THE SHADOWS WE HIDE - THE SEQUEL

The Shadows We Hide, the sequel to The Life We Bury is on store shelves now and I'm proud of how it is being received. The Minneapolis TV station KARE 11 chose it for their January Book Club pick and we did a live Facebook discussion. KARE 11 was kind enough to put together a little clip - eleven things to know about yours truly - attached below, if you want to check it out.

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/kare11-sunrise/11-things-to-know-about-mn-author-allen-eskens/89-ebac1427-8d6c-4b9c-a029-e57d80d0df8c?fbclid=IwAR1rQe14v-l4lmaG2lPfSMcOHYCuwEHchgzCWyotEk2u1Tfn4K4UoTZYt98

I also am honored to say that The Shadows We Hide is a finalist for both the Barry Award and the Minnesota Book Award. The Life We Bury was also nominated for both of these awards, winning the Barry that year. The Shadows We Hide was also chosen by Amazon and Barns and Noble as being a Best Book for November when it was launched.

It was great revisiting Joe, Lila, Jeremy and Kathy. It is also wonderful to hear from readers on Goodreads and Amazon who say they are loving the book. I just want to thank all of you who have read my work and took the time to reach out to me. I'll continue to do my best to keep writing novels that bring enjoyment to readers.

MY FIRST LIVE MORNING SHOW

I just survived my first, live morning show--Global News Toronto! Thank you Jeff McArthur for making this experience painless. And thank you Penguin Random House (and Samantha Ruinsky) for all your help.  interview

THE DEEP DARK DESCENDING

Today is the launch of THE DEEP DARK DESCENDING, my fourth novel. I'm excited to see it head out into the big world, and am grateful for the buzz it's getting. Entertainment Weekly has it on the top of their list for Best New Books (Oct. 6 ed.), and Amazon has chosen it as one of their Best Books of the Month, next to such names as Stephen King, Dan Brown, Harlan Coben, John Grisham, and more. I am also grateful to all the blog reviewers who take the time to read my work and comment on it. Your support is instrumental and greatly appreciated.

I am particularly grateful to Wendy Tyson who wrote a wonderful feature article about me and my books for The Big Thrill magazine. Today I begin the publicity tour and couldn't be more pleased. I look forward to meeting readers, so if you have a chance, stop by one of my events if you can. Now, back to writing!

Just a quick note--

One of the best lessons that I've learned is on what John Gardner called profluence. Profluence is that sense of compulsion that a writer instills in a reader which makes the reader want to (need to) keep reading. Gardner sums it up as follows:


 Page 1, even if it’s a page of description, must raise questions, suspicions and expectations; the mind casts forward to later pages, wondering what will come about and how. It is this casting forward that draws us from paragraph to paragraph and chapter to chapter. The moment we stop caring where the story will go next, the writer has failed and we stop reading.

--  John Gardner The Art of Fiction (writing on profluence)

THREE BOOKS -- A Great summary by TheShadesofOrange

I've been meaning to do a video blog to talk about having three books published:  
THE LIFE WE BURY,   
THE GUISE OF ANOTHER      &
THE HEAVENS MAY FALL
I wanted to discuss how each book is different and how readers with a particular preference may enjoy one book over another. Then low and behold, I came across this terrific video blog by TheShadesofOrange, where this brilliant young woman named Rachel did exactly that. Thank you Rachel for the great  post. 
Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snn5YYsMxYg

PBS Interview

On the eve (figuratively) of the launch of my third novel
THE HEAVENS MAY FALL (October 4, 2016), I continue to bask in the glow of the success of THE LIFE WE BURY. 

Today I would like to thank Kevin Hanson and the rest of his people at KSMQ/Off 90 for the wonderful PBS piece that they put together spotlighting my adventure as a writer. I love how it turned out and it captures the spirit of what I most enjoy about being a writer.


Take a look at the interview at the link below:
 KSMQ - Off 90 interview of Allen Eskens

A little video in honor of National Autism Month

To see the Erin Toland review that prompted this post click on the blog link below.

https://booksmusicallthingswritten.wordpress.com/2016/04/17/the-life-we-bury-by-allen-eskers-review/

HOW NURSERY RHYMES HELPED MY WRITING.

As I was studying and honing my skill as a writer, I sought to come up with road markers to push my abilities and give me the confidence to take the next step. One of these markers was my Jack-and-Jill exercise.

