First Line Friday- Joshua Bellin

Today's First Line Friday Guest is my fellow Fall Fourteener, Joshua David Bellin, author of SURVIVAL COLONY 9.

In a future world of dust and ruin, fourteen-year-old Querry Genn struggles to recover the lost memory that might save the human race.

Querry is a member of Survival Colony Nine, one of the small, roving groups of people who outlived the wars and environmental catastrophes that destroyed the old world. The commander of Survival Colony Nine is his father, Laman Genn, who runs the camp with an iron will. He has to--because heat, dust, and starvation aren't the only threats in this ruined world.

There are also the Skaldi.

Monsters with the ability to infect and mimic human hosts, the Skaldi appeared on the planet shortly after the wars of destruction. No one knows where they came from or what they are. But if they're not stopped, it might mean the end of humanity.

Six months ago, Querry had an encounter with the Skaldi--and now he can't remember anything that happened before then. If he can recall his past, he might be able to find the key to defeat the Skaldi.

If he can't, he's their next victim

So let's get started!

What are the opening lines of your book?

Survival Colony Nine starts with a single word of dialogue, the name of my main character: “Querry.” The word is spoken by Querry’s father as he wakes his son in the middle of the night during an attack on their camp. Here’s a little bit more:

“Querry.”

My dad’s voice in the dark.

“Son.  Come on.  Time to get moving.”

His hand on my shoulder, shaking me from sleep.

“Querry.  On your feet.  Now.”

I opened my eyes to more darkness and my dad’s shadowy shape filling the tent.  I couldn’t make out his face, but I could hear his quiet breath.  There was no urgency in his voice, there never was, but I knew this was for real.

Were these lines set from the first draft? And if not, how many times do you think you've changed them?

You’d think that with a single word, nothing would have changed, right? Wrong! I never changed the idea of using a single word of dialogue to open the book, and the lines that follow that word remained almost exactly the same from first draft to final version. But the word itself changed many times. In the first draft, the word was “Son.” In a later draft, the word was “Hey.” Before I’d fully established the characters, their speech patterns, and the way they related to each other, I even experimented with “Boy.” But in the end, I decided the main character’s name was the right choice.

Why do you think this opening is perfect for your novel?

A couple reasons. First, Querry is an amnesiac, so I wanted to open the novel abruptly, in a disorienting way, with the reader knowing no more about what’s going on than he does. But also, for reasons I can’t delve into without giving away major surprises, it’s important that the first word in the book is Querry’s name. And that’s all I’m going to say about that!

Give us your favorite opening line(s) from a favorite book, and tell us why you love them:

Can I give two? My first would have to be from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” I love the rhythm of the language, and also how this line sets up so many questions: “What’s a hobbit? Why do they live in holes? What’s interesting or special about this particular hobbit?” I also love the opening line from Roger Zelazny’s sci-fi/fantasy novel Nine Princes in Amber: “It was starting to end, after what seemed most of eternity to me.” I love the mystery (What’s “it”? Why is “it” starting to end?), and I also love how this line throws the reader right into the narrator’s experience. Zelazny’s narrator is an amnesiac too, and we’re immediately as confused as he is. Who knows--maybe that’s where I got the idea for the opening lines of my book!

Love it! 

SURVIVAL COLONY 9 is out September 23!!

Be sure to ADD it on Goodreads and PREORDER your copy now!

First Line Fridays: Kate Hannigan

Welcome back to first line Friday!

Each Friday, I invite a guest author to share the opening line from his or her upcoming release and a favorite book. I was out of town, and didn't manage to get last week's up in time, so you get two this week!

Today's guest is Kate Hannigan, debut author of CUPCAKE COUSINS, coming May 13 from Disney-Hyperion.

Children's author Kate Hannigan writes middle-grade fiction and non-fiction books. She also interviews other writers for young readers on her blog, Author Of. 

Look for Kate's first historical fiction for middle-grade readers, The Detective's Assistant, to be published in April 2015 with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. 

Here's the blurb for her book:

 

Cupcake Cousins (Hyperion-Disney, May 2014) tells the story of almost-10-year-old cousins Willow and Delia, who have been asked to be flower girls in their aunt's lakeside wedding. But the cousins would much rather beflour girls and whip up amazing surprises during the family's weeklong vacation at the lake. With a good helping of chaos and a dash of disaster, the cousins have plenty on their plates this summer.

There are few things I like better than cupcakes--this sounds great!!

Ok- Let's get started:

What are the opening lines of your book?

"Willow scowled at the flower-girl dress like it was growing in a patch of poison ivy. Every time she looked at it, she had the same thoughts.

