• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Rabia Gale

alchemical fantasy

  • Home
  • Works
    • The Reflected City
    • The Sunless World
    • Taurin’s Chosen
    • The Heartwood Chronicles
    • Stand-Alones
  • Newsletter
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Contact
first sentence monday

first sentence monday

It’s Monday! The start of a new day and a new week and it’s the first Monday of a new month. To celebrate (celebrate Mondays? Why not?), I’m posting the first sentences (up to three) of some of my stories.

“The king’s men came for Roshana at high noon.” ~Shadow Princess

“The mourning cloak flutters against my shop window. Eyes dark and wide, mouth open in soundless desire, her pale hands scrabble against the glass that separates her from my bottles.” ~Mourning Cloak

“I had a soulmate.

I knew this as surely as I knew my name or my mother’s face or the three chittering djinns who sat upon my bedposts and made faces at me while I slept. I felt the lack of my soulmate like a missing limb, or a fallen tooth, as a constant ache in my stomach.” ~Soulmate

“The monument could once have been a coffin on a pedestal. Time had fused the box to the rock beneath. Grime and moss crept up the stone sides, the glass at the top was distorted and rippled in waves.” ~untitled steampunk Snow White

“Rafael Grenfeld burrowed deeper into his nest of potato peelings and rotten cabbage leaves. The piercing wind-shriek of the stazis’ whistles had been silent for eight long gongs, his trousers were thoroughly soaked with old tea, soup and other things he didn’t dare think about, and his sense of smell had shut down out of sheer self-defense.” ~Quartz

Join me by posting the first sentences (up to three) of some of your stories in the comments. Happy Monday, and here’s to good beginnings!

Filed Under: creativity, friday fun, short stories

Get Each Post in Your Inbox

Sign up here to receive each blog post in your inbox.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Catherine Johnson says

    February 6, 2012 at 10:06 am

    These are great, I particularly like the last one. You had me at potato peelings lol.

    Reply
    • Rabia says

      February 6, 2012 at 10:16 am

      Thanks, Catherine. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Megan says

    February 6, 2012 at 10:20 am

    I love them all, but oddly enough, I love Quartz the best. It has this compelling voice and that awesome humor on the last line. 😀

    Reply
  3. Gabriel Rumbaut says

    February 6, 2012 at 10:26 am

    Great sentences! I love Quartz the best, too. So vivid!

    Reply
  4. Rabia says

    February 6, 2012 at 10:30 am

    I do love Rafe, Quartz’s protagonist. He has this great sense of humor. I’m glad you all like his voice, too!

    Reply
  5. Barbara Forte Abate says

    February 6, 2012 at 12:48 pm

    I’m loving them all, but l’m partial to Shadow Princess & Mourning Cloak, both of which have me inspired to find out where, what, why, who …

    Reply
    • Rabia says

      February 6, 2012 at 1:35 pm

      Thanks, Barbara. Both of those stories are written and I hope to find homes for them.

      Reply
  6. Prue says

    February 6, 2012 at 1:29 pm

    I flicked down to see the titles of the stories and was gripped by the one without a title – steampunk Snow White sounds totally fascinating!
    The beginning was gripping too – a sense of it being ages old made me shiver in anticipation. I found it exciting, perhaps because of the glass rippling in waves, and I wanted to read on. More please, Rabia 🙂

    Reply
    • Rabia says

      February 6, 2012 at 1:36 pm

      Thanks, Prue. 😀

      I haven’t finished that one yet, but it’s on my to-do list. So many stories, so little time!

      Reply
  7. Jo Anderton says

    February 6, 2012 at 3:43 pm

    Mourning Cloak! Can’t wait to read it 🙂

    Okay, this is what I have open at the moment: “Those bones were singing before Casimir brought them to me. I heard their jumbled and discordant song through wood and calico lining, through silencing spells and spirit wards, as far away as the centre of town.” — doesn’t have a name yet 🙂

    And how about: “Isola wired a laser cannon she had found in a mass grave to an untended Shard, and breathed a little easier when it began to charge. A little.” — um, also nameless.

    I’m having naming troubles, can you tell??

    Reply
    • Rabia says

      February 6, 2012 at 3:47 pm

      You will! In all it’s muddled first-draft-y messy glory. Aren’t you so lucky? 😀

      Yeah, I always have trouble naming my stories. *sympathizes*

      Reply
  8. Kirsten says

    February 6, 2012 at 8:04 pm

    These are such inspiring beginnings. All of them make me want to keep reading!
    So-I’ll play. Here are mine:

    It seldom rains in Los Angeles. But when it does, her sky lashes and claws at the ground below, like a saber-tooth tiger mounting the back of a mastodon, tearing gashes that stream like silver blood into the sea. ~ The Tempest’s Serenade

    Griffin was always the first to hear his father’s footsteps as they crunched down the path across the terrace. He listened to hear if their slow steady rhythm was broken when they passed his sister’s grave. ~ A Bridge of Light

    Only Lia would dare approach him in his sleep this way.
    “Rigel,” she whispered.
    Rigel groaned and allowed her to press against him. ~ The Dragon’s Milk Chronicles-Book One

    I can name things, but for the life of me, can’t seem to figure out how to start them properly!

    Reply
    • Rabia says

      February 6, 2012 at 10:35 pm

      I like the opening of A Bridge of Light!

      Reply
  9. Linda Adams says

    February 6, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    Those a great sentences!

    Here’s the one from mine:

    The last person Anton Keymas expected to see was his dead father — but then, he wasn’t surprised either, given the museum exhibit was about his dead mother.

    Reply
    • Rabia says

      February 6, 2012 at 10:35 pm

      Oooh, intriguing. 🙂

      Reply
  10. Prue says

    February 7, 2012 at 3:41 pm

    These are great!

    One from me:
    Juliana Davenport’s dark eyes were brimming with laughter, mischief and adoration in equal measure as she looked up at her partner. Her youthful face was becomingly tinged with pink from the exertion of waltzing round the ballroom, and from the realisation that Lord Eversleigh’s right hand, placed lightly but firmly in the small of her back, was holding her closer than was likely to be thought proper by some of the older guests.
    ~Mystery in Morocco

    She’s so lovely, and I do the most awful things to her…and to him too *sighs*.

    Reply
    • Rabia says

      February 7, 2012 at 9:07 pm

      You’re supposed to be awful to them. They can only have their happy ending after they’ve earned it. *evil grin*

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Join the Mailing List

I send out monthly newsletters, and share some special content with subscribers only. Join me!

(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Search

Latest Release

Mist and Memory

A sinister and shadowy organization. The young mages who oppose it. The hunt for ancient relics has begun. Cloud Village Arc: Lisette never thought she would return to the mountains she fled as a child. But when Tamsin, a Heartwood alumna, invites Amber, Naia, and her on a job in the area, Lisette figures it’s [read more] about Mist and Memory

Recent Posts

Afterthoughts: Witchblaze

January 31, 2021 8 Comments

A YA anime-inspired web serial

April 30, 2019 Leave a Comment

The Darkest Days Fantasy Bundle

July 10, 2018 Leave a Comment

Now Out: Ghostlight

May 31, 2018 Leave a Comment

Categories

© 2023 Rabia Gale | All Rights Reserved | Design by Robin Cornett | Header Artwork by David Revoy: Used with permission | Privacy Policy