The Jack-and-Jill exercise grew out of the fact that I write mysteries and thrillers. Mysteries and thrillers tend to rely heavily upon plot. I would sometimes read a mystery that, I felt, relied too much on plot and left out other elements of literary style. This may be a matter of taste because I gravitate toward literary mysteries like those of Tom Franklin and Dennis Lehane. So in my own work, I tried to come up with an assignment that would remind me of the importance of these other elements—even in a plot driven genre. What I came up with was my Jack-and-Jill exercise.

Basically, the Jack-and-Jill exercise is to take a nursery rhyme (like Jack and Jill) and rewrite it into a short story of some length relying on skills other than plot. Because the plot is already laid out and well known before the exercise begins, it forces me to focus on those other elements of story such as description, dialogue, pacing and character. To me, it feels like I’m working out those literary muscles that tend to atrophy when I focus too much on plot.

This exercise often comes to my thoughts as I write my novels. When I come to a place where I’m stepping from one plot point to another and I find myself struggling to write that transition, I take a step back and remember my Jack-and-Jill exercise. I change my focus away from plot and try to make the transition stand on its own merit. Over the course of writing three novels, I’ve found this exercise useful.

NEXT STEP . . . HOLLYWOOD (hopefully).

After months of knowing that this was in the works, I can finally announce that 
THE LIFE WE BURY had been optioned for development as an independent feature film! 

 Here's the official announcement: 

 Allen Eskens' debut thriller THE LIFE WE BURY, winner of the Rosebud Award for Best First Mystery, has been named a finalist for five additional awards including the prestigious Edgar Award for Best First Novel and ThrillerFest Best First Novel. It was chosen by Suspense Magazine and MysteryPeople as one of the best books of 2014, and called a "masterful debut" in a starred review by Publisher's Weekly. 

THE LIFE WE BURY is now under option to Mary Jane Skalski and Damon Lane of Next Wednesday to be developed as a feature film.

Currently producing WILSON for Fox Searchlight, Skalski's credits include the award-winning 
THE STATION AGENT (she won both the John Cassavetes and Independent Spirit Producer Award), the Oscar nominated THE VISITOR, WIN WIN, and MYSTERIOUS SKIN. Lane, who has been a manager at Zero Gravity Management as well as head of Development and Acquisitions at Capitol Films, has worked in film sales, finance and production for over 15 years. He has produced LOCKED IN and ANOMALY with Noel Clarke. He is currently packaging CHURCHILL with Studio Canal and Sierra/Affinity. THE LIFE WE BURY was published by Seventh Street Books and the option deal was handled by Mary Alice Kier and Anna Cottle of Cine/Lit Representation on behalf of Amy Cloughley of Kimberley Cameron & Associates.

My Surprising Journey to Becoming an Author

Since the release of my debut novel The Life We Bury, I’ve been so happily astonished at its warm reception. I’ve received many moving, heartfelt messages from readers who have enjoyed and been affected by the book. And it has continued to steadily find new readers everywhere—it’s been in the top 100 at Amazon in Canada for the past 100 days, for example, and starting today, The Life We Bury will be sold on the “Emerging Authors” shelves of Target stores! As exciting as it is to see your book on the shelves at Barnes & Noble and independent bookstores, seeing it in a big box mass retailer like Target is a bit surreal.

All of this has inspired me to reflect on the path I’ve taken to this point, and I made a short video to share with readers the surprising journey I’ve taken to get here. This video goes out to the wonderful readers who have written and asked me about my personal story, as well as to new and potential readers who want to learn more about the man behind the book.

THE GUISE OF ANOTHER is coming!

I went to my very first Book Expo America and it was a blast. For those who have never been there (like me three weeks ago) it's the largest trade show of book publishers and buyers and others in the country. My publisher flew me out there to sign advanced reading copies of my soon-to-be-released novel The Guise of Another.

When I got there, they had stacks of my new book lined up along the wall -- six hundred of them. It all seemed a bit daunting. But I sat down and pulled out my pen and to my surprise, had a steady stream of readers coming by. I met so many amazing people, all excited about reading (except for the one or two who wanted a signed ARC to put on Ebay).

 I also stayed for Bookcon, which was after BEA. I was utterly impressed with all of the young people collecting books. I had some very nice conversations with aspiring writers and I hope that my words encouraged them to follow that dream -- and not wait until they turn fifty like some of us. 

