Hello, amazing fellow creatives! Here’s to more fun perusing the library’s new releases to see what strikes our fancy. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve retitled Story Cuppings to better fit the premise of the podcast.
As writers, we hear all the time that we’ve got to hook readers in just the first few pages or else. We’ve got to hook agents in the first few pages or else.
Whether you’re looking to get published or just hoping to hook your reader, first impressions are vital. Compelling opening scenes are the key to catching an agent or editor’s attention, and are crucial for keeping your reader engaged.
Jeff Gerke, The First Fifty Pages
Well then, let’s study those first few pages in other people’s stories, shall we?
Today I snagged from the New Release shelf:
Oddly enough, this has to be the first podcast where I didn’t even get to the first chapter all. The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn has three–THREE–prologues. There’s a wee preface to tell you of the original person on which the novel is based, the “official” prologue, and then a couple of pages entitled “Notes by the First Lady.”
If you do not see the audio player above, you can access the podcast here.
Now the wee preface is not badly written at all. It’s just a succinct few verses that explain this woman was a real person who served as a Soviet sniper in World War II. At one point this woman was First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s friend; this can be hard for modern audiences to grasp, but it’s important to remember that in 1942, the Soviet Union and United States were allies against the Axis Powers.
This is where the “official” prologue helps a little with establishing the mindset at the time. Perhaps folks who’ve watched Mad Men know how women were often treated as second-class and unable to do “man’s work,” but in the 1940s the United States had to take a serious look at their approach to what women can and cannot do. (Of course, this all backtracked after the war, but let’s focus on the moment.) The prologue comes from the perspective of a hired assassin mingling with reporters watching Lady Death, the famed Soviet Sniper, arriving at the White House to meet The First Lady. So we all get to see this pretty girl and hear men constantly saying, “a woman could never do all that!” While I appreciate establishing that mindset, I’m not sure it needed its own prologue to do so.
And then, we get what reads like a diary entry from The First Lady before she meets the sniper. While I appreciate the importance of establishing President FDR’s physical ailments for modern readers, I’m not sure why the third prologue needed to travel back in time to before the second prologue. At this point, we just want to meet this infamous Lady Death!
As always, I love hearing what’s on the shelves of your own libraries. Libraries Rock!
Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!
