Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion
Share your first three sentences...
From Atlantis On the Shores of ForeverShe ran. Deeper, deeper into the mysterious Broceliande forest she went. Panic surged through her veins, holding her fatigue at bay.
From Gold Shadow“You are no one. No one at all. And for that reason, you exist only to serve those in power. Never for yourself.”
Sorry, I know this is four sentences, but it was in the same dialogue.
Missing at Sea, Book 2 in the Anna Davies Mystery Series:I was so excited! The ship was pulling out of Sydney and I was off on my first cruise! I took the glass of champagne which the waiter offered to me and clinked glasses with Sandra - the perfect start to this much anticipated holiday.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
From Service of the Heir, the third in my Murray of Letho crime series set in Georgian Scotland:It would have been better if the ferrets had not disappeared at the same time.
Well, not better, exactly, but not quite as bad.
Well, not disappeared exactly, but they certainly made themselves difficult to catch.
From my next novel, The Rocheville Devil:The first time it happened was at Melissa’s visitation.
Tom remembered standing there greeting people, in-laws to his left, Melissa silent and beautiful to his right, mourners in line, handshakes, condolences, veiled mini-sermons, one of her sexless distant cousins with the self-righteous nerve to say it was a blessing for Melissa to be out of that lifestyle. And her mother too embarrassed, too self-effacing to point out that she’d been out of the lifestyle for a while, her father still too numb, Tom too intent on getting it over with: Let them say what they want and move on.
From: Miss Gemquist and the Pearl of PekingThe Honourable, Miss Loralai Rosaleen Elizabeth Gemquist, or Coppercurl as her brother Nathaniel affectionately called her due to her mass of fiery red hair so tightly curled it resembled springs, thought it rather cliché to be riding in a steamcoach in the middle of a storm, at night, on her way to meet a mysterious stranger. Yet, nonetheless, here she was trussed up in an overly restrictive corset, sitting in the manor's steamcoach, and gathering her cloak around herself to fend off London's bone-chilling dampness all on account of an anonymous note she'd found half hidden under one of the statues at the gate of her family's manor. The hasty scrawl of the note marred the otherwise eloquent script, but had relayed a sense of urgency since the writer hadn't taken the time to pen it more carefully.
From: Dreams Are For Doers: Get Off The Pity Train And Get What You Want
We all have aspirations and goals, desires of things we wish to have and accomplish in our lives, but then, how many of these things do we achieve? How many of us actually get to attain our life goals or reach the heights that we have envisioned for ourselves? It has been said that the richest place on earth is the grave; why?
We all have aspirations and goals, desires of things we wish to have and accomplish in our lives, but then, how many of these things do we achieve? How many of us actually get to attain our life goals or reach the heights that we have envisioned for ourselves? It has been said that the richest place on earth is the grave; why?
From Fire & Ice: The Lost Dreamer, the second installment in my YA fantasy book series:A bright light echoed beyond the emerald valley, stretching over the entire realm of Aisling. The four elements streaked across the Academy grounds, until they collided over the center of the ancient castle. As I closed my eyes against the blinding glow, the ember girl vanished from sight.
https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Ice-Lost-...
Just waiting on my proof now, and I'll have it published to Kindle, Amazon, and Amazon EU. This is a copy of the first 3 sentences of my book, The Grate:
When my eyes opened they had trouble adjusting. The flash of the hand grenade had left me blind, the sound in my ears a little more than disorienting. The issue was not any of these, however.
From my upcoming Detective Larson novel - Hanging Softly in The Night - due out next year.The scent of decaying flesh, human excrement, and hopelessness assailed Detective Nick Larson as he stepped inside the elegant foyer of the Upper East Side brownstone.
Nick's nostrils flared in offense. He gagged.
"They would be all be fools, and they will be tarnished because of what they did to me. From this day on, I vowed to never step inside the human world, considering that I was no longer a human." From the latest novel that I'm working on.
From It All Started"My main memory of the beginning of the apocalypse is that of waking up with a really bitching hangover. The kind of hangover you get when you’ve been drinking to forget what an asshole you’ve been. Drinking is great for justifying the inexcusable."
R.S. Merritt
From my debut novel The Passing
I am running. Lush, overgrown greenery and fallen trees block my path, forcing me to evade and leap over them. Rabbits dart from the underbrush, scattering in opposite directions as I approach, seeking refuge from my invasion of their burrows.