On a different note, I want to thank Maddee James and her team at XUNI for the revamped web page. I'm looking forward to filling it with content.   http://alleneskens.com/

And finally, I have to thank Maria from Good Choice Reading for the exceptional review of The Life We Bury that she posted today. 6 out of 5 stars is one hell of a compliment. 
http://www.goodchoicereading.com/2015/06/review-life-we-bury-by-allen-eskens.html

If you've read and liked The Life We Bury, please like my author page:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Allen-Eskens-author/162795953749215

I'm back...

Okay, so it's been a while since I blogged about my novel-writing adventure, but I have a good excuse. I was kidnapped by a band of roving Norwegians and forced to learn the accordion. They took me on a circuit, visiting every KOA Campground in the country where I was forced to perform for my meals. I finally escaped and made it back to Minnesota to discover that my novel, The Life We Bury is doing very well. 

After the launch, I got some wonderful reviews from big names like Publisher's Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus and from a bunch of terrific bloggers from all over the world. At the end of the year, The Life We Bury was chosen by MysteryPeople and Suspense Magazine as one of the Best Debut Novels of 2014. I figured I'd reached a peak and finished the year quite happy with The Life We Bury.

Then January came. 

First, I received a nomination for the Rosebud Award, for Best First Mystery Novel. This award is given out by attendees at the Left Coast Crime Conference in Portland, OR. Then The Life We Bury was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award for Best Genre Novel. And when I thought things couldn't get better, I was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Debut Novel. This is often called the Academy Award for mystery writers. I can't believe my good fortune.

So, feeling both excited and humbled, I flew to Portland. To my great surprise and honor, The Life We Bury won the Rosebud award. On that same day, I learned that my novel was named a finalist for the Barry Award, for Best Paperback Original novel. That Award will be presented at the Bouchercon Writer's Conference in the fall. 

And last week, The Life We Bury was named a finalist for the Thriller Award for Best First Novel. In sum, it has been a crazy and wonderful few months. 

I've taken time to blog tonight because I'm feeling a sense of calm right now. I just sent my revisions in for my second novel. The title has been changed from the original working title to The Guise Of Another. I'm happy with how the novel turned out, but we'll see once it comes out on October 6, 2015.

I'll try to be better with writing here as things develop. 

Cheers.

TIME TO WRITE

When I wrote my first novel, The Life We Bury, I didn't feel like a I could call myself a writer as I felt more like a lawyer writing a novel (and as I've learned since, that’s what most lawyers apparently do). I’d spent nearly two decades learning and practicing and studying to prepare myself for this adventure and when the time came, my words flowed out at an easy pace. I had no deadline. I was in no hurry.  Writing was fun.

With novel number two, I felt no need to have a product out by a particular deadline either. I began novel number two when I was in the dreaded agent-query process. If you are in that part of the process now, I highly recommend that you start your next novel while you query. The time between sending out a query letter and hearing back can take weeks, sometimes months.  Writing another novel will distract you from wanting to check your empty email every five minutes.

But when I submitted my second manuscript to my publisher, I decided to ask for a three-book deal. I had ideas for all three books, and their stories worked together in a nice arc, so why not. Well, my request was granted. I received the contracts in the mail and signed them with the high-minded feeling that I was no longer a lawyer writing books, but rather a novelist who also practiced law.

Now it’s time to write novel number three and it seems as though I haven’t any time. With The Life We Bury coming out in less than a month, I have been inundated with tasks I hadn’t expected. It never occurred to me that I’d be writing so many interviews for bloggers and reviewers. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing Q&As. I can’t tell you how gratifying it is to get a Q&A request from bloggers.  Then there are the articles for Writer’s Digest and The Big Chill. On top of that I have been fortunate enough to have events scheduled that put me in touch with many potential readers and fans. In short, I am busy and completely loving it.  I would devote every waking hour to spreading the word about The Life We Bury if I could.

But then I remember that I have another novel to write (and a law practice to run). I

have novel number three outlined and a couple chapters written. Lucky for me, I had my second manuscript finished and sold to the publisher before The Life We Bury hit the store shelves. That means that novel number three won’t launch until the fall of 2016. Where before, I could write when the feeling struck me, I now have to be more disciplined and schedule time in advanced for writing. I hope to never box myself into a corner where I don’t have the time that I want (or need) to write the quality of novel I want to write.

