While waiting
for the world
to end,
I anxiously
tidied the house.

1. Someone begs you to come. 

2. As soon as you arrive, you realize this was a big mistake.

New issue arriving August 20th, 2023!

The story of Charles Darwin and the Beagle has been well documented. There have been books, documentaries, films and even a set of collector cards which, while never being a big seller, have ardent followers among Darwin’s legion of schoolboy fans. Now, after much research, the relationship between Darwin and another breed, the basset, can be told.

“The hook,” I tell my creative writing students, “is the secret of getting read.” Unfortunately, powerful first-line hooks were nonexistent before the mid-1950s. This is probably why few readers willingly pick up a book published before that decade. Let me illustrate with examples of how once-famous novels could have been saved by inserting a commanding hook.