Best Opening Lines of Books Ever

Chad Huskins is the EVVY Award-winning author of Zero Star and The Sol Ascendancy.

I got inspired recently to write up a list of the opening lines in novels that have stuck out to me be the most.  So here they are, in no particular order, with an explanation of why these are so great.

1.  "Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet." - Robert E. Howard, The Phoenix on the Sword (the first Conan story)

This one is famous among fans of the "sword and sorcery" genre.  It sets the stage perfectly for the story that is about to unravel, a story told by Howard's brutal imagery, his wondrous worlds, and his driving narrative that revealed barbarism as something potentially redemptive in Man, and not something to be shunned or hated.  Howard had a strong belief in the masculine, in the iron will to forge one's own path, as Conan does.  This opening line basically says, "Here comes a badass, and you'd do well to get out of his way."

2.  "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."  - Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice

From the masculine, we go to the feminine...and the witty.  Like any good opening line should do, Austen's presents a general premise without trying to divulge plot-plot-plot all at once.  Some people miss the humor in the opening line, thinking Austen is dead serious.  Far from it.  She means it in the sense that people have accepted that a single man who is rich must be searching for a wife, particularly in the world she's established.  The people in her story (and of the Age she lived in) care for nothing more than to have their daughters married well off, hopefully to the advantage of the rest of the family--i.e., her husband is rich and can help pay everyone's bills.

3.  "Call me Ishmael.  Some years ago--never mind how long, precisely..."  Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Though I don't have the room to thoroughly go through Melville's entire opening, it all stems from this line, which immediately establishes a familiarity between the reader and the narrator.  And yet there is also great ambiguity right off the bat, for Melville basically says "Just call me by my first name," doesn't bother with a last name, and then just says "this happened a while back, but it doesn't matter just how long ago."  Familiarity coupled with ambiguity...kind of like an old friend you've not seen in a while, returning to tell you about a thing that changed him forever while he was gone.  The reader is invited in.  We've been invited to the pub, where a lonely man named Ishmael sits, perhaps alone, with ale in hand, to tell us a story.  Let's have a seat with him, and hear what he has to say...

4.  "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."  - George Orwell, 1984

This one is haunting because...well, we the readers happen to know that that's NOT how clocks work.  This begins the story of a world that has gone terribly, terribly wrong.  In this book, which famously created the terms "Big Brother" and "double-think," we find ourselves in a world where lies are truth, truth are lies, the government controls the narrative strictly, the freedom of the press has been dismantled, and Big Brother is always watching.  If it is not the original dystopian future novel, then it is, without a doubt, the reigning champion by which all others are judged.  And from the opening line, we already know that something is wrong...

5.  "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."  - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Dickens decided to put the reader into the mood of his setting, but, like he says at the end, the "time" he's referring to is EXACTLY like whatever era the reader happens to be in when they're reading it.  He suggests that nothing ever changes, in that all times can be described as the worst, or the best, and that people will often describe whatever era they're living in as both.  It depends on where you are in life, what privileges or station you have.  These things determine how good or bad you view the current era.  And, as he says, the "noisiest authorities" seem intent to only be able to make their arguments for their current period being the "best" or "worst" by using comparisons.

6.  "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."  - Stephen King, The Gunslinger

This line cuts right to it.  It says "Here's your story."  Of course, there's still plenty of mystery.  We don't know who either of these men are, or why one is chasing the other, but we're immediately fascinated.  An old adage among writers is to "Start your story in the middle."  Kind of like how the first Star Wars movie begins with us seeing the Rebel starship already being chased by the Imperial ship.  We're learning who Darth Vader is while the story is on the move, almost like we came in the middle of a TV series and missed the whole first half.  It's an excellent way to get readers invested right away, and have them salivating for the details that explain why these characters are doing what they're doing.  Much better than describing them at length at the beginning, and then getting us to the chase around Chapter 4.  Stephen King himself has expressed that he believes this opening line is his most solid work.

