Presently, I’ve got a challenge running here where you come up with an opening line to a story that hasn’t yet been written. It has attracted quite a few entries so far, as you’ll note.

I do love the topic of opening lines — on one hand, they’re important in that they’re the first impression a reader gets when opening your book. On the other hand, it’s easy to make too much hay of them: an opening sentence is perhaps less important than an opening page or chapter.

Just the same, let’s assume they’re of some importance.

If you’re comfortable doing so, drop an opening line (i.e. first sentence) from a current (or already written) WIP into the comments below. Then feel free to jump in and talk about the opening lines of others. Do a little quid pro quo critiquing. Also feel free to discuss what makes a good opening line, or what some great and memorable opening lines were from books you loved.

What works? What doesn’t?

See you in the comments, word-nerds.

What?

I dunno, shut up.

So, Storium is less than a week into its Kickstarter campaign.

It was successfully funded in 24 hours.

It has already reached stretch goals.

And now I’m the next stretch goal.

What’s that mean? Well, it means that if the campaign gets to $43,000, it unlocks a campaign based on my short story, “The Auction,” found in my collection, Irregular Creatures. (Which, I’ll note shamelessly, is a mere $0.99.) The story takes place in a farm-style auction where a whole lot more than cows and tractors are on display: there you can buy haunted cars, lunatic machines, mermaids, magical victuals…

Game designer and good friend Will Hindmarch is adapting the work to Storium, and I couldn’t be more excited. Will’s a bonafide bad-ass when it comes to writing and I’m proud to have him making this a reality.

Consider bidding, wontcha?

Remember, you get beta access soon as you jump in…

Other Gravy-Soaked News Nuggets

In just a couple-few hours I leave for Erie, where I’ll head off to Penn State to visit classes and give a talk about diversity and diversification in writing and publishing. Part of the reason for this trip is that they are teaching Blackbirds there (!) as part of a women’s lit / female superheroes class. Which is like, whoa, dang. I’m pretty geeked about that.

However, my primary talk on Monday night is open to the public: details here.

Blightborn Preorder (Or, “Cornpunk, Baby”)

A poke-poke-prod reminder that the second Heartland book, Blightborn, is now up for pre-order. A mere $3.99 not only gets you the pre-order, but also gets you a Gwennie short story (“The Wind Has Teeth Tonight”) set before Under the Empyrean Sky.

The book:

Cael McAvoy is on the run. He’s heading toward the Empyrean to rescue his sister, Merelda, and to find Gwennie before she’s lost to Cael forever. With his pals, Lane and Rigo, Cael journeys across the Heartland to catch a ride into the sky. But with Boyland and others after them, Cael and his friends won’t make it through unchanged.

Gwennie’s living the life of a Lottery winner, but it’s not what she expected. Separated from her family, Gwennie makes a bold move—one that catches the attention of the Empyrean and changes the course of an Empyrean man’s life.

The crew from Boxelder aren’t the only folks willing to sacrifice everything to see the Empyrean fall. The question is: Can the others be trusted?

They’d all better hurry. Because the Empyrean has plans that could ensure that the Heartland neverfights back again.

Pre-order here!

And, if you haven’t tried the first book, it too is just $3.99 right here.

Last week’s challenge: Life Is Hell.

I love this challenge because it always generates some interesting results.

It’s easy in concept, difficult in execution:

Come up with a great opening line.

That’s it.

Take that line, and drop it into the comments below.

BUT WAIT.

As they say, THERE’S MORE.

This opening line must be one sentence long — no more than that. Anything longer and I will publicly laugh at your inability to stick to the barest-of-bones submission guidelines.

I’d suggest avoiding some very cliched openings — previous challenges have yielded three overwrought motifs in this particular challenge, those three being:

Blood.

A gun.

Someone about to die / someone already dead (future corpse / current corpse).

So, maybe avoid those things unless you really think you can nail it.

