Let's look at another of my favorite authors: Elmore Leonard. His novel, Swag [New York: Avon Books, 1987] p. 1, starts like this:
Frank Sinatra, Jr., was saying, 'I don't have to take this,' getting up out of the guest chair, walking out. Howard Hart was grinning at him with his capped teeth.This activates what I call the "huh?" factor. First time I read this, hell, the sentence not even making sense. I went "Huh? What is this I'm reading?"
But it kept me reading, and not very much afterward found it was a television show the characters were watching. But, I'm a big fan of his books, so I was semi-hooked before I even opened the front cover. A lot of other people are hooked on him too. He gets some kind of flow going, you turn page after page without even knowing you're doing it. Talk about narrative drive!!
It's an unusual way to open a book, but in an odd way, this sentence works. I think it's the "I don't have to take this" statement. Don't we all feel that way about something>
What do you think? Tell me. Post a comment. I'd like to know.
Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for my ideas on writing and publishing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.
Ian Kearney, the director of the Kearney Music School, an elite musical training school in Philadelphia, dies after a fall from a balcony during a recital. World-famous cellist, Henry Harrier, recently forced from the faculty, returns to investigate Ian's death when his prized former student is arrested. Henry shows through his brilliant and single-minded pursuit of the truth that, as usual, they have it all wrong. This Sherlock Holmes-type mystery leads the reader through the world of classical music and lays bare the conflicts which dominate the lives of talented adolescents when placed under the pressure of studying for a demanding, stressful, and often elusive career as a classical music performer. Henry Harrier is part John Le Carre's George Smiley, part Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes, and part Orlando Cole the beloved teacher, renowned chamber musician, and until his own retirement, the premier cellist of the Curtis Institute.
Tim was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on January 30, 1946. In 1951 he moved with his family to Schenectady, New York, where he lived through high school. He attended Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio, from 1964 to 1968. He graduated in 1968 with a B.A. in history and philosophy. He received his Ph. D. in history in U.S. history in 1980 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison after spending 2.5 years in the U. S. Army. Most of his army service was completed in Wuerzburg, Germany, from 1969-1971. In 1972 he returned to Madison to complete his doctoral study. His dissertation, Those Who Moved; Internal Migrants in American 1607-1840, combined the statistical analysis of genealogical and biographical data with the study of traditional literary diaries, letters, and journals.
