I'm so glad to hear it, Christy! We all need encouragement.

Thank you for your encouraging comments! It has made my writing day! If you want to find out more check out my website. christyhoss.com

Great first line, Steven. Congrats on your upcoming book launch!

"It was one thing to seek followers on the Internet, Matthew Rollins thought, but quite another thing to be followed."

Thank you, Jenny. That means a lot. <3

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Here's my own, from an as-yet-untitled novel set in the late 1800s:

"Life to me meant a growling stomach, chilblains, fighting the rats for food, and Dad beatin’ the living daylights outta Mum and me, whenever he felt like it.

We lived in a tumbledown tenement in St. Mary’s Ward, Birmingham. The walls leaked water in the rain. The floor was rotten boards, an’ we had to get water from a pump in the courtyard, us and ten other families. That was a girl’s job though, so me sisters had to do it. My job as the oldest boy, was to find food any way I could, by doin’ odd jobs or stealin’. Mum didn’t like me stealin’ but she didn’t like havin’ nothin’ to feed us either, so she took whatever I brought and didn’t ask questions."

I like that edge of snark for your main character, Brenda. Keep going - this is going to be a good story!

I can see already that Eevie is going to have quite the journey, so you've already achieved Goal #1 of a women's fic. Brava!

Here's the whole Prologue to NETHERWORLD (a continuation of the Prologue to PURGATORY) - 173 words in a faux New Yorker article:

…Fascination with how celebrities mate, marry, and break up runs rampant in the decadent American culture. Indeed, all Western culture: witness the European fascination with their royalty.
When a commoner marries a royal, we ask ourselves: Why not me? How did she (it’s usually a she) land the prize?
The answer of course, other than a bit of luck, is an enormous amount of hard work driven by a vision and a determination that doesn’t waver long, because time’s a’wastin’: I essay that no commoner marrying into royalty has ever worked harder in her (his) life. And if the first wife doesn’t do it, there is always another. There is, by definition, a lot to learn.
Americans don’t have royalty. We have politicians (temporary, but occasionally useful if they run to families). We have rich people. Business and tech genii. And we have Hollywood, which will have to do. Our fascination has a lightning rod, and we know what’s expected of us. But we have no standard by which to judge, no tradition…

Now I'm totally worried about Jill... Nice job, Ken!