7.  "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."  - H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulu

H.P. Lovecraft is considered by most people to be the greatest horror writer of all time, and he never even wrote about an ax murderer, or described the sight entrails overly long.  No, Lovecraft made a career by inventing a new style of writing--he would describe all the things that the "monster" DIDN'T look like, or would be so vague in his description, and yet all the while summoning imagery, that he encourage the reader to think up something even more dreadful on their own, something that defied all known geometry, physics, and biology.  The true horror for Lovecraft was the idea that some things might be forever beyond the ken of Man, and what might happen if a human being witnessed, with their own eyes, the things that they were never meant to see?  That's what this opening line is all about.  Lovecraft would consider it a "mercy" if the human mind could simply go on not understanding all the horrors it had seen...especially after the narrator of this story reveals to you the truth terrors he has witnessed.  He wants to forget.  More than anything, he wants to be oblivious again.  Ignorance is bliss...

Interview with Hugh Howey, by Chad Huskins

Chad Huskins is the EVVY Award-winning author of the new epic military sci-fi novel Zero Star, available now on Amazon.

If you've spent enough time in the world of self-publishing, it's impossible to miss the story of Hugh Howey.  His Wool series hasn't just skyrocketed him to the top of the game, it's also kind of changed the game.

He is undoubtedly the "Cinderella story" of the self-publishing world.  Here's a fellow that went the non-traditional route.  Rather than listen to the endless sea of rejection letters that await 99% of us, Hugh Howey opted for self-publishing on the Amazon Kindle program, and then watched as the first in his series took off.  Seeing its popularity, he quickly scrambled to write more in the series, and eventually caught the attention of Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian, who optioned the Wool series for film.

Howey has been understandably busy these days, between his duties as family man and writer, but I recently had a chance to pin him down and ask him a few questions, author to author.

HUSKINS:  Hi, Hugh.  Thanks for joining us here at Realm of Ideas.  First, just let me say that I’ve only just started to read your Wool series, and it is fantastic.  I picked up on it in an article for CNN.  It seems like you’ve had a heck of a year.  Can you tell us a little about what it felt like when it first started changing, what was going on in your and your wife’s head when this success started coming around so suddenly?

HOWEY:  It started in October of 2011. Sales began picking up and reviews started trickling in. At every stage of this wild ride, my wife and I have looked at each other in disbelief. Just when you think things have gotten as nutty as they possibly can, something bigger and crazier happens. So, in one sense, it’s seemed sudden, but really it’s been a very long upward journey full of many neat surprises.

HUSKINS:  Wool is a post-apocalyptic series taking place in the subterranean Silos.  Are you attracted to the post-apocalyptic genre, the themes in The Road and The Walking Dead, or did you have a specific story you were trying to tell and felt that only a post-apocalyptic setting could suffice?

HUGH:  The latter. I had a story I wanted to tell, and it only made sense in a wasteland setting. This isn’t the type of story I read or normally write. It’s just the world that the first short story needed to take place in.

HUSKINS:  Describe your writing process.  Myself, I prefer silence.  Do you listen to music, or write in silence?  Do you have a schedule you try to maintain?

HOWEY:  I prefer silence, also. I write best in the morning, so I get up and start immediately and try to go straight to lunch. I usually break around 10:00 in the morning to check email and post on Facebook and Twitter. My goal is to get a good 4-6 hours of writing or revising in each day. It’s just me and a laptop and my dog.

HUSKINS:  You’re pretty much the “Cinderella story” of the self-publishing world.  Can you describe how this happened?  That is, did you merely put the book up on Amazon Kindle and “wait and see,” and then just get lucky, or were you constantly promoting it on Twitter and Facebook, marketing it and so forth?

HOWEY:  I didn’t promote Wool until after it was already taking off on its own. The best thing you can do to give yourself a shot at success is to keep writing and publishing. The sort of sales you get from tireless marketing are the kind that require more marketing to maintain. In order to have a blockbuster, you need readers telling each other about the work, not you telling enough people that you get a sale or two. I know a lot of writers will disagree with me on this, but I wouldn’t spend a lot of time on marketing until you have five or six novels or a few dozen short stories under your belt. Just write. And don’t expect to make it big, that can be dangerous. Write because you love to, because you have to, not because you want to get rich.