From my upcoming novel The Man Who Lived Twice published in January. My first three sentences are very short so I've cheated and added a fourth.'It was a ridiculous mission. No more than a token gesture. He knew that. To attack a city you couldn't hope to hold was the height of folly, especially when that city was the capital of an ambitious nation of seven million people.'
"Ouch, why are you kicking me?" Cecil had a habit of asking questions to which he already knew the answer. I answered anyway.
Literally the first three sentences from my debut novel, The Truth about Tomorrow:"It was a dull morning on November 8th when Kyle stepped out of the car, and yet the daylight seemed to hurt his eyes. He squinted at the whitish-grey sky and thanked the Garda who had given him a lift home.
He stepped onto the gravel path leading up to the house."
From my second novel, Unsung Odysseys. The opening lines are spoken by Anticleia, the mother of Odysseus:The wound healed, but the scar never did. It etched itself deeply into his skin, causing me to shudder with fear every time I saw it. It was a constant reminder my boy had been inches away from losing his life. He might have been crippled forever had the boar’s tusk hit the bone. Or, worse still, he might have died had my family been unable to stop the bleeding.
From my new novel, The URSUS PERSPECTIVE:The bear’s paws twitched as his sensitive nose detected a faint foreign odor entering the dark cave. Even though still asleep, his black lips pulled back in a silent snarl, exposing the three-inch fangs that could crush the vertebrae of a steer or open a number ten can of peaches with equal ease. In the den above the creek, the big beast was coming out of his long winter’s hibernation.
From a short story I started and may someday finish:They say when you die your whole life flashes before your eyes. But that’s not what happened at all.
(Okay, it’s two sentences. But I like them. 😀)
From In Silence Sealed, 8th in the Sticks Hetrick crime series, coming in February from Torrid Books:Hetrick rounded the bend and spied a man striding across the stubble-field towards him.
The detective pulled off the road and parked. Hetrick knew Clay Stoneroad by reputation, though they’d never met and he had no idea why the writer wanted to meet out here in the country.
Book #1: The white limousine purred down the darkened street. General Chloe Armitage rested on the back seat, watching the houses as she passed by, her extraordinary senses drinking in the world around her.Book #2: (4) General Chloe Armitage ran her fingers through her damp hair. She glanced into the police cruiser’s rear-view mirror. The heavy bruising on the right side of her face had disappeared, her eyes were clear, and she glowed with health. Feasting on a young Boston police officer would do that for a vampire.
Book #3: The engines of the two SUVs idled quietly. Anton Slayne lugged a strong box filled with FN P90 submachine guns and magazines with a mix of high-performance armor piercing and silver ammunition into the back of the rear SUV. Every fifth bullet was silver, a general-purpose magazine load for when you could not be sure what you might be facing.
From my novel Temporal Feedback:Vilosa whimpered as her mother barreled toward her. The fear in Tilloto's eyes, the bristling of her chest mane and tail tufts revealed the level of danger more effectively than any words. In an instant, Tilloto's jaws seized Vilosa by the scruff of her neck.
From There Be Demons, the first in what may be a trilogy if I get the third book written:Demon lord Prince Vetis surged from the soft dirt of the portal. Dim though it was, the greenish sky made his three lidless, reddish eyes contract and water. He stepped under a tree for protection.
From Sacrifices, my most recent short story:The world outside the Garden was both like and unlike the Garden. It was full of green growing things - all of the plants that were in the Garden, save two - and all the birds of the air and all the fish and all creatures that creep or go forth upon the land. The living creatures out in the world all behaved in the same way as they had in the Garden, except for the snake.
From 'Odyssey in a Teacup', Book 1 in the series: ‘Hello, I’m Ruth Roth,’ I said to my bedroom mirror when I was five. I talked to it often, always starting with hello because my generation was brought up with manners ... or effective social conditioning, anyway.
This time, it replied with a bitchy reminder: ‘Yes, but you’re just Ruth. Not Ruth Michelle, nor Ruth Katherine. No middle name; one syllable. Not like Myron.’
Okay, so more than three, but like L.C says, from the same dialogue (inasmuch as you can have a dialogue with a mirror!)
On the eve of his last battle, General Garon Allus Artifex-Dendra lay on his belly upon a mountain ledge. The rock was smooth, the retreat of summer leaving it cold to the touch. ‘What can you see through that thing?’ he murmured.From The General's Legacy, Part One: Inheritance
The door is open.Cesar is in the master bedroom, hovering over the lump that Anna’s body makes deep in the center of the bed. She floats beneath the red-stained sheets like a dreaming fish, a mutilated mermaid.