The trick to writing a great opening line is keeping it brief, and yet at the same time suggesting a great deal of potential — an opening line is equal parts promise and fish-hook stuck in the reader’s brain-meats. It should make us want to read the rest of the story. Or, even better, make us as writers want to write the rest of that story (and par usual, that will be the nature of next Friday’s challenge). Nailing the opening line is a Samurai move — it’s delivering a single sword blow to end the match.

There will be a prize.

I’ll pick three that I love. And those three will get the first as-yet-unreleased e-book copies of my newest writing book, 500 Ways To Write Harder. You’ll get the book in PDF, ePub, and Kindle formats, all DRM-free because, really, fuck DRM right in its digital sphincter.

You have one week to get your lines in the door. Due firmly by noon EST on April 18th. I will then pick winners over the next week thereafter. You are allowed one entry, no more. Additional entries disqualify you.

So.

One opening line.

Make it sharp.

Win a book.

Drop it in the comments.

Cass Weatherfield’s powers come with a deadly price.

Cass knows it was her telekinetic gift that killed a college classmate five years back, even if no one else believes her. She’s lived in hiding from her fellow shadowminds ever since, plagued by guilt and suppressing her abilities with sedatives. Until the night her past walks back into her life in the form of sexy Shane Tanner, the ex-boyfriend who trained her…and the one she left without saying goodbye.

When Shane tells her that his twin sister, Mina—Cass’s childhood friend—is missing, Cass vows to help, which means returning to New Orleans to use her dangerous skills in the search. But finding Mina only leads to darker questions. As Cass and Shane race to learn who is targeting shadowminds, they find themselves drawn to each other, body and soul. Just as their powerful intimacy reignites, events take a terrifying turn, and Cass realizes that to save the people she loves, she must embrace the powers that ruined her life.

* * *

1. You can fit a body in the back of a ’69 Camaro.

I had my doubts about this, but it turns out to be possible. It’s one of the many fascinating trivia items Google has taught me. I also know the best way to survive a gunshot wound to the chest and how long it takes to get from Biloxi to New Orleans driving ninety-five miles per hour. Writers: Mad, bad and dangerous to know.

2. I write paranormal fiction.

Technically, I discovered this while writing my previous novel, The Vampire Pseudo-Romance That Shall Not Be Published, but Twisted Miracles was the book where I owned it. I’d heard other writers say they didn’t get to pick what they wrote, but when I opened that blank Word file and started Twisted, I finally understood what they meant. When you’re writing what you’re supposed to write, you feel more like a conduit than a creator. This was the book where I finally stopped laboring to craft a Sweeping Southern Family Saga and instead let my subconscious do the walking. When a telekinetic New Orleans B&B owner showed up, instead of trying to kick him out, I was like, Cool. Can you invite some friends?

3. Paranormal fiction is awesome.

I’m glad I figured out #2, because letting my subconscious do the walking led me to some freaky and fascinating places. I was writing about all the themes and tensions that have always bothered and fascinated me—how your family shapes your destiny, the complicated culture of my home state, whether we have a responsibility to use our gifts. Only, this time there were a bunch of telekinetics and supernatural healers doing the talking, and the questions of what family is, what home is, what our gifts are—they came into much sharper relief. I was able to make those issues larger than life, so big that I could finally see them, tackle them, take them down. Start to understand them.

Writing paranormal fiction let me play in a way no other form has. I could take all the troubling intangibles that were puzzling me and give them a physical avatar in my fictional world. I made them real.

4. Not everyone agrees with #3

Paranormal fiction does some amazing things. It entertains, sure, but it can also tackle thorny problems symbolically. It’s an oblique hit, and it can be all the more brilliant for it. But not everyone agrees that paranormal fiction—or really, any genre fiction—is worth reading. Here’s a sample of replies I got when I told some of the non-writerly folks in my life what I’m writing:

“Oh, so you’re writing those books.”

“Well, but, I’m sure you write strong women, right?” (This in response to the news that Harlequin is my publisher.)