HUSKINS:  When you were first starting with the ideas for Wool and other stories, did you find that your wife, friends and family were supportive of you?  Did anyone think you were crazy for trying your hand at writing and publishing?

HOWEY:  Nobody thought I was crazy. Everyone I encountered had mad respect for me. Writing is a very common aspiration. Very few people stick with it to completion, and so it mostly draws awe from others. It’s similar to the admiration I have for those who stick with a musical instrument or a foreign language until they become proficient. I’ve had nothing but support and encouragement from friends and family. In fact, I started writing primarily to hand my stories to people I knew!

HUSKINS:  I’ve read that you’ve drawn inspiration from some of the “awesome women” in your life.  Besides your wife, what other great women have inspired you?

HOWEY:  My sister and my mother. Both are brilliant women with enormous hearts and mountains of courage. I aspire to be more like them in many ways.

HUSKINS:  You were a yacht captain for a while, and traveled the globe.  Miss it?  Still do it?

HOWEY:  I don’t miss running other people’s yachts. It’s a lot of work and it takes you away from family. My dream now is to get back on a sailboat of my own and take it around the world. I think within a decade that I’ll be on my way.  (NOTE:  Since we had this discussion, Hugh has done just that.)

HUSKINS:  What else do you do with your time besides writing and family time?  Have any hobbies that keep you occupied?

HOWEY:  I love to take pictures, especially of people. My dog keeps me busy with long walks and fetching sticks (that would be me fetching the sticks, mostly). My wife and I really enjoy our time together reading or watching a film. We’re very boring people.

HUSKINS:  What are you reading now?

HOWEY:  The latest Jon Ronson book. This man is a genius. He’s hilarious, and I love the way he strings words together. I highly recommend all of his books.

HUSKINS:  Lots of writers and artists have that “watershed moment” when they decided they wanted to write and create.  For me, it was reading Sphere by Michael Crichton when I was like 15.  It kind of planted the seed, which grew into a burning desire.  Was there a book that did that for you?

HOWEY:  Ender’s Game. I was 12, and it was when I knew I wanted to be a writer. The fact that Card was a fellow North Carolinian made that dream seem attainable.

HUSKINS:  Wool has been optioned for film by Ridley Scott, the man behind the original Alien, Gladiator, Blade Runner and numerous other epics.  Tell us how that came about, and what was it like?  Did you get a phone call from an agent, e-mail?

HOWEY:  My agent sent Wool around Hollywood. One of the people who got a copy and loved it was Steve Zaillian, one of the top screenplay writers in the business. He loved it enough to send it along to Ridley, who also fell in love with the story. This duo bought the option in conjunction with 20^th Century Fox. They are set to produce, though I doubt either of them will write or helm the work. They have a lot in the pipeline.

I did receive an email from Ridley. He was busy with the release of Prometheus at the time, but was extremely complimentary of the book. It’s amazing that someone of his stature sat down and read something I wrote from cover to cover. That’s humbling.

HUSKINS:  Did you or your family ever have a big celebratory moment for all of these achievements?

HOWEY:  We’ve had a lot of little celebratory moments. Mostly meals out. My way of celebrating is to go get pizza and maybe splurge for a beer. Or go eat somewhere with a view of the water.

HUSKINS:  Thanks for chatting, Hugh.  But before you go, we have to ask you for any piece of advice you can give to writers out there, or artists of any kind for that matter.

HOWEY:  If you love creating, then do it. Art should be an outlet for everything except our desire to get rich. You’ll go mad with that as your motivation. If you view it as a hobby, but one you take seriously enough to generate the highest quality output possible, then the sky is the limit. But that’s just me. There are a million other ways to handle being an artist, and I’m sure most of those alternatives are superior to my way.

