John Cheever’s short stories taught me the power of a strong first sentence. My copy of his stories is lost somewhere in the every sifting racks of books. I want to find it because so many of the stories are penciled over with comments on the first sentence.

So glad you like my posts. I try to keep it interesting, and I’m always amazed at what I find (or more often at what comes to me from many of you).

Yes, sometimes these virtual realities (whether sci-fi, cyberpunk, or simply more “mainstream” fiction) can capture truth in a way that reality never can. That’s the magic, the mystery, and the struggle for all of us writers.

Keep at it!

“Under the port the sky was the color of a television tuned to a dead station.” I read that first line and I didn’t sleep until I read the last line. I still wonder at how a story about a virtual-reality hacker with an amphetamine addiction, a street samurai mercenary woman, a murdering artificial intelligence, the virtual ghost of a dead programmer and a family in suspended animation can be so true.

Anyway, ta!

Yes, that’s a great one. I agree: simply the idea of a farm in Africa, the sound of “Ngong Hills” and the past tense “had”, so that you know immediately that some really powerful story lies behind the implicit melancholy. Thanks, Marcia! Anyone else have a favorite to share?