Sunday 3 April 2011

First Line Competition Results

Apologies for the absence of paragraphs in this post - I'm still having problems, but didn't want to delay this posting. Thank you to everyone who entered. I thought this would be an easy competition to judge, but it wasn’t – far from it. It was tough and I had far more entries than I expected (not that I’m complaining – I enjoyed it!) Some entries made me laugh out loud, some made me gasp and some made me nod my head and identify with the narrator at once. Before I go any further, I just want to thank Lynne Hackles for her generosity in sharing her experience and wisdom when it came to the final judging. What I asked for was a line to make me want to read more. I couldn’t come up with an outright winner because as soon as I chose one, one of the other three would call to me. So I have to declare a draw. I will be chopping a copy of Diamonds and Pearls into three equal parts and…. No, I won’t really. Three winners will each receive a copy of Diamonds and Pearls. So without further ado… Congratulations to: Beryl Brown for: 'Outside the door, on the pavement, lay a red umbrella; it was the third one that day.' Susan Wright for: ‘I’m sure my granddaddy told me that human flesh is akin to beef, but Tanya’s leg sure tasted like pork to me.’ Heather Parker for: ‘Sarah trembled as she stared around the empty cell, whitewashed walls hiding the evidence of other interrogations...’ Congratulations Beryl, Sue and Heather on three very different intriguing winning lines. I would love to see where all these are leading. Your books will be winging their way to you tomorrow.

23 comments:

  1. Congratulations to Beryl, Susan and Heather; worthy winners. The opening sentences certainly made ME want to read on.

    Thanks for staging this fun competition, Teresa, and Happy Mothers' Day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congratulations to the winners. They're all good hooks for very different stories.

    Beryl, if you've written the rest of that story, can I read it please?

    ReplyDelete
  3. All very good and enticing first lines. Well picked, Teresa. I particularly liked Beryl's and would love to read that story!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brilliant lines and very inspirational too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy Mother's Day to you too, Jacula.

    I just wish I could have presented the winners better instead of having it as one block of text grrrh!

    Thanks Patsy and Bernadette - it would be great to learn more about the umbrellas wouldn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you for commenting, Joanna :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I want to know about the brollies.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Brilliant first lines - I definitely want to read on!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Good choices Teresa, I would love to read more of the brolly story too.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Well done to the winners (sorry I did not get round to my own attempt!).

    ReplyDelete
  11. Congratulations to Beryl, Susan and Heather - fabulous first lines.

    I'm also intrigued by the brollies.

    XX

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for staging this Teresa. It was fun to enter. Congratulations to the winners. Intriguing first lines indeed. Hope we get a chance to read the stories! :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Congratulations to the winners. Well done! Thank you Teresa for putting in the effort to run this competition (notice I spelt 'competition' right this time, lol). Love your blog Teresa, always leaves me with a smile on my face! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Very well done, Beryl, Susan and Heather - I loved all three first lines. But we want to know what happened next!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thanks everyone for commenting!

    ReplyDelete
  16. These are great - well done to the winners!

    I've been having trouble with paragraphs in blogger too, but have got round it by clicking on the Edit Html tab rather than the Compose tab, and putting the paragraphing in there. I assume its a Blogger Bug and they will fix it soon.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks Womag - I tried doing it in the Html box as well and it wasn't working, but next time I post if it's playing up I'll try that way again, thank you!

    Having quite a lot of computer problems at the moment one way and another - normal service will be resumed soon - I hope!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Thank you all for your comments. I have only just read them as I have been away for a few days to meet up with my daughter to celebrate my birthday/Mothers Day. What a lovely birthday surprise it was to receive the email from Teresa saying I was a joint winner.I'm afraid I haven't yet written the rest of the umbrella story but it has been taxing my brain - it strikes me as a bit Orwellian - clocks striking thirteen and all that. Will work on it.... Thanks once again, Teresa.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thank you, Beryl for a great line! A lot of people want to read the story - no pressure of course :-)
    Hope you had a lovely birthday/Mother's Day.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Congratulations to the winners!

    Just wanted to say, Teresa that I took TAB FF away on a short break, and loved your story 'Who's afraid of scarecrows?' (love all your stories, of course - but this one really gave me the shivers! :-))

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thank you Amanda, it's very nice of you to say about the scarecrows :-)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Congratulations to all the winners. Great first lines all of them. I enjoyed participating in this competition and I feel as if I won something too - I got the first line of my next story out of it!

    Thank you Teresa, for putting up this competition. It was fun!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Glad to hear that gaelikaa - I'd like to read on from your first line (and I know a lot of people would identify with it in one way or another) :-)

    ReplyDelete