream of Jennie on television and loved
their blending of modern with the old fantasy. Wasn’t that series fun? I gave in to my old love of sheiks this year. My new series for Silhouette
Romantic Suspense is called Desert Sons. HER SHEIK PROTECTOR(July
2010) is the first book in the series. It’s a little unconventional as far as
sheik stories go. I think it’s more of an international romantic thriller. The
series revolves around a modern family of Bedouins who find themselves embroiled
in a bitter war of revenge with an ancient enemy. With an old-timey Hollywood
noir feeling, HER SHEIK
PROTECTOR is the story of an independent woman who ends up in the middle of
a dangerous family feud and forced to depend upon a dark stranger she isn’t sure
she can trust. I love it. For authors, writing the beginning of a new novel is a scary time. The first
few lines are so important. Those lines need to convey the emotion of the
entire story to come. In the process of writing every new book, I agonize over
the opening line. This one was no different. Out of desperation, I opened up a
few of the books on my keeper shelf and reread some of the lines that impressed
me from other authors. Here are just a few: Death, with all its cruel beauty, lived in the bayou.
Nora Roberts
Midnight Bayou Seven hundred fifty feet under the Alaskan earth the air was dank, the shaft
black as pitch.
Loreth Anne
White Cold Case Affair A gecko, low slung, forked feet flying, skittered across the sill of an open
window, hauling ass as if it actually had somewhere to go.
Cindy Gerard
Take No Prisoners The wild child of Parrish, Mississippi, had come back to the town she’d left
behind forever.
Susan Elizabeth
Phillips
Ain’t She Sweet?
Here are the opening lines of HER SHEIK PROTECTOR: Running late.
Rylie Hunt knew it was her own danged fault she wouldn’t be on time for the
presentation. She’d foolishly told her father she wasn’t coming at all and then
stormed off in a huff. Oh, Lordy, how would she ever make it up to him?
Linda Conrad
© 2010
Her Sheik Protector
Permission to reproduce text by Harlequin Books ,SA So, do you have any favorite first lines? Hint: open up one of the books on
your keeper shelf and check out the first line. I did. It was fun. I’d love
to read yours. Linda Conrad
Don’t forget to drop by Linda’s website, to read an excerpt from HER SHEIK PROTECTOR, find out
more Behind the Book about the Desert Sons and to sign up for Linda’s newsletter and
contest!
Comments
12 comments posted.
Re: Linda Conrad | First Lines and New Beginnings
I'm going to sign up for your newsletter...
(Brandy Blake 1:46pm July 1, 2010)
Cool, Brandy. We have lots of fun and everyone helps me out with opinions and games. Pleased to have you.
(Linda Conrad 2:42pm July 1, 2010)
When I get home, I'll check out some first lines. Usually it's a good idea to have some action in the first line or paragraph to draw the reader in.
(Alyson Widen 8:04pm July 1, 2010)
The first lines are so important! I give my books out once I read them, especially if they are good! Don't have any fabulous ones laying around to grab a first line from.
(Brenda Rupp 8:53pm July 1, 2010)
Of the books I can reach on my keeper shelf (it's overflowing, as I suspect every dedicated reader's is!), none of the first lines grab me as well as the Cindy Gerrard one you pulled. The mental visuals of that one are just fantastic!!
Later,
Lynn
(Lynn Rettig 10:02pm July 1, 2010)
Unfortunately, I can't give you an opening line from a book. All of my books are neatly packed in boxes. I'm living in a small apartment, and desperately trying to find a barrister's bookcase to put my treasures in!! I grew up watching I Dream of Jeannie as well, and I'm sure I'll enjoy reading your book very much!! Not only does it sound like it's off the beaten path, but it goes to distant shores that authors don't normally go to. I think you went beyond a comfort zone to write it, and I commend you for it.
(Peggy Roberson 10:27pm July 1, 2010)
A classic Dickens: David Copperfield - "I am born." Brilliant. Simple but bold.
(Mary Preston 11:35pm July 1, 2010)
I have two books just beside my computer at present, so checked the first lines in them:
Ivan Rasmussen looked at his world as if he were the Almighty himself... Some Girls Do, Leanne Banks (Definitely a keeper book.)
The woman known as Margaret to her fellow volunteers at the animal shelter stepped out of her ex-housekeeper Gerty's serviceable sedan in the shelter's caliche parking lot...Extreme Caution, Jean Brashear (Haven't had a chance to read this one yet.)
And from the book I am currently reading:
Kitty Biedermann hated Texas...Affair With the Rebel Heiress, Emily McKay (That first sentence certainly caught this Texan's eye and the book is proving very interesting, too.)
(Gladys Paradowski 11:47pm July 1, 2010)
First lines really do help set a story up.
Julie Garwood is an author who has
great first lines in her books.
"They meant to kill him." Honor's
Slendour
"But for the gerace of God and an
untied shoelace, she would have died
with the others that day." Come The
Spring
"Bad things always happen during the
night." Ransom
"Donald MacAlister didn't die easy."
The Wedding
(Patricia Barraclough 8:40am July 2, 2010)
I Broke My Left Ankle and can't get to my books - I Loved Babara Eden as Jeanie.
(Audra Holtwick 10:48am July 2, 2010)
Since I don't have the book available, I can't quote one of the first opening sentences that really alerted me to their importance and impact. It was in one of Jayne Ann Krentz's Stephanie James Silhouette Desire books and went something like this.
"She looked down on the soldiers and cannons lined up under Napoleon's command pointing toward the enemy forces of the Duke of Wellington."
It was a memorable sentence in a supposedly contemporary story and made me think, "Huh? What's this all about? I thought this was a contemporary not historical romance." A great opening and very attention-grabbing. She wrote many similar ones to get the reader immediately involved in her story.
NB: Any resemblance of this sentence to the actual one is mostly coincidental.
(Sigrun Schulz 4:54am July 3, 2010)
Hi Linda--An opening line I always remember is from Tami Hoag's Dark Paradise--(I'm quoting from memory)"It started out as a bad hair day and went downhill from there." I also like that first line from Midnight Bayou. Good luck with the new series!
(Mary Perry 11:08am July 4, 2010)
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