#FirstLineFriday #GiveawayContest #FreeDownloads

/ Marcia Meara

Welcome once again (FINALLY!) to #FirstLineFriday, a little quiz designed to help us appreciate some of the best opening lines in literary history. From the classics of long ago to the latest best-sellers, everything is fair game.

As always, the rules are simple:

  1. Be one of the first five people to email me before the game ends at 4:00pm EST, with the title and authorof the correct book. 
  2. Do not reply here on the blog. Email only: marciameara16@gmail.com
  3. Honor System applies. No Googling, please.
  4. Submissions end at 4:00 P.M. EST, or when I receive 5 correct answers, whichever comes first.
  5. Winners who live in the U.S. may request a free download of any one of my books for themselves, or for someone of their choice. OR, if they’ve read all of the offered books, they may request a free download of my next publication.
  6. Winners who live elsewhere may request a PDF file of the same books, since, sadly, Amazon won’t let me gift you from the site.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for! I’m predicting this one will be a challenge, but my predictions haven’t been right yet, so who knows? Either way, here’s today’s opening line: 

“Left Munich at 8.35 pm on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6.46, but train was an hour late.” 

Remember, email answers only, please. Thanks! And now off I go to await your guesses. 

32 thoughts on “#FirstLineFriday #GiveawayContest #FreeDownloads”

  1. Doesn’t ring any bells. Sounds possibly British (we’re obsessed with trains and their lateness) but I can’t place it in any specific time – it could be quite recent. I need to do some mulling over! Good to see this back. Thanks, Marcia.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Sorry it didn’t ring any bells, Trish. I like your guess as to it being British. Another way to confirm that is that we don’t say 1st May over here. We say May 1st. 😀 (In case this type of thing comes up in future quizzes.) But mull away, my friend, and see if it comes to you. I guarantee you’re familiar with the book, though you may or may not have actually read it. 😀 Good luck! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

        • We even do it different when using just numerals. I typically see folks from across the pond write a date like March 17, 2021 as 17 March, 2021, or 17/3/21 where we write 3/17/21. Not sure why we do it differently, but then the differences between American English and English English is a whole ‘nuther issue. And one it would take days and days to discuss properly. 😀 (We somehow MUTATED when we came across the Pond, I guess.)

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

          • Good of you to take the blame! I’m aware of the numerical date formats being different but for some reason I hadn’t transferred that to the word form. That makes the pattern much clearer for me whereas the logic is as weird as it ever was. 😀

            Liked by 1 person

            Reply

            • We just read the dates like they show up on the calendar: the month at the top (first), followed by the days. See? Easy-peasy. 😀 😀 😀 The rest of the language simply lost something in the crossing. The Atlantic wreaked havoc with our minds or something. 😀

              Like

              Reply

    • I had a feeling this one would fool a lot of folks, but I’m usually wrong when I make a prediction on these lines. This time, I might be right. Sorry it wasn’t familiar. It’s amazing how tricky it is to recognize these openers, isn’t it? NEXT time, I’ll bet you’ll get it. (I’m aiming for every other week on these right now, while I’m still getting caught up, but we’ll see.) 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • It’s a tricky one, huh? I’m always surprised at how hard it is to recognize these famous lines. I’ve read this book numerous times over the years, and I didn’t recognize it, either. I’ve got a copy on my bookshelves, and had to check for myself. Yep. That’s how it starts. 😀

      Thanks for stopping by, Staci. Better luck next time! 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

    • I feel like that’s true for many of us, but one of the things I love about this quiz is that it teaches us that, as important as an opening line is in reeling in a reader, we tend to forget many (if not most) of them, anyway. I would never have believed how few of them have stuck with me over the years.

      Thanks for stopping by! And hope you’ll have better luck next time! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • I will give everyone the answer when the quiz closes and I announce our winners, but I understand that need to know asap thing, too. 😀 It’s amazing that we forget these lines in current books as well as classic ones, and yet they are so important to reeling a reader in. They are almost always tricky! 😀 Thanks for stopping by, Jan! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • I’d be willing to bet money–BIG money!–that you’ve read it. But even if not, you’d certainly recognize the title of it. Stay tuned. At 4:00, winners will be announced and the answer revealed. 😀

      And thanks for stopping by, Sue! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  11. My goodness. I couldn’t think of a thing, Marcia, and so I cheated and looked it up. Like my predecessors who confessed to the same, I’m surprised. I never would have guessed. This is a great literary exercise. 😊

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I’ve read this book many times, Gwen, and I didn’t recognize it, either. I’m always amazed at how tough these can be. Glad you enjoyed it, though, and I’ll announce our winner(s) at 4:00, if you want to stop back by. Thanks for joining us today. I’ll be running another one in a couple of weeks, if all goes well. 😀

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • I think you have a lot of company today, Denise. Lots of surprised folks, for sure. (I know I didn’t recognize it, and I’ve read this book many times.) Thanks for stopping by, though, and hope you have better luck next time! 🙂

      Like

      Reply

Leave a reply to Marcia Cancel reply