You've Got Five Pages, Homecoming by Kate Morton, to Tell Me You're Good.

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! Well, we had a good run. The prologue has returned, and a rambling prologue, at that. Kate Morton's Homecoming opens with a woman named Isabel. Isabel is pondering various things while hanging up some bunting for a New Year's Day family celebration. The prose itself is well-crafted, and there are certainly some interesting lines that help us feel the weight of natural Australian dangers on Isabel as she's out and alone. Actually, Morton's quite good at dropping hints of danger and trouble within Isabel without Isabel actually saying these are troubles--moments relating to her depression, her marriage problems, her desire to do away with her own kids, her "guilty conscience" and her determination to "make things right"--it's all quite good foreshadowing for SOMEthing to happen. And the prologue does end with the promise of something bad about to happen. The downside, at least to me, comes with how long it takes to reach that moment. We spend the entire prologue with Isabel thinking. That's it. Now a few pages of thoughts can be well done, for as I mentioned, Morton's cleverly hiding hints of danger within Isabel's psyche. But it's a slow, slow process through all of Isabel's thoughts, and by prologue's end I'm saying, "Thank goodness THAT'S over." That's not what a writer wants a reader to feel. As writers, we've got to make every line count. We shouldn't need to hide a hint of foreshadowing beneath a mountain of exposition. A little goes a long way, whether one's writing a short story, a novel, or anything in between. And what will you learn from these opening pages? Let's find out! Cheers!