If you missed my earlier post, there is a Once Upon a Read-a-Thon going on which is hosted by Pure Imagination, Reading Angel, and Candace’s Book Blog! I’ve been asked to host a mini challenge so check it out and find out what you can win!
Lets just have a little fun:
- Pick up 6 random books from your bookshelf (and/or use the books you’re reading)
- Take the first sentences from them.
- Come up w/ the best 4 sentence opening paragraph to a book you can manage.
- YOU GET A BONUS POINT IF IT INVOLVES VAMPIRES!
- Leave your paragraph in the comments.
- This could get interesting!
Prizes:
Vampire Prize Pack
- Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta
- Midnight Brunch by Marta Acosta
- Pretty Dead by Francesca Lia Block
- blood splatter temporary tattoo
- bookmarks
To Win:
- *Must be participating in the Once Upon A Read-a-Thon* (sign-ups are HERE)
- Open to US only. Sorry international followers!
- Leave a comment following the instructions above & leave your email. :)
21 comments:
Ten years ago, on my sixth birthday, my father disappeared. Sirens and lights welcomed me back to the suburbs of Chicago. Over and over again they asked me the same question, with tiny variations. "You can hear me can't you?"
"You've got to be kidding me," the bouncer said, folding his arms across his massive chest.
Books used:
Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert
Harry, A History by Melissa Anelli
henderkd(at)email(dot)sc(edu)
There was silence in the book-room, not the silence of intimacy but a silence fraught with tension.[1] In the hall of the Tigris Palace Hotel in Baghdad a hospital nurse was finishing a letter.[2] Dear "Melissa Fuller", This is an automated message from the Human Resources Division of the New York Journal, New York City’s leading photo-newspaper.[3] The last thing I wanted to do on my summer break was blow up another school.[4]
1. Georgette Heyer, April Lady
2. Agatha Christie, Murder in Mesopotamia
3. Meg Cabot, The Boy Next Door
4. Rick Riordan, The Battle of the Labyrinth
christina.behe@gmail.com
That was a really fun and creative challenge.
I made a blog post for it here:
http://aivbooks.blogspot.com/2010/07/once-upon-read-thon-challenge-3-update.html
justaiv09(at)gmail(dot)com
Laurel stood in front of the cabin, scanning the tree line, her throat constricting in a rush of nerves.
- Spells by Aprilynne Pike
The sweet, cloying odor of blood and honeysuckle hung in the rain-misted courtyard like rancid smoke.
- A Rush of Wings by Adrian Phoenix
Everyone has a secret life.
- Dracula in Love by Karen Essex
Every city has a pulse.
- Night Shift by Lilith SaintCrow
It was like a final nail in a coffin.
- Kissing Coffins by Ellen Schreiber
The Wizard had returned.
- Lover Enshrined by J.R. Ward
Every city has a pulse, everyone has a secret life. Laurel stood in front of the cabin, scanning the tree line, her throat constricting in a rush of nerves. The sweet, cloying odor of blood and honeysuckle hung in the rain-misted courtyard like rancid smoke. It was like a final nail in a coffin--the Wizard had returned.
I'm not quite sure I did it right. I picked 6 books and combined first sentences into a 4-sentence paragraph. Unfortunately, no vampires.
Cade
ArcadiaWearsPrada[at]yahoo[dot]com
Braintasia Books
I know exactly where to begin my story. Come with me, modern traveler, back to a time that has been shrouded by mystery. It was dawn when she woke, the sky just beginning to brighten in the east, night's shadows still draping the trunks and limbs of the big shade tree in inky layers. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched.
Witch Tree Inn by Jeri Smith
Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon
A Knight of the Word by Terry Brooks
The Devil to Pay by Jayne Ann Krentz writing as Stephanie James
Lizzy.A.Gray@gmail.com
I'm loving these so far!! So great and creative!
Cade Crowley- Yours is a bit different than what I meant, but more difficult as well, so of course it still counts.
Great job everyone! Keep them coming!
There are moments in life when you know things will never be the same. Anita Palmer stepped out of the bath tub and reached for her towel. “I felt like I was trapped in one of those terrifying nightmares, the one where you have to run, run until your lungs burst, but you can’tmake you body move fast enough.” she told her best friend on the phone.