That it was pink.

That it was awful.

That it should not come anywhere close to her skin."

Where these lines set from the first draft? And if not, how many times do you think you've changed them?

They were there from the beginning, though poked and prodded somewhat. While I revised the entire book many times over, this opening image was there from the start.

Why do you think this opening is perfect for your novel?

I wanted to give this book an outdoor feel. It's set in August at a summer beach house the family rents each year for a weeklong vacation. I wanted to capture that sense of nature and being immersed in it – both for kids who DO know what it's like to spend the day coated in sand and sunblock, and for those who do not. 

So including imagery from nature – as well as the dread for the upcoming wedding – right off the bat was my goal with this opening.

Give us your favorite opening line(s) from a favorite book, and tell us why you love them.

"For a long time after that summer, the four Penderwick sisters still talked of Arundel. Fate drove us there, Jane would say. No, it was the greedy landlord who sold our vacation house on Cape Cod, someone else would say, probably Skye."

I am a HUGE fan of Jeanne Birdsall's "Penderwicks" series, and I can recall vividly the day my local indie bookseller handed me a copy of the first book. It is just so well-written. Even from this first little morsel, we already have a sense of Jane and Skye's temperaments, and the warm glow of nostalgia that colors the whole story.

When I wrote my book, I kept "The Penderwicks" and the non-fiction "Last Child in the Woods" nearby for inspiration. I wanted to create a sort of timeless summer story of kids free to roam outdoors and enjoy the independence they can find only in nature. Of kids pursuing their interests free of heavy parental disruption. Of suspense and excitement but where the stakes weren't too high and no dogs die.

Stop by and say hello to Kate on Twitter at @KateChicago or on her website at KateHannigan.com. Or check out her children's lit blog AuthorOf.blogspot.com, where she interviews authors of some of the best books for young readers.

And don't forget to Preorder Cupcake Cousins

First Line Fridays: Yvonne Ventresca

Welcome back to first line Friday!

Each Friday, I invite a guest author to share the opening line from his or her upcoming release and a favorite book.

Today's guest is Yvonne Ventresca debut author of PANDEMIC, coming May 6.

During her writing career, Yvonne has written instructional video scripts about technology, numerous articles for children and adults, a nonfiction book for teens about careers in publishing, and a biography for teens about the singer Avril Lavigne. But her real love is fiction, and after several attempts at writing a novel, she created a story about a contemporary bird flu pandemic.




Here's the blurb for her book:

Only a few people know what caused Lilianna Snyder's sudden change from a model student to a withdrawn pessimist who worries about all kinds of disasters. When people begin coming down with a quick-spreading illness that doctors are unable to treat, Lil’s worst fears are realized. With her parents called away on business before the contagious outbreak--her journalist father in Delaware covering the early stages of the disease and her mother in Hong Kong and unable to get a flight back to New Jersey--Lil’s town is hit by what soon becomes a widespread fatal illness.

With friends and neighbors dying around her, Lil does everything she can to survive.  Just when it all seems too much, the cause of her original trauma shows up at her door. Lil must find a way to survive not only the outbreak and its real-life consequences, but also her own personal demons. 

Oh, wow! It sounds like a teenage version of Outbreak (which freaked me out back when it came out)! Awesome :O)

Ok- Let's get started:

What are the opening lines of your book?

I stood on the smoking corner behind school reveling in my aloneness. Not many smokers had the same schedule, which made the corner the perfect place for solitude. We always stayed a foot off the high school property, near the big oak tree, and since we were allowed to leave during last period study hall, we weren’t technically breaking any rules.

As if rules mattered.

Where these lines set from the first draft? And if not, how many times do you think you've changed them?

This opening is not even remotely similar to the first draft of Pandemic. I changed the opening many, many times. It took me awhile to find the best place to begin the story and I was tweaking the wording right up until they printed the ARC.

Why do you think this opening is perfect for your novel?

I hope these lines give the reader a sense of the main character, Lilianna (she’s avoiding people, craves isolation) and a sense of intrigue. (Why don’t the rules matter to her?)

Give us your favorite opening line(s) from a favorite book, and tell us why you love them.

The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

“Gram is worried about me. It’s not just because my sister Bailey died four weeks ago, or because my mother hasn’t contacted me in sixteen years, or even because suddenly all I think about is sex. She is worried about me because one of her houseplants has spots.”

I love this opening because it provides so much information in an interesting and natural way that piques the reader’s curiosity.

Be sure that you head over and follow Yvonne on Twitter.

You can add PANDEMIC to your Goodreads Shelf.

And don't forget to Preorder Pandemic