(To find out more about Hugh Howey, visit his website www.hughhowey.com.  To find his fabulous Wool series, go here: http://www.amazon.com/Wool-Omnibus-Edition-ebook/dp/B0071XO8RA/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1354623922&sr=1-2&keywords=wool.

Find me on Facebook, and on Twitter @ChadRyanHuskins

Kickstarter project is LIVE NOW!

Hi guys.  So, we went live today!  Woohoo!  If you want to donate $25 to the project (and get a signed copy when it's all finished), visit the link here!

ADRIAAN SUY'S LANDSCAPES

Check out what Adriaan's working on now!  Still a lot of work to do, but we're getting there.

DRITH'S CITYSCAPES AND LANDSCAPES

Hey guys!  Check out the first spec work being done by artist Aadrian Suy on Drith's cityscapes and landscapes.  Our world is a Roman-esque steampunk world.

And just as an update, there have been a LOT of balls in the air on this project, but it's all finally starting to come together.  We're looking for a summer release, and I'll be announcing the exact release day at the beginning of next month.  Thanks for your support!

For more artwork, click here.  For the official synopsis, click here.

BUILDING "DRITH"

For those of you who don't know, Lady of Drith has been a project in development for a little while now, and with the manuscript completed and the artists finishing their touches on the world, we're approaching the home stretch.  If you want to see our synopsis, click here.  If you want to see more of our artwork, click here.  Or else just enjoy the art from our artists below.

If you like what you see, please follow this blog for more, and check out my science fiction work The Sol Ascendancy.  Or check out my horror series, to which I recently sold the film rights, Psycho Save Us.

Our Lady of Drith walking through the streets. (Art by Jack Baker)

A statue of Loraci, the goddess of justice, who peers down at all mortals and judges them cruelly. (Art by Axel Torvenius)

Sometimes, the city of Drith is hit by terrible magic storms, called fellstorms, thought to be left as a curse on the city by some long-dead and forgotten sorcerer.  (Art by Axel Torvenius)

The above image is from artist Lucas Durham, who has worked with Fantasy Flight Games and other fantasy-driven ventures.  While the portrait below is from portrait artist Nathan Seay.  Nathan's piece will be included in the book itself, as the main character, Drea, is a lady who is expected to train in the feminine arts, which includes drawing and art.  Of course, she also dabbles in one or two of the masculine arts...

This portrait is of a certain senator, who will come to influence Drea's life in ways she never expected.

Rain Guards - the protectors of the Imperator, the Senate, and the city walls.  Here we see a Prefect.

CREATING THE COMPLEX WORLD OF DRITH

Showing you guys the latest that we've been working on.  What you're seeing is artwork from UK artist Jack Baker, and American artists Micah Champion and Adriaan Suy.  Lady of Drith is a YA/crossover novel that we're calling "Roman-style steampunk," which seeks to transcend the expectations of the genre by looking at politics, the complex roles of women, and, of course, a little magic and gunslinging action.

Lord Hiss

"Lord Hiss" is the remnant of a grotesquery, now trapped forever in his mechanized suit, and forced to do battle in the gladiatorial events of the Den of Beasts.

A Drithean Senator

Like Rome, the politics in Lady of Drith play an important role in the storytelling.

Drith: Official Synopsis

At the center of a vast civilization lies Drith, a city that has harnessed the power of steam, electricity, and magic.  For centuries, the city’s Major Houses have fought a bloody struggle for control over Drith.

Drea Kalder is the last of her noble House.  Her father murdered, her mother the victim of suicide, she has no one left to turn to when all seems lost except her best friend Thryis.

When Drea is adopted as a ward by the influential House Syphen, it seems the storm might have passed.  But her problems have only just begun, for she and Thryis soon discover that House Syphen is a den of vipers, and may have been behind the fall of her family all along.

Drea enters a cauldron of intrigue, one that pits her and Thryis against the darkest secrets hidden within Drith itself—mages, secret societies, and one magic-wielding gunslinger known only as Lady Blackveil.

