Thank you. I should probably write women's fiction next time, but this novella was plotted as a romance. So many books to write . . .

Thank you.

Thank you.

Here's the opening line of my WIP, The Demon's Secret Baby: It was a hell of a party.

Feedback welcome!

I love it! To me, it says Women's fiction, sympathetic heroine, posible ticking clock, multiple layers of conflict. That's a lot to accomplish in one sentence.

My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.

It immediately makes me think, "Uh-oh. What did Ramona do now?" Which gets me to keep reading to find out!

Just the realization that once he gets on that international flight to Central Asia, there will be no way back to the only life he's ever known, even if his father and Central Asia both turn out to be a disastrous destination.

No, not really. I remember lines in movies moreso than books and they're usually not the first lines.

Interesting, Julia! You have me wondering what your protagonist saw, heard, experienced to feel the need to run.