POUND
What was that she wondered aloud. I have to go Jane. Anita hung up the phone and walked to her room slowly.
A man stood there. Pale, but beautiful.
“Come with me, we have plans. This is going to be the kind of night that leaves a mark. A painful one.”
Gazing out at the quiet lake behind my home. I know the risk is worth it.
Ever wondered what the lives of the chosen ones really are like?
You are about to find out.
I tried to do the best I could lol
I used.
Firelight, Gossip Girl 1, Smashed, New Moon, Faerie Path, Cinderella Society.
YAY that was fun.
truhtbetold004 at gmail dot com
THe pale guy is a vampire ;)
"There were only two kinds of people in this town. 'The stupid and the stuck,' my father had affectionately classified our neighbors. You don't know me at all. You don't know the first thing about me. You don't know where I'm writing this from. I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves. Like a butterfly breaking free from its cocoon, Tillie Reese emerged from the barren, tan-colored servant's hall into the opulence of Biltmore's main level. I opened my eyes. My legs were bound and my head ached. I was used to being the hunter. If I saw something I wanted, I stalked it, smelled it, made it mine.
(Beautiful Creatures, You Don't Know Me, Shiver, Maid to Match, Guardian of the Dead, Ballad)
email: vwho22@gmail.com
This is a fun one! :-) The sentences:
1. Camille clicked the latches down on her trunk and glanced out her bedroom window.
~ Everlasting by Angie Frazier
2. The salt air of the Caribbean rushed through the open sliding-glass door with the force of a tropical storm gust and blew a picture frame on her coffee table to the floor, reminding Riley Sinclair that her second chance at life was just as fragile.
~ Hurricanes in Paradise by Denise Hildreth
3. Everyone needs a hobby.
~ Free to a Good Home by Eve Marie Mont
4. The Queen is dying.
~ Wayfarer by R. J. Anderson
5. The rumor circulating in the snack bar Friday morning came straight from squadron operations.
~ The Cool Woman by John Aubrey Anderson
6. Merrick Marius fitted a bolt into the small crossbow before slipping the weapon beneath the folds of his cloak.
~ The Emerald Storm by Michael J. Sullivan
My paragraph:
The rumor circulating in the snack bar Friday morning came straight from squadron operations. The Queen is dying. Camille clicked the latches down on her trunk and glanced out her bedroom window. The salt air of the Caribbean rushed through the open sliding-glass door with the force of a tropical storm gust and blew a picture frame on her coffee table to the floor, reminding Riley Sinclair that her second chance at life was just as fragile.
proudbooknerd(at)gmail(dot)com
The things I believe in can be counted on one hand - even if that hand were two-fifths occupied with, say, smoking a cigarette, or making a bunny for a shadow puppet show, or forming "devil horns" at a heavy metal concert.[1] Family curse never die, they just mutate. [2] The newspaper headline glared at me from a little metal vending machine: SEATTLE UNDER SIEGE --- DEATH TOLL RISES AGAIN. [3] "Tonight I want to tell you about the most fascinating of murder mysteries, the Wallace case, " I told my mirror enthusiastically. [4]
[1] Bad to the Bone by Jeri Smith-Ready
[2] Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready
[3] The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella by Stephenie Meyer
[4] Real Murders by Charlaine Harris
This is a very kewl challenge, love it! Margi Borck
mborck [at] charter [dot] net
Very fun challenge! :)
No one knew for certain when the trouble started at the Colgan school. Camille clicked the latches down on her trunk and glanced out her bedroom window. Flames shot high, turning the night lurid with carnival light. The broken shutter in the window creaked a warning.
The four sentences are from:
1. Heist Society by Ally Carter
2. Everlasting by Angie Frazier
3. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
4. Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith
- Violet @ The Eager Readers
theeagerreaders[at]yahoo[dot]com
(1)The first time I saw him, a heavy, gray fog clung to the cornfields, trails of mist slithering between the dying stalks. (2) Strangers never walk down this road, the sisters thought as the man trudged toward them. (3) Violet Ambrose wandered away from the safety of her father as she listened to the harmony of sounds weaving delicately around her. (4) They snatched the girl off her tire swing in the backyard and dragged her into the woods.
1. Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Darkside [Vampires!!!]
