The first page sells the book. The last page sells your next book. --- Frank Morrison (Mickey) Spillane. A few years ago I wrote a small book about opening lines to great novels. It is still available on Amazon Kindle books. One review pointed out that my first book (One-Hundred Opening Lines To Great Novels) was fun to read "but seemed somewhat incomplete." I can say that the first book was not everything I wanted it to be. So this is the result I wanted to expand on the basic idea I had for the first book and make this book more appealing with more information and exciting material. What do you do after looking at the front cover, the back cover, or a random page of a book? I like to read the opening chapter, and I'm guessing that is what most people do. I will admit, but I don't have any empirical evidence to back this up any more than I can imagine that some people read the last chapter of a book to find out how it ends. I briefly considered writing a book based on how it ends, for obvious reasons, I abandoned the idea. The author of any book must capture your attention with the opening chapter and make you want to discover what happens next. When I considered writing another book about the opening lines to books I wanted to add more about the plot, authors and more books by a particular author and interesting quotes either from the author themselves or one of the characters in their written work. But you know what they say about quotes? People who like quotations love meaningless generalizations. You'll read about one of the first authors to write about a modern detective. Moreover, that's not Dashelle Hammett. A large section of the book is devoted to mystery, thriller, crime, and detective fiction. You will also read about science fiction, fantasy, and classic and beloved stories and read about authors Carroll John Daly, Cornell Woolrich, David Goodis, Erle Stanley Gardner, Mark Twain, George V. Higgins. It is possible that you have never heard of these authors, but they are still very readable today. Reading about these authors you will find some beautiful works from writers you may not be acquainted with and lesser-known works from authors you know well. You'll read about J.D. Salinger, William Faulkner, Robert B. Parker, John Le Carre, George Orwell, Thomas Pynchon, Vladimir Nabokov, James Joyce, More. I have a fondness for crime writers so... to give you an idea of the contents of the book...Here is a short piece from author Jonathan Latimer from his book Solomon's Vineyard: "I like big men," she said. Her voice was raspy like she had a cold. She came up to me and grabbed my arm. Her fingers hurt the muscles. I could smell her perfume. She came close to me. I thought I knew what she wanted. I tried to kiss her. She jerked away."No." I'm sorry."She slapped me. She was strong, my cheek stung. She moved in, swinging both arms. Now she had her fists closed. She hit my arms and my chest. I tried to hold her."Hit me " she said. It was goddam queer. I held her arms, but she got loose. How's that for incorrect social interaction in today's world? This novel was written in 1941 and caused such a sensation in the U.S. with its depiction of murder, violence, perverse sexuality and twisted religion that it was not published in America until 1988, more than forty years after its first release in Britain. Now you can read this book, Novel Beginnings, straight through, or pick it up at any point you want. Enjoy it and discover a book you are not familiar with by a favorite author and read the plot description ( I promise that I have not revealed any spoilers) or find an author you have not encountered before and will be inspired to learn their work.