The bullets fly and the blades are quick, as Drea Kalder begins to piece together what’s happened to her.  And soon, she seeks something that no woman in Drith has ever sought before: Control.

Interview with Hugh Howey of the Wildly Popular "Wool" Series

Chad Huskins is the EVVY Award-winning author of the new epic military sci-fi novel Zero Star, available now on Amazon.

If you've spent enough time in the world of self-publishing, it's impossible to miss the story of Hugh Howey.  His Wool series hasn't just skyrocketed him to the top of the game, but it's also kind of changed the game.

He is undoubtedly the "Cinderella story" of the self-publishing world.  Here's a fellow that went the non-traditional route.  Rather than listen to the endless sea of rejection letters that await 99% of us, Hugh Howey opted for self-publishing on the Amazon Kindle program, and then watched as the first in his series took off.  Seeing its popularity, he quickly scrambled to write more in the series, and eventually caught the attention of Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian, who optioned the Wool series for film.

Howey has been understandably busy these days, between his duties as family man and writer, but I recently had a chance to pin him down and ask him a few questions.

HUSKINS:  Hi, Hugh.  Thanks for joining us here at Realm of Ideas.  First, just let me say that I’ve only just started to read your Wool series, and it is fantastic.  I picked up on it in an article for CNN.  It seems like you’ve had a heck of a year.  Can you tell us a little about what it felt like when it first started changing, what was going on in your and your wife’s head when this success started coming around so suddenly?

HOWEY:  It started in October of last year. Sales began picking up and reviews started trickling in. At every stage of this wild ride, my wife and I have looked at each other in disbelief. Just when you think things have gotten as nutty as they possibly can, something bigger and crazier happens. So, in one sense, it’s seemed sudden, but really it’s been a very long upward journey full of many neat surprises.

HUSKINS:  Wool is a post-apocalyptic series taking place in the subterranean Silos.  Are you attracted to the post-apocalyptic genre, the themes in The Road and The Walking Dead, or did you have a specific story you were trying to tell and felt that only a post-apocalyptic setting could suffice?

HUGH:  The latter. I had a story I wanted to tell, and it only made sense in a wasteland setting. This isn’t the type of story I read or normally write. It’s just the world that the first short story needed to take place in.

HUSKINS:  Describe your writing process.  Do you listen to music, or maintain silence?  Do you have a schedule you try to maintain?

HOWEY:  I prefer silence. I write best in the morning, so I get up and start immediately and try to go straight to lunch. I usually break around 10:00 in the morning to check email and post on Facebook and Twitter. My goal is to get a good 4-6 hours of writing or revising in each day. It’s just me and a laptop and my dog.

HUSKINS:  You’re pretty much the “Cinderella story” of the self-publishing world.  Can you describe how this happened?  That is, did you merely put the book up on Amazon Kindle and “wait and see,” and then just get lucky, or were you constantly promoting it on Twitter and Facebook, marketing it and so forth?

HOWEY:  I didn’t promote Wool until after it was already taking off on its own. The best thing you can do to give yourself a shot at success is to keep writing and publishing. The sort of sales you get from tireless marketing are the kind that require more marketing to maintain. In order to have a blockbuster, you need readers telling each other about the work, not you telling enough people that you get a sale or two. I know a lot of writers will disagree with me on this, but I wouldn’t spend a lot of time on marketing until you have five or six novels or a few dozen short stories under your belt. Just write. And don’t expect to make it big, that can be dangerous. Write because you love to, because you have to, not because you want to get rich.

HUSKINS:  When you were first starting with the ideas for Wool and other stories, did you find that your wife, friends and family were supportive of you?  Did anyone think you were crazy for trying your hand at writing and publishing?

HOWEY:  Nobody thought I was crazy. Everyone I encountered had mad respect for me. Writing is a very common aspiration. Very few people stick with it to completion, and so it mostly draws awe from others. It’s similar to the admiration I have for those who stick with a musical instrument or a foreign language until they become proficient. I’ve had nothing but support and encouragement from friends and family. In fact, I started writing primarily to hand my stories to people I knew!

