If you’re a writer, you’ve likely heard it many times: your first sentence can make or break your piece. The classic example of a powerful first sentence are the first words in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick: “Call me Ishmael.”
I recently read a new story by Meg Tuite, who is the author of Domestic Apparition and many published stories, and who also serves as the fiction editor of The Santa Fe Literary Review and Connotation Press: An Online Artifact. Meg and I connected through Facebook, and she is as lively, piercing, and generous as her work. Her new story is titled “Seduction”, and this is the first sentence:
“She decided she would disturb his plan to seduce her by jumping off the roof.”
Meg, you inspire me!
A couple of other notes from writer friends and Facebook friends:
Friend Linda Wertheimer Mintz, the former Education Editor for the Boston Globe, recently won third place in a creative nonfiction writing contest sponsored by Moment Magazine. You can read Linda’s poignant piece, “Concerto of Words: Ostracism, Music and Faith” online, along with the other winning entries. Linda’s piece relates the loneliness of a Jewish child growing up in a non-Jewish community in the mid-west and mirrors, in certain ways, some of the experiences I had as a child in upstate New York.
Clifford Garstang, editor of Prime Number Magazine and author of the award-winning linked short story collection, In an Uncharted Country (Press 53, 2009) recently placed a new story in Bellevue Literary Review. Congratulations, Cliff! I look forward to reading it.
Writer/teacher Chris Daly maintains a wonderful blog called The Better Editor that focuses on the ins and outs (and ups and downs) of grammar. Chris holds an MFA from the Stone Coast Low Residency Writing Program and has been teaching Expository Writing at Framingham State University. His blog is both enjoyable and informative.
Congratulations to all, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks for the link to the authors and blogs. Really like The Better Editor. I did not know about skunked words until I read his recent post. Fascinating for anyone who loves words.