In Retrospect
From The Sea Child, by Carol Nicolas: If I had known what was about to happen, I would have savored the food more, thanked Grandma for everything she had done for us, and told her I loved her. However, I didn’t know, and so that Saturday morning began just like any other.
Grandma made the best breakfasts – better than the best pancake house in town.
Jonas wrote: "I found this topic at another forum and thought it quite interesting.So, share your first three sentences of your latest work!
My contribution...
The Gloriosa was burning.
And a pirated ship se..."
Oooh! I want to read it. What's the name of the book?
Suilyaniz wrote: "Evil can destroy many things. Love is not one of them. Footsteps echoed on a sidewalk as he moved under the light of a street lamp, one hand hidden in the pocket of his beige coat. https://www.good..."Great beginning! I'm drawn in.
Jaci wrote: "He sat at the old walnut desk, the ancient parchment strewn across its worn and scratched surface. Picking up one of the fragile pages he scanned the words written on its surface, the pitch-black i..."This looks good...
Al wrote: "
Last Train from Earth:“You’re fired!”
I looked up from the report I’d been studying as Eric crashed into the room, a huge, sheathed, br..."
I like this beginning. I want to read more.
Great idea! Here's mine:Sarah pushes the Pintail’s flight stick forward and the aquamarine sky rolls away. Below, the cloud deck is an impossible swirl of cinnamon and gold with pockets of flickering lightning. Thunder rumbles in bursts, its audio out of sync with the light show.
It was barely eight in the morning, and Professor Charles Ainsley Hawthorne was already having a bad day. He'd just watched six billion people live. People who should have died.From Tiamat's Nest:
My first three sentences from _Shift:-------------------------------------
As he did every morning, Rehan Reyyan arrived at his desk at Wired Magazine's New York office early. He liked to get a handle on what projects the writers under him were working on and their progress before they got in so that he could help them make better use of their day or offer support where he thought it might be needed. Plus, it gave him some quiet time alone between the morning chaos of getting two elementary-aged kids up, dressed, fed, and out the door to school and the workday chaos of ringing telephones, occasionally needy staffers, and sometimes unreasonable superiors.
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A small ship came through the atmosphere, landing deep in the barren desert that covered most of Kaldara. The strangers were likely hoping to remain unnoticed, but their hopes were misplaced. The General’s staff notified her immediately. 
Twyla's body jolted when she heard the knock on the door. Her best friend, Janine, walked over and pulled it open, but only a few inches. Then Twyla heard Ralph say, "No, Janine. Secrets
Philanthis, my home, is a dark and dangerous land that despises strangers and objects to those who will not abide by our harsh rules. I have been cursed and my countrymen have forbidden me to stay any longer. I will soon be unable to speak a language that I have come to love for its beauty as well as its intricacy.
“She’s gone,” Virgil Follmer said.“What? Who?”
Virgil’s head shot forward, his face going red as he rose up on the toes of his boots in an effort to appear taller than he actually is. “Dammit, Tilghman,” he bellowed, “open your ears.
The Bartered Body, Milford House Press, March 2018.
Chapter 1 The first time I met TristanI thought he was a conceited, arrogant, womanizing bastard. Too late I realized those were his best qualities.
RARE BLOOD, by Susan Old
Zairesue Books, available on Amazon
Have you ever woken up to the echo of a scream?I don't mean the scream itself, because that had already gone. Died in the mouth, or in the heart and lungs.
DREAMGIRL by Cyan Brodie
"Ouch! Why are you kicking me?" Cecil had a habit of asking questions to which he already knew the answer. I answered anyway.LEVELS , a novel by Jim Vuksic
Well, my first book starts with a letter, which works, but is killer for trying to tell someone your first sentence.My second works better for that. phew!
The massive doors grated in protest as they were pushed open, while hidden eyes watched unblinking. The intruder crumpled into a pile, strength spent. A forgotten fable sniffed at the tattered remnants of humanity dying in the middle of his front hall.
The Unbreakable Curse, by Jenna Thatcher (It's a fairy-tale, not a creepy break-and-enter horror story..... :)
“I’m a writer,” I said in reply to Marjorie’s enquiry - I'm not, but I have done the occasional bit of copywriting. I once did a poster for a friend of mine who has a fruit and veg stall on Chiswick High Road. It said ‘Mangoes Bananas’ next to a picture of a man who clearly had mental health issues.
