Does Writing Openings Paralyze You?

My Book Review [aka Comments]:

Okay, I know about the importance of a book's opening sentence, paragraph and chapters.  They perform the important hooking function of luring the reader deeper into the book, but oh, is it sweatful.  That and the cover and book blurb are major selling points when you look at a book on the rack.  Yeah, Nora Roberts' The Search hooked me with the first chapter and the  blurb about rescue dogs.  I picked it up because rescue dogs interest me even though I'm a cat person. In short, Roberts lured me out of my reading zone.

Then, reality set in.  The book's almost 500 words long, long enough to be a pain in the butt if you try to read it in less than a week.  But, that wasn't the reason I found myself skimming the book half-way through.  I felt the thriller [suspense novel ?] got bogged down in the detail.  

Still, there's a lot to like, especially if you're a romance reader. [I'm not.]  Still, I liked Roberts lip-lock scenes in this book.  They weren't all sugary and weak-kneed but kept a fair amount of heat between two interesting adults.  If you want to read a book about a survivor,  The Search will give you a good read ... provided you are trying to kill lots of free time.  I'll even grant that you might like to read romances.

Bonus Review:

Sins Out of School  [a Dorothy Martin mystery] by Jeanne M. Dams ... starts with the premise: what can go wrong when a teacher takes on a substitute assignment. [We'll pause while teachers shudder.]  In this case, it's a murder. The book is a nice, if somewhat predictable, cozy mystery about an sleuth who's an American living in Britain.  Again, I guess my definition of fantasy stretches to this book since I can't quite accept that such places ever existed except in never-never Britain.

Lessons in My Reading:

Slow but sure does it.  Still haven't done much on the book review front, but I did discover a blog about the Five Best Ebook Stores at Lifehacker. In short, the places where your ebook should be.  They list these ebook stores: Google ebooks, Project Gutenberg, Kobo, B&N Nook, and Amazon Kindle.  WolfSinger Press took care of the Kobo, B&N, and Amazon for Taking Vengeance. 

Ugh.  I have more research to do for Cavern Between Worlds since I self-published it.  It's up on Smashwords which includes Kobo.  The rest will have to wait until I start charging for the book in August.  [Just like that, there's another item added to my to-do list.] --  One bit of information for self-publishers:  you can set your book up for Pub It [B&N] and Kindle [Amazon] on Smashwords.

Yeah, the book review requests keep going to the back burner, mostly because I'm really concentrating on writing new stuff so I can publish something else, maybe.  I'm trying write more pointed scenes in the draft rather have my characters drift around in an interesting situation. Found Kathryn Craft's blog about Critique Speak at the Blood Red Pencil quite pertinent.  The goal is to present sharp, crisp scenes that intrigue my critiquers the first time around.

There's another reason for the slowness in the review process -- time.  Finding places to submit your review means you have to read several possibilities to make sure they review your genre.  Then, there's no guarantee you'll get reviewed once you get added to their queue.  Still, I image much of my not-so-free time on the web will be spent going through my lists.  The two best lists I've found stress indie books:  Simon Royke's the Indie Book Reviewer and the Reviewer List.  I'm hoping for two reviews from 100 cold calls.

Trivia:

Okay, in spite of complaining about how busy I am, we're going to see the last Harry Potter.  I expect a grand spectacle after a nice lunch.  No, I'm not all sad that Harry Potter's ending.  I enjoyed reading the books, but often the movies did a better job telling a story.  

My recommendation:  all writers should read to marvel at the world J. K. Rowling created.  Her writing would make an anthropologist proud.

Back to YA

The Read:  I was going to finish Tamora Pierce's Beka Cooper: Terrior, a Tortall Legend, a YA fantasy with a double murder mystery, last night.   I watched the figure skating finals at the Olympics in spite of the commercials.  Yes, the skaters made me dizzy just watching them.  Skating wouldn't make me dizzy because I'd be flat on my arse on the ice.  --  Not a pleasant thought.  Hopefully, I'm not so far out of my league with my writing.

Pierce comes up with some interesting fantasy elements as Beka does her on-the-job training to become a cop (essentially), but is called a "puppy" as her "dogs" train her.  Beka has limited magical powers -- hearing the last thoughts of the dead via pigeons and dust devils -- and a lot of perseverance.  She even displays some character realistic weaknesses.  Shyness, anyone?

Oh, Beka's alienated from her surviving family but has a magical cat who talks and works magic.  (Mine just wiggles and does the usual cat things.)

The society is medieval without being a cliche and has a well developed under culture (criminal element drawn out of poverty).  The dogs know one murder culprit but can't find the bodies, and for the other one, they have the bodies (and survivors) without the culprit.  I still have some 100 pages of the book (out of 500+) to go and am looking forward to seeing how Pierce ties it all up.

I'm fairly sure I've read Tamora Pierce before but can't remember the books.  She joins Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson series) and Victoria Hanley (Violet Wings) among my favorites.  I'd mention J. K. Rowling, but I'm waiting to see if she'll ever write something besides Harry Potter.  (Yeah, Potter's world is great, but ... )

Progress:  Emma.  Am going to swat my hand if I even think of changing something in the manuscript unless an agent or publisher tells me.  My changes from italics to underlines are long done, but I keep dinking ... probably to no purpose.  I manage to keep my hands off Britt and company.  Why not Emma?  --  Hope it's because it's the newest.

Maren.  Have the the first chapter going -- even a segment (only three pages) polished enough to submit for a critique class (by Victoria Hanley) on Saturday.  I expect to get blasted for the construction.  A back story scene (I guess you could call it a prologue but it's only three paragraphs and a bit of dialog.)  A secondary character's comments on the headlines of the blast that Maren caused when she entered our world.  Then, I get around to starting the story about what should be done with Maren.

Trivia:  Got my bit of porn for this morning.  Two morning doves were mating in the Catalpa outside my kitchen window.  Can spring be far behind?   Or, do I have to wait for the squirrels to go squirrelly?