First Line – Beneath a Weeping Sky
This opening line fits the novel, in which a serial rapist is loose in River City and seems to be progressing from sexual assault toward sexual homicide. There are a lot of viewpoints in this book, including from assault victims.
As a hook, I’d give this one a B-.
What say you?
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Beneath a Weeping Sky was first published by Gray Dog Press in 2010. When they closed their fiction line, I got the rights back and published it myself, using the same cover photo.
This is a bit of a polarizing book amongst River City fans. The flashpoint involves a section of the book about three quarters of the way through. In it, we get the backstory of the villain, beginning in his childhood. Almost without fail, this resulted in some sympathy (how could you not — he was kid!). And it was that sympathy that people seemed to either embrace or reject.
The rejecters said it didn’t matter where the bad guy came from, only what he was doing now (they were right). Some also argued that it interrupted the flow and momentum of the book (they were a little right).
The embracers said that knowing the backstory added another important layer to the story (they were right), even at the expense of some momentum.
Why was everyone pretty much right?
Because it’s art.
Some liked the emotional complexity of rooting for a terrible person to get what he deserves. Others would have preferred something more black and white. For my part, I felt like there was a certain story I was trying to tell, and this was that story — complexity and all.
Beneath a Weeping Sky is the first book in which Katie MacLeod steps into a leading role, and I think she handled herself well. If Stefan Kopriva is my whipping boy, as some of my readers have claimed, then Katie is my Rocky Balboa.
Source: All The Madness In My Soul
