The theme this week is Integrity
Open honesty
Within the planes of pure thought
Forever truthful
Japan is in my mind with this one:
Unbreachable fort
Shattered by nature's fury
The planet in fear
Do clicky the banner to read the other entries over at Jenn's blog.
I'm almost at 200 followers! Thank you all so much for the support, encouragement and comments. I had a giveaway planned for 100 but with the Crusade and a couple of blogfests, