I’m hard at work, crafting the next draft of Tangled Roots to be the best it can be. I’m in love with the first paragraphs (but reserve the right for further edits):

“Every storm has a story to tell, if you listen to it.”  Rosemary Moody eyed dark clouds looming over the ridge as her late father’s voice whispered in her thoughts.  She settled into the chair at her desk but kept a wary gaze out the second-story window.  Slender yellow leaves from black walnut trees swirled past her view in the late-September wind.  Those trees always gave up on summer first and the ones at the back edge of her property looked bare already.  In contrast, the tall oak standing in the backyard’s center still clung proudly to full branches of green foliage.  Below the ominous front approaching, the hills bore only a smattering of autumn color.

She sighed heavily.  Even as a child, she never liked storms.  Back then, she cringed at every thunderclap and hid under her covers when lightning flashed at night.  Her father would come and perch on her bed and say the line echoing in her mind.  He then asked what character needed help.  Sometimes she said a princess was locked in a tower.  Other times a woodland creature was lost and searching for home.  As the wind whipped the rain against her bedroom window, her father wove his magic, adding characters and twists to match the fervor of the tempest beyond the glass.  The distraction never failed.  Partway through each story, the thunder lost its menace and became nothing but a soundtrack to her father’s tale.  To this day, Rosemary associated the easing of storms with happy endings.

— Tangled Roots draft (copyright Karen Ringel 2026)

Starting books always seems the hardest. It took me a few years and encouragement from my best friend to type the first lines of Driftless Spirits, the first book in my series. (The Prologue is posted here if you want a look. “I woke up with car keys in my hand.” isn’t a bad first line either.) Book 2 came a bit easier, possibly because I wasn’t inventing my world from nothing. I can’t remember where the first line came from though.

In the back of my mind, I’m starting to think about Book 3. I’m a planner, obsessively so, and try to write the beginning of the next book before publishing the current one. That way I can seed the next story and give the reader a sense of the familiar before taking them someplace new. I seem to lean towards starting with a line of dialogue and I’ll probably keep the pattern in Book 3. So far, I don’t know who talks first.

If you’ve read some of my other blog posts, you know I’m the curious sort. Questions pop in my head all the time. While writing this post, I thought to search “Quotes about first lines of a novel” but ended up at “Best first lines.” This led me to one I’d never heard before:

Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.

— Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)

I love how clean that line is. I’d never heard of the author and looked up her Wiki page. I’m not recommending her books or anything, I’ve never read one, but if you’re the curious sort like I am, you can go have a look.

I really should get back to editing now, so happy Spring reading!