HUSKINS:  I’ve read that you’ve drawn inspiration from some of the “awesome women” in your life.  Besides your wife, what other great women have inspired you?

HOWEY:  My sister and my mother. Both are brilliant women with enormous hearts and mountains of courage. I aspire to be more like them in many ways.

HUSKINS:  You were a yacht captain for a while, and traveled the globe.  Miss it?  Still do it?

HOWEY:  I don’t miss running other people’s yachts. It’s a lot of work and it takes you away from family. My dream now is to get back on a sailboat of my own one day and take it around the world. I think within a decade that I’ll be on my way.

HUSKINS:  What else do you do with your time besides writing and family time?  Have any hobbies that keep you occupied?

HOWEY:  I love to take pictures, especially of people. My dog keeps me busy with long walks and fetching sticks (that would be me fetching the sticks, mostly). My wife and I really enjoy our time together reading or watching a film. We’re very boring people.

HUSKINS:  What are you reading now?

HOWEY:  The latest Jon Ronson book. This man is a genius. He’s hilarious, and I love the way he strings words together. I highly recommend all of his books.

HUSKINS:  Lots of writers and artists have that “watershed moment” when they decided they wanted to write and create.  For me, it was reading Sphere by Michael Crichton when I was like 15.  It kind of planted the seed, which grew into a burning desire.  Was there a book that did that for you?

HOWEY:  Ender’s Game. I was 12, and it was when I knew I wanted to be a writer. The fact that Card was a fellow North Carolinian made that dream seem attainable.

HUSKINS:  Wool has been optioned for film by Ridley Scott, the man behind the original Alien, Gladiator, Blade Runner and numerous other epics.  Tell us how that came about, and what was it like?  Did you get a phone call from an agent, e-mail?

HOWEY:  My agent sent Wool around Hollywood. One of the people who got a copy and loved it was Steve Zaillian, one of the top screenplay writers in the business. He loved it enough to send it along to Ridley, who also fell in love with the story. This duo bought the option in conjunction with 20^th Century Fox. They are set to produce, though I doubt either of them will write or helm the work. They have a lot in the pipeline.

I did receive an email from Ridley. He was busy with the release of Prometheus at the time, but was extremely complimentary of the book. It’s amazing that someone of his stature sat down and read something I wrote from cover to cover. That’s humbling.

HUSKINS:  It’s been a little over a year since all this success started rolling your way.  Have you and your family had any kind of big celebratory moment for all of these achievements?  If not, you should!

HOWEY:  We’ve had a lot of little celebratory moments. Mostly meals out. My way of celebrating is to go get pizza and maybe splurge for a beer. Or go eat somewhere with a view of the water.

HUSKINS:  When can we expect the next book in the Wool series?  Can you tell us anything about it?

HOWEY:  I just released Second Shift, part 7 in the series. Third Shift should be out in late January.

HUSKINS:  Thanks for joining us, Hugh.  But before you go, we have to ask you for any piece of advice you can give to writers out there, or artists of any kind for that matter.

HOWEY:  If you love creating, then do it. Art should be an outlet for everything except our desire to get rich. You’ll go mad with that as your motivation. If you view it as a hobby, but one you take seriously enough to generate the highest quality output possible, then the sky is the limit. But that’s just me. There are a million other ways to handle being an artist, and I’m sure most of those alternatives are superior to my way.

(To find out more about Hugh Howey, visit his website www.hughhowey.com.  To find his fabulous Wool series, go here: http://www.amazon.com/Wool-Omnibus-Edition-ebook/dp/B0071XO8RA/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1354623922&sr=1-2&keywords=wool.  To read my new book, Psycho Save Us, check it out here:  http://www.amazon.com/Psycho-Save-Us-ebook/dp/B009DL5WEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348353493&sr=8-1&keywords=psycho+save+us)

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