I used to think that if I had to write, I would not enjoy it as much as I did when I wrote because I wanted to write, but I am finding that that is not the case. I’m writing this blog post on a break from my morning’s work and as I finish this piece, I can’t wait to go back to my manuscript. It’s a lovely Saturday morning and I’m sitting on my deck with my laptop on my lap. It’s a good day to write a novel. 

MY WRITING PROCESS   BLOG TOUR

Thank you, Emily Carpenter, for tagging me in this Writing Process blog tour. Emily is a new friend who gets to share the amazing talents of our mutual literary agent, Amy Cloughley, from the Kimberley Cameron Agency. Emily is a writer from Atlanta, an award winning screen writer and can be found at http://www.emilycarpenterauthor.com/

MY WRITING PROCESS

What am I working on?

As I write this blog, I am taking a break from doing revisions on my second novel, tentatively titled, IN THE PATH OF THE BEAST. It is a little more plot driven than my first novel, THE LIFE WE BURY, which will launch on October 14 of 2014. Both novels are mysteries, although IN THE PATH OF THE BEAST has a thriller element to it.

How does my work differ from others in my genre?

Answering this question is a lot like answering the question of how my child differs from other children. There are many similarities between THE LIFE WE BURY and other books in the genre, which allows me to put my novel on the shelf with other mystery novels. But at the same time it is different in some key ways.

First, my protagonist is a college student. He has no special training and, much like the main character from a Hitchcock film, he is pulled into a situation not fully of his choosing.

Another distinction is the internal plot. in THE LIFE WE BURY I have a strong relationship between my main character and his autistic brother. I feel that this pairing gives the story a bigger heart than one finds in most mysteries.

Why do I write what I do?

I write what I do because I enjoy it. I took up writing for the creative outlet and the fulfillment I found in crafting a good story. I continue to write because it makes me happy. If that ever changes, I will stop writing what I do.

How does my writing process work?

I am a strenuous outliner. I can’t begin writing until I have the plots and subplots down on paper. I know the point of view character for every chapter and I know what information will be fed to the reader when.  I don’t let the outline prevent me from taking a detour or tangent, but if the story veers too far from the outline, I stop and redo the outline so that I know where I’m going.

I write around 5000 words a week, either completing one long chapter or two shorter ones. I save one entire weekend day to edit what I wrote that week before moving on to the next section. During the first draft stage I stay pretty close to that schedule.

When I finish the first draft I revise until I’m happy with it. Then I give it out to a few trusted beta readers, incorporate their ideas. I then send it to my agent and get more editorial suggestions before it goes to the publisher.

That’s it for me.

Next week please read up on the writing process of a pair of talented mystery writers whom I admire.

Mickie Turk, and Pat Dennis.

MICKIE TURK

Mickie Turk has worked independently and commercially in film, photography, and journalism for the past 20 years. She wrote, directed, and produced films—both short and feature-length narratives and documentaries. Her travels to Cuba produced a film on the religion Santeria and Havana Nights, a locally screened shorts film festival. Early educational and employment experiences included adult mental health services and juvenile community corrections. Mickie has written novels, screenplays, and a variety of short stories and memoirs. Most recently, she is a film curator at Edina Film Festival and Vice President of Twin Cities Chapter of Sisters in Crime. http://mickieturkauthorandfilmmaker.blogspot.com

PAT DENNIS     

Pat Dennis is the award-wining author of Hotdish To Die For -- a collection of six mystery short stories and 18 hotdish recipes.  Pat Dennis authored The Witches of Dorkdom, a middle school novel.   Her numerous short stories and humor have appeared in Hotdish Haiku, Minnesota Monthly, Woman's World, The Minnesota Crime Wave's Resort to Murder, The Minnesota Crime Wave's Silence of the Loons, Once Upon A Crime Anthology, Writes of Spring, Who Died in Here? Pioneer Press, Sun Current, Hartford Journal, Impressions and Anne Frasier's Deadly Treats. Pat is also a stand-up comedian with over 1,000 performances at comedy clubs, Fortune 500 companies, Women's Expo, and special events. She has appeared on the same venue as Lewis Black, Phylis Diller, and David Brenner. http://patdennis.blogspot.com

THE WINTER OF MY CONTENT

As 2014 begins, I find myself in that wonderful place where anticipation and hope hold hands. I will soon be doing the final edits on THE LIFE WE BURY, and the countdown to my first book launch in November ticks away. I attended a writers conference in November taught by Christopher Vogler, James Scott Bell and Donald Maass.  I came away with a deeper understanding of some important aspects of writing, many of which I had been doing intuitively but didn't fully appreciate. If you are a writer and have an opportunity to catch this program, I recommend it.

