I read most of Hello, Gorgeous! What does most mean? Does that mean I’m almost finished? Nope. I finished it already. I just skipped most of the beginning. 
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good book and I enjoyed it immensely, but I’m a romance reader. That means I’m looking for romance. In Hello, Gorgeous! Mr. Gorgeous doesn’t enter the scene until page 75 and only for a brief moment. Then he joins the story full time on page 85. That’s way too much other stuff going on before we get to the hot guy, at least for me.
This is why I’m fairly certain I won’t be able to get into chick lit or any other book that isn’t primarily a romance. I do read Stephen King and Dean Koontz, but label a book a romance (Hello, Gorgeous! says Contemporary Romance right on the spine) and I want the yummy dude to hit the scene pretty early into it. If not the first scene, then pretty darn close to it. Page 85 out of 195 is a little late in the game. But hey, this is just my opinion as a reader. As a writer, I always try to start a story at the last possible moment before the reader misses something. Does that make sense?
Look at Stolen Pleasures. I could have started the story with Olivia on the way to meet her husband or I could have detailed the battle with the pirates, both could have been interesting. Instead I threw the reader right into the middle of it. If I’d started any later the reader might have missed something.
This predilection of mine to jump right into the heart of the matter got me thinking about my present WIP (a story I’m writing in Works, which I hate. 
Where is my Word???? Argh!!!). As I mentioned before, I started this story about 1/3 of the way into it, but tonight I started the beginning. I’d mapped it out in my head already–start in the heroine’s POV, detail a bit about her, and then introduce her to the hero no more than a few pages into it. Instead, I started the story at the last possible moment. (warning: rough draft)
Justin Drake, ninth Marquess of Fontaine, stared down at the raven-haired beauty in his arms and wondered what she was doing there. Obviously he’d collected her somewhere along the way. Sad thing was, he might have completed the waltz without paying her any mind if she hadn’t forced him to do so. A tragedy barely avoided.
She flashed a bright smile and he was captivated. Wherever his brain had been the last few minutes, he hoped it was worth the cursing he was giving it.
“Is something amiss, my lord?†she asked.
“Did you just…pinch me?â€Â
She blinked wide, innocent eyes that belied a mischievous smile. “Would you like me to?â€Â
There was really no need to start any earlier. Anything I wanted to say before can easily, and more effectively, be brought into the story later. It’s my hope that the reader will be drawn into the tale with just these few sentences and want to keep reading. Unfortunately, there’s no way to tell until it hits the stands, if it ever does. *g* 
In other news, there’s a thread recently started on the message board titled Do Authors Alienate Themselves? I’d be interested to see what your thoughts are on that subject.
I also heard that book was WAY short by usual Brava standards. Most hit the 290 - 300 page mark. I thought that was interesting!!
by Alison February 28th, 2005 at 7:13 amI read this book last week. It’s 211 pages (if memory serves me correctly.) I would agree with Sylvia that I prefer the H show up earlier *in a romance* and play a more larger part, but there wasn’t a lot of depth of characterization in this
novellabook, it was mostly about the plot and snappy dialogue (which we got in spades.gg) I guess because I never really cared about the characters, and the fact that the story was mostly about plot and laughs, the H not showing up earlier didn’t bug me. Not at any point did I mistake this for a romance, although I did expect it to be a little more weighted toward *scorching* given it’s a BRAVA. The few scenes we got were hot, but abbreviated. I’d still recommend the book. It was fun.btw, love the excerpt!
by Jaq February 28th, 2005 at 7:50 amHello, Gorgeous! is 195 pages long. The book is numbered to page 227, but page 196-227 is promos for upcoming Bravas and a Zebra by Lori Foster. Also there are several pages in the book that are blank (the ones that break between one chapter and the next) but they were still numbered so the story is even shorter than 195 pages.
by SylviaI think the rule of thumb is to start the book as close to the end as possible. Sometimes that doesn’t work, but most of the time it does.
As for short books, I think what’s allowed depends on who the author is.
by Jordan February 28th, 2005 at 10:30 amLOL. Sylvia. Plus the font is HUGE. I counted the words on several lines and they came out to something like 7-9 per line. Usually it’s 10-12 (I only know this anal bit of detail because of newbie fretting over proper manuscript formatting). So the book is even shorter than the 195 pages (with blank pages interspersed). gg
by Jaq February 28th, 2005 at 10:45 amOoohhh… how I could have forgotten this, I don’t know. But thank you, Jaq, for the compliment on the excerpt. It will most likely change. *g* As more of a storyteller than a writer, I get the jist of a scene down and then wordsmith the heck out of it over the course of numerous edits. I would say the first 3 chapters of my books go through a minimum of 30+ edits.
by SylviaGosh, I am total opposite. I like the “world” of the hero and the heroine’s to be built up a bit before they start the romancing of each other. I want a little attraction of course, but I need to “get to know” them before they start getting together. Of course as I’m reading, my preference might vary from book to book and/or author to author because of unique writing styles, but I can’t write with the book jumping headlong into the actual romance from the first page.
Nut MJD’s books are generally quite short; think of her Undead and… series, they only top about 250 pages or so.
by Evangeline February 28th, 2005 at 1:37 pmAs a reader, I like to start in the thick of things
As a writer, sometiems I forget that 
by cece February 28th, 2005 at 3:11 pmI’m a fan of jumping right into the action, as a reader and a writer. In fact, all of my storie have the h and H in the first scene! Interesting . I never notived that before. OH!, except Meandros, but that story is a departure for me in more ways that that. lol
I think that why I love Sylvia’s Stolen, and Lucien so much too. They start of with a bang!:wink:
by Sasha February 28th, 2005 at 3:30 pmThank you, Sasha.
by SylviaSylvia, I LOVE that short excerpt!
And Add me to the list that loves to get the H and h together as soon as possible. I want their worlds to unfold as the story unfolds.
by Teresa February 28th, 2005 at 5:00 pmThank you, Teresa.
by SylviaIn a longer novel, the h/h getting together on page 85 wouldn’t bother me. In a shorter one like that…ugh! ESPECIALLY given that it’s a Brava. I want them together immediately! *g*
by Larissa March 1st, 2005 at 8:19 am