“Maybe you just need to get some practice before you write something serious.”

Sigh. What can I say? Except:

5. You can fit a body in the back of a ’02 Corolla, too.

Just kidding.

* * *

A.J. Larrieu grew up in small-town Louisiana, where she spent her summers working in her family’s bakery, exploring the swamps around her home and reading science fiction and fantasy novels under the covers. She attended Louisiana State University, where she majored in biochemistry and wrote bad poetry on the side. Despite pursuing a Ph.D. in biology, she couldn’t kick the writing habit, and she wrote her first novel in graduate school. It wasn’t very good, but she kept at it, and by the time she graduated, she had an addiction to writing sexy urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Her second novel, Twisted Miracles, was a finalist in RWA’s Golden Heart® competition in 2012. The book kicks off her dark, romantic urban fantasy series, The Shadowminds, which follows a group of humans with psychic powers through New Orleans’ supernatural underworld. A.J. is currently a working biophysicist in San Francisco, where she lives with her family and too many books.

A.J. Larrieu: Website | Twitter

Twisted Miracles: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks

I came here to sell you a book.

I mean, there’s no point in beating around the bush, is there? Actually, it’s worse than that. I’m here to sell you three novels, because what I have in hand is the last book of a trilogy.

Steles of the Sky is the third book in the Eternal Sky trilogy.

It is preceded by Range of Ghosts and Shattered Pillars.

These three books are the story of Re Temur and Samarkar, a younger grandson of a dead Khagan and a Wizard who has sacrificed everything–family, social standing, the hope of children–for a chance to be her own person. Allied with (among others) a laconic tiger-woman warrior, a martial monk sworn to silence, a doughty young woman of the horse tribes, an elderly engineer, a deposed Caliph, more academics than you can shake a stick at, and one very smart horse, these two race to contain the plots of a necromancer who uses vile, ancient sorcery to raise armies of blood ghosts, control giant raptors, and destabilize Imperial currencies.

Megafauna! Explosions! Economics! Twisted magics relict of poisonous ancient regimes! Absolutely no prophecies!

While I am admittedly biased, I think it’s pretty awesome. And the whole thing is published now, so this is a great time to binge-read the whole sprawling thing!

And thereby hangs the other part of the tale.

You see, a couple of years ago, I made an ill-considered boast.

I told a bunch of my writer friends — and possibly the entire internets — that I could write an epic fantasy series and deliver it on time, on word count, and in the agreed-upon number of volumes. (Three, in case you were wondering.)

Alcohol was not actually involved. But probably should have been.

If you write or read epic fantasy, you are now laughing at me. This was the considered equivalent of Babe Ruth pointing to the flagpole in center field.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQlvaiDNBMQ

I very nearly did it, too.

The story is complete. It’s in three volumes. They were all delivered and published on time.

The third one ran a bit long.

Okay, a hundred pages.

More words for you!

And now all my writer friends think I’m an asshole.

* * *

Elizabeth Bear is an awesome human being and one helluva writer. One of my favorite things written is by E-Bear — “Shoggoths In Bloom.” (Read that story right here.) I’ve also read Range of Ghosts and it’s jaw-dropping stuff. Amazing prose and intimate in its epicness, and she has now reminded me that I can read the next two in the series.

Elizabeth Bear: Website | Twitter

Steles of the Sky: Amazon | B&N | Indiebound

Today, I wrote 5,000 words.

And I finished The Hellsblood Bride. Not quite 100k.

Which is, of course, the sequel to The Blue Blazes.

The adventures of Mookie Pearl and his daughter, Nora, continue hard-charging through the Great Below — the Hell beneath our feet. With that being said, seems like high-time for a cover reveal…

TA-DA.

Joey-Hi again, baby.

You will, of course, note lots of little details — all relevant to the plot, because Joey Hi-Fi is a mad monster at rocking these covers and making them relevant to the story.

Hope you dig it.

And check out Blue Blazes if you wanna see where this all begins…