As I sat in that conference room, contemplating character and Joseph Campbell's seminal work THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES, a thought struck me. I realized that the characters and themes that Campbell (and later Vogler) wrote about are concepts that can transfer from one character to another. For example, a novel needs a protagonist--a hero that the reader can cheer--but that hero is a concept that can jump from one character to another. Similarly, a villain can change stripes so long as the reader has a new person to fear or despise. 

For example, in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, Hannibal Lecter is a truly fearsome villain in the beginning.  However, as the story progresses the reader warms up to Lecter because he treats Clarice Starling with more respect that her peers do. As the reader begins to like Lecter, the specter of Buffalo Bill rises to take over as the one to be feared. The antagonist is not bound to a particular character, rather, the concept of the antagonist can move from one character to another, so long as the concept exists in the story. 

This idea intrigues me. I have put this notion to a test in my next novel, which I just sent out to my beta readers. So far, the reviews are coming back great. I am looking forward to getting feedback from my agent and editor.

MY AUTHOR WEBSITE IS FINISHED

Kudos to Maddee James and xuni.com for the excellent author's website. The launch of THE LIFE WE BURY is not scheduled for over a year but the work of building a platform marches on. At the top of the list was to create an author's website. After asking around for recommendations, Maddee James at XUNI was the favorite. I came away from the project happy with the result and happy with the service and attention provided by Maddee. Please visit my site and browse around, www.alleneskens.com and don't forget to sign up for my newsletter. I am certain that there will be book giveaways and more associated with the launch of THE LIFE WE BURY.

AUTHORS LOCKED OUT OF BARNES AND NOBLE?

What is happening at Barnes and Noble? Yesterday, one of Minnesota's favorite authors, William Kent Krueger, blogged on his author Facebook page that he is being prohibited from doing book signings at Barnes and Noble because of the dispute between his publisher, Simon and Schuster, and the book selling giant. Krueger wrote:

"I just learned that I can’t visit any Barnes and Noble store with the release of my upcoming novel "Tamarack County," the thirteenth in the Cork O’Connor series. There’s a spat going on between my publisher, Simon and Schuster, and the bookstore chain. No Simon and Schuster author may visit any Barnes and Noble until further notice."

https://www.facebook.com/groups/tcsistersincrime/10150525668702168/#!/williamkentkrueger/posts/609827255703246

News of this problem made it into the PublishersMarketplace post today.  The PM story had a response by Simon and Schuster laying the blame at the feet of Barnes and Noble, stating:

"Throughout this period of difficult negotiations our position has been to make available any and all our books B&N has ordered, and we are more than willing to set up author events. If a Simon & Schuster book is not available at B&N, or an author event cannot be scheduled, that is by their decision alone as part of their negotiating strategy, which we view as counter-productive. We have done nothing to diminish our presence of our books and authors at B&N."

The PM story had no response from Barnes and Noble, so I do not know for certain if they are wearing the black hat in this matter, but ultimately they have the final say as to who can enter their stores for a book signing. The final comment on this story can be found in the post of  Mr. Kent Krueger, which reads:

[T]his business is difficult enough as it is, and I bust my rear end to sell books. Then this kind of chicanery gets thrown into the mix. I have a friend who used to wear a T-shirt at writers’ conferences: Publishing Business—Isn’t that an oxymoron?      Damn straight.

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IT'S OFFICIAL!

My novel, THE LIFE WE BURY, has found a home!

Seventh Street Books (an imprint of Prometheus Books) has acquired the rights to my book and has scheduled its launch for the fall/winter of 2014. I am looking forward to working with my editor, Dan Mayer, whose reputation precedes him. I want to thank my agent, Amy Cloughley of the Kimberley Cameron Agency, for her hard work, enthusiasm, and faith.

To memorialize and commemorate the occasion, I have copied the announcement from Publisher's Marketplace below.  http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/deals/

To learn more about my novel, THE LIFE WE BURY, check out my blog post from January 27.

http://allen-eskens.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-life-we-bury.html


PublishersMarketplace

	May 9, 2013
	Fiction: Mystery/Crime		Allen Eskens's THE LIFE WE BURY, about a Minnesota college student on a dangerous quest to discover the truth about a dying convicted murderer, but hamstrung by a dysfunctional mother, sibling guilt, and a haunting childhood memory, to Dan Mayer at Seventh Street, in a nice deal, for publication in fall/winter 2014, by Amy Cloughley at Kimberley Cameron & Associates (World English).

