First and Last Lines

*Revised and edited from an original blog post at Loose Ends, August 2013

The first and last sentences are considered by many to be the most important lines of a book. There’s even a commonly utilized blog topic where authors and readers post first and last lines of their favorite books, as well as tumblr posts dedicated to first lines and even one for all the Harry Potter books.

I  thought it might be fun to take a look at the first and last lines from my titles. I was surprised at how well the two sentences from each book summed up the theme and character arc of the story, something I hadn’t consciously worked to do when writing them.

I was not surprised, however, to see how short the lines were. My editor says I have a very staccato style. My natural flow seems to be to write a longer sentence bracketed by shorter, punchier ones.

Here are the first and last lines from some of my books: