The First Line

[Jude Hardin]

You know it's going to be an interesting morning when the first person who walks through the door of your brand new downtown office is a 350-pound man named Precious.

People sometimes ask, "How do you write a whole book?"

My answer? One word at a time. It's the only way.

And so private investigator Nicholas Colt begins a new adventure. I don't outline, so I'm not exactly sure how it's going to go. See, that way it's an adventure for me as well.

Let's hear some of your favorite first lines from books published in 2008-2009. Or, from your own works in progress.

[Grant McKenzie]

Here's the opening line to SWITCH, which comes out in the UK in July.

Rick Ironwood staggered back from the blow, his trick knee giving out with a pop as his feet twisted sideways in a puddle of grimy engine oil.

[Richard Kunzmann]

That's a pretty funny first line. My all time favourite opener is something like "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." It's not a 2008-2009 novel, but Stephen King's intro to the Gunslinger has stuck with me ever since I read it as a little kid, and I think about it's simplicity every time I look at my own.

[Shaun Jeffrey]

People are predictable. That's what makes them easy to kill. - The first line of my recently published novel, The Kult.