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What’s Your Line?

By Sheri Fredricks

A huge thank you to Krista for giving me her blog for the day! I’m sure she’s cringing, so I’ll start right in.

The opening line in a book can really draw the reader in. Some would say it’s a make-it or break-it moment. I looked to see what the opening lines were in my favorite books. Some were action, a few were dialogue. All of them were unique.

I thought today I would post the opening lines from Portals of Oz, my mythic romance that releases on July 13^th.

 

***

Abelia walked close to the shop walls as she peered into windows and gazed at the street traffic. Humans lived a much different life than Wood Nymphs in the Boronda Forest. Everyone here was in such a hurry.

 

Curiosity brought Abelia to town. Patience, the Remedy Maker’s wife, had stuffed her head with the exciting goings-on in the small town of Willow Bay.

She jumped when an old truck blared its horn at a car that waited too long at a green light. Dogs barked while chasing laughing children in the park across the street. Above it all, the delicious aroma of fried foods beckoned with tantalizing promises of a delicious meal.

 

In the corner of the park, under the shade of an enormous sweetgum tree, a plant peddler set up shop with a folding table, and displays of bonsai trees in small decorative pots. Abelia longed to leave the security of the shop walls and venture across the street. But then she would be out in the open, vulnerable.

Alone.

***

Portals of Oz is one of my books that revolve around mythic inhabitants in the modern day Boronda Forest. Here's a little blurb that best describes the story:

Abelia, a Boronda Forest Wood Nymph, came to Willow Bay to satisfy her curiosity of human life, and got more than she bargained for.

Jack can't wait to leave Pennsylvania and return to his archeological work in Australia, where life is filled with dingos and roos.

Human hunters stalk the enthralling Abelia, and Jack comes to her rescue by creating a ruse of helping her choose a bonsai from a street vendor. The hunters back off, but she suddenly vanishes, and he's left confused as he returns to his home in the Outback.

When Abelia magically appears in Jack's kitchen, she must divulge who and what she really is, and risk the mythic people's secret for his help in returning to Boronda. Thrown together, they must fight off thieves set on stealing Jack's antiquities...and he must discover how to convince her to stay.

 

What do you think makes a great story opener? Is anything you prefer not to see?

Thanks for stopping by.

Sheri