Great First Lines: Leah Bobet shows you how it's done!
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
From The Parable of the Shower by Leah Bobet from Lone Star Stories:
The angel of the LORD cometh upon you in the shower at the worst possible moment: one hand placed upon thy right buttock and the other bearing soap, radio blaring, humming a heathen song of sin.
Not only is this a terrific narrative hook, but note also that it is written in the second person, and the present tense, and in faux-Biblical prose. Thus she announces that not only will something wild and interesting happen in this story, but that this is an ambitious literary high wire act.
And the story lives up to it's opening line. Go, Leah!
David Nickle, Leah Bobet, & Peter Watts at Ad Astra