2. Sisters Red
4. The Body Finder
5. Shiver
books_are_life(at)yahoo.com
Around midnight, her eyes at last took shape[1]. Her parents were going to kill her for this[2].
I wake up barefoot, standing on cold, slated tiles[3]. Water calms me[4]. Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood[5]. I used to be someone[6].
[1]Fallen
[2]Voices of Dragons
[3]Black Cat
[4]Forgive my Fins
[5]Percy Jackson-The Lightning Thief
[6]The Adoration of Jenna Fox
rivkarno1(at)hotmail(dot)com
It sounds kinda cool. The FmF water line was a bit strange, but it sounds cool ;)
What a fun challenge! I wrote up a blog post about this: http://daydreamingbooks.blogspot.com/2010/07/once-upon-read-thon-mini-challenge-9.html. And, I included a vampire novel. ;)
Amy
yma367@hotmail.com
Life was good before I met the monster. This is terrible, It's like she can't breath anymore, no matter what she does. In one moment it is over. "Hi, I whispered" as I watched the beige Suburu swing the cul de sac too quickly.
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Gone by Lisa McMann
Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams
Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
The Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells
and
What's your Status by Katie Finn
Great challenge!
candace_redinger(at)yahoo(dot)com
"You've got to be kidding me," the bouncer said, folding his arms across his massive chest. Not twenty minutes have passed since you left me here in the cafe, since I said No to your request, that I would never write out for you the story of my mortal life, how I became a vampire-how I came upon Marius only years after he had lost his human life. "Don't be stupid," Rudy said. "Dead people can't hurt you." Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. It was a dumb thing to do but it wasn't that dumb. When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.
This is an awesome challenge. Kudos for the creativity.
Books:
1. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
2. Bites by Various Authors
3. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
4. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
5. The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan
6. Pandora by Anne Rice
A few things made that day stand out more than any other: it was my sixth birthday, and my mother was wielding a knife. Elspeth died while Robert was standing in front of a vending machine watching tea shoot into a small plastic cup. Mr. Anderson: Welcome to the first meeting of the Unexpected Changes chat group. Only three people were left under the red and white awning of the grease joint: Grady, me, and the fry cook. I am a vampire, and that is the truth. I close my eyes, hoping he won’t come tonight.
WOW. Lol.
Uninvited by Amanda Marrone
Switched by Amanda Hocking
Her Fearful Symetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Water for Elephants bu Sara Gruen
Beastly by Alex Finn
Thirst No.1 by Christopher Pike
Email" xnzkisha17@yahoo.com
I had thought nothing could be worse than what they had already done to me, but I was wrong and while sitting at the desk in my chamber, I do not need to read the words of the prophecy to recall them. The sensation of being watched clung to me like a spider web, invisible threads bristling the back of my neck and down my spine. Rio stiffened beneath my touch, striking a glossy hoof against the floor. Normally I wouldn't have been caught dead at a field party but it's tough living in the shadow of a dead girl.
Books used:
Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus
Guardian of the Gate by Michelle Zink
Promise by Kristie Cook
13 to Life by Shannon Delany
Hearts at Stake by Alyxandra Harvey
Tell Me a Secret by Holly Cupala
totalbookaholic[at]hotmail[dot]com
Supposedly, dreams reflect our hidden fear and secret desires, all clamoring for attention. There are moments in life when you know things will never be the same. I suppose a lot of teenage girls feel invisible sometimes, like they just disappear. The first time I saw him, a heavy, gray fog clung to the cornfields, tails of mist slithering between the dying stalks.
“That guy is staring at you.”
“O, now be gone; more light and light it grows.”
-Full Moon by Rachel Hawthorne
-The Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy
-I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill you by Ally Carter
-Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey
-Demon Princess: Reign or Shine by Michelle Rowen
-Darklight by Lesley Livingston
twilightforever.edward(at)gmail(dot)com
Well I'm hoping I'm doing this right.
(1)The Burning arrow thudded into the wall.(2)I felt her fear before I heard her screams.(3)Someone was moaning.(4)The voices from above were getting nearer.
(5)Ssssss.
(6)"Guess who?"
1 Evernight
2 Vampire Academy
3 Legacies
4 The Secret Cicle: The Captive Power 2
5 Maximum Ride: The Final Warning
6 Evermore
Ooooh! That was fun!
VanillaMusic15@aol.com
Post a Comment