SLOW IT DOWN

As if in slow motion…

The next time those words pop into your head—stop writing. Here are some ways to slow down the pace of a novel without resorting to that tired phrase.

1)     Increase the level of your detail. In the constant balance between plot and scene, the greater the detail of the scene, the slower the pace of the novel.

2)      Go back in time before the current event. Bullet is about to hit the character and he reflects on the misstep that brought him to that point in time.

                     

3)    Go forward beyond the moment. I would one day look back on that moment and remember the prayer I uttered when I heard the gun fire its bullet. I would say…

4)    Uncertainty. I can’t remember if I heard the explosion of the bullet in the gun’s chamber before I felt the heat of the lead in my gut…

5)    Step by step description. The blood drained away from the crease in his knuckle—the pressure of his finger on the trigger reaching that all important point when the hand and mind gave way to the mechanics of the gun…

6)      Questions. Would it hurt? Would I even feel the bullet enter my body? Or would it be like the doctors on all of those old movies say, “he didn’t feel a thing.”

7)      Use Latinate instead of Anglo-Saxon words. Capacious, commodious and erudite expressions slow down pace.

8)      Stop time and reflect. I could not see the bullet on its path, but I knew that my time to die had come. I knew it as surely as I had ever known anything in my life.

9)     Make sentences complicated and diverse in structure.

10)  Word choice. Lazy or tentative words will bring that pace to the reader.

11)  Paragraph length. Longer paragraphs equal slower pace.

12)  Use of comparisons. The similes and metaphors and other analogies tend to slow pace.

13)  Direct action vs. summary. This is somewhat duplicative of #5, but the more description of the action, (and by extension, less summary) the slower the pace.

If you have any other tip to slow down the pace of writing, please leave a comment!

Opening with a foreshadow

I confess that I am a fan of foreshadow in the opening paragraph of a novel. It is an effective way to interject questions into the minds of the readers—and, as we all know, placing a question in the reader’s mind is the key to suspense. My favorite author, Harper Lee begins TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD with an internal discussion as to where her story should begin. She opens her novel with the information that “When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.” Her next paragraph flashes back to a time before the broken arm debating when the story that led to the broken arm began. “When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident.” What Harper Lee has done is to foreshadow an event—the broken arm—in order to let the reader know that something bad will happen in the novel, make them question how that broken arm occurred. Then, she goes back in time to tell the reader the story of how that bad event came to be.

Another of my favorite authors, Dennis Lehane’s uses this opening technique in LIVE BY NIGHT, opening the novel with: “Some years later, on a tugboat in the Gulf of Mexico, Joe Coughlin’s feet were placed in a tub of cement.” It tells the reader so much, but so little. It makes the reader ask so many questions—most importantly, what did Joe Coughlin do to arrive at this moment. The paragraph goes on to add more questions, ending with this sentence: “And it occurred to him that almost everything of note that had happened in his life—good or bad—had been set in motion the morning he first crossed paths with Emma Gould.” The reader now wants to know, not only how did Joe arrive in the tub of wet cement, but how does this Emma Gould bring him to that moment. 

With a third person narrative that foreshadowed event can be the death of a main character, as in LIVE BY NIGHT, or the famous first line of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, which reads: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” But, in first person narratives, the bad event is likely not going to be the death of the main character, although authors like Alice Sebold have made the death of a main character the opening sentences with great effectiveness. The first two sentences of THE LOVELY BONES are: “My name was Salmon, like the fish: first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.”

My penchant for foreshadowing in the opening paragraph is why I started my own novel, THE LIFE WE BURY, with:

I remember being pestered by a sense of dread as I walked to my car that day—pressed down by a wave of foreboding that swirled around my head and broke against the evening in small ripples. There are people in this world who would call that kind of feeling a premonition, a warning from some internal third eye that can see around the curve of time. I’ve never been one to buy into such things. But, I will confess that there have been times when I think back to that day and wonder to myself: if the fates had truly whispered in my ear, if I had known how that drive would change so many things, would I have taken a safer path, turn left where before I had turned right? Or would I still travel the path that led me to the murderer, Carl Iverson?