February 3, 2009

Today I'm beginning my official countdown of one week until Book day! Secrets of Greymoor amazon.com will be released for sale on Feb 10th!

I wonder if any of you out there are beginning a new book, story, essay and what writing that first line is like for you. Is it something that simply dropped into your head when you were doing something else? I know that for me, it's often when I am out walking or driving or in the shower that those best thoughts come. The first page of Hill Hawk Hattie came to me when I was out walking and I ran home to write it down. That moment is still so precious to me when I first heard Hattie's voice: "Ma died in November. Now it's just me and Pa." I felt a crackle of electricity tingling along the wires of my body to my heart. But more often, the first line doesn't come so effortlessly. It's more like John Steinbeck's description of how he felt getting ready to write that first line. "I suffer as always from the fear of putting down the first line. It is amazing the terrors, the magics, the straightening shyness that assails one."

What is writing the first line like for you?