Tuesday, June 05, 2007

But, wait! There's more . . .

As promised, this post is about another contest going on right now.

Samhain, the e-publisher I mentioned in conjunction with Kensington yesterday, is also running a contest. For the best first line.

You can go here to read the rules.

So, why would you enter this contest? It could be your foot in the door to this writing business. Right now, Samhain--after only eighteen months in business--is one of the most respected electronic publishers. They represent all genres so you don't have to be a romance writer to be published there.

And it's fun. Go over to the site and read some of the first lines. You can pretty quickly separate the wheat from the chaff. One of my critique partners pointed out that the better lines are the ones that do not try to do too much all at once.

I'm a sucker for humor and for the unexpected so these are some of my favorite first lines from the first ninety entries:

#5: Aneirin saved my life the day I met him, and saved it twice again before he finally killed me.

#12: “How the hell am I gonna explain a dead body in the middle of my lawn?”

#32: When the nightclub owner grabbed my butt for the fifth time, I turned him into a toad and walked out of the smoky, dingy club.

#40: “The dog shoplifts.”

#65: I wouldn’t have seen the flyer if the mailbox hadn’t been on fire.

#72: Except for being dead, he looked like every other tall, dark and drunk guy in the bar.

What have you got to lose? Post your first line.

5 comments:

B.E. Sanderson said...

I'm number 39. ;o)

It's not exactly the zippiest, but it works for me. I'm with you, the best are the ones that keep it simple and catch me with a twist. The competition is stiff on this contest.

Maya Reynolds said...

Hey, B.E.: I'm #101 :)

The really interesting thing will be to see how the votes shift as the second, third, fourth and fifth lines are posted.

Good luck.

Maya Reynolds said...

B.E.: You're now #38 and I'm now #100. Someone must have dropped out.

B.E. Sanderson said...

Thanks Maya, I would have missed that. I've been scrolling down to where I left off and reading from there.

Good luck to you, too. =o)

Maya Reynolds said...

Thanks. So far, I'm enjoying this a lot. I may feel differently next Monday, but that's a long way away.