We need to start again.Constructs like religion, democracy, money, nations, gender stereotypes, may have once served a function, a foundation. Now these complex complexes in our collective unconscious are detrimental to our survival.
The Order of Chaos, free to download until April 25 23:59 Pacific: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Order-Chaos-...
From my "Sunrise & Blood" novel...
"On'risa hated having to come to this place. The stench, debauchery, and lack of discipline of these lowlifes disgusted her. The smell of stale drink and the after effects of too much consumption of them assailed her senses, even through the fa'twee mask she wore. Her adornment mask was necessary for one of her stature."
From my "Reapers of Souls and Magic" novel...
"Daena looked over Tetra’s shoulder, her arms wrapped tightly around her friend’s waist as the two plummeted through the sky. A quiet exclamation of fear escaped her lips while Tetra laughed aloud. It was a beautiful day."
From my upcoming release, "Reapers of Magic and War"...
"Tetra had never imagined that she could be so lonely, but she was. She sighed and drew a deep breath as she looked at the stairs leading up to her room within the Acolytes Hall. Since Lysette had rescued her from Asmordia she was weary from having to struggle to recover after exertion, especially after her lessons of magic."
"On'risa hated having to come to this place. The stench, debauchery, and lack of discipline of these lowlifes disgusted her. The smell of stale drink and the after effects of too much consumption of them assailed her senses, even through the fa'twee mask she wore. Her adornment mask was necessary for one of her stature."
From my "Reapers of Souls and Magic" novel...
"Daena looked over Tetra’s shoulder, her arms wrapped tightly around her friend’s waist as the two plummeted through the sky. A quiet exclamation of fear escaped her lips while Tetra laughed aloud. It was a beautiful day."
From my upcoming release, "Reapers of Magic and War"...
"Tetra had never imagined that she could be so lonely, but she was. She sighed and drew a deep breath as she looked at the stairs leading up to her room within the Acolytes Hall. Since Lysette had rescued her from Asmordia she was weary from having to struggle to recover after exertion, especially after her lessons of magic."
“NO!”I watched, helpless to intervene, as he raised his gun. He fired once, and Millie crumpled to the ground. Turpin turned to face me. “I warned you,” he said. “I promised you’d be sorry.”
The Gold Dragon Caper Available on Kindle Unlimited.
Shortly after my widowed mother moved into a nursing home in 1995, I spent many hours going through my parents papers and relics. I found numerous letters, books, and documents; some were quite old. I came across my mother birth certificate.From my novel "Pygmalion Conspiracy".
Much to the disgust of the Abit and the crew of the Explorer, the crew of the Ark insisted on slowing frequently to speeds at which they could remain unstopped. Most of those times, they talked about what they expected to find when they got back home. Terfer was sure that there would be a Progeny empire and that they would have found ways to enhance other species.
From my sequel "Jeevra's Legacy".
There was no problem landing. There was no trouble stealing documents, food, and written material. There was no security at all.
From the third book of "The Grandchildren of Lemma".
The boy looked across the room at the little girl. At least he thought she was a little girl. Her mother was a woman, even if she looked a bit like a furry animal. The child did sort of look like a little girl, but then she was so covered up it was hard to tell.
From the fourth book of "The Grandchildren of Lemma".
From my free short story Blood Magic (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view..."The sun was almost down so Mara sat up front in the van, next to Lee. It was getting dark earlier these days, which was better for her. For predators."
From my novel Love Lies Bleeding:"Lee threw himself back, barely avoiding being skewered by the jagged knife thrust at his chest. The problem was he ended up throwing himself back into the waiting arms of the second attacker. Those arms wrapped around him and brought a fresh blade, this time against his throat."
Goodreads Authors/Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
A World Other Than Her Own (other topics)Missing in London (other topics)
Chasing Petalouthes (other topics)
Blood Magic (other topics)
Love Lies Bleeding (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
R.S. Merritt (other topics)R.K. Lander (other topics)
Hank Kirton (other topics)
From The Camel and the Scorpion
The top security guard for Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport had been warned of her arrival. He peered through his binoculars from inside the hectic terminal, scrutinizing her every move, oblivious to the deep blue skies that mirrored the nearby Mediterranean Sea.
Her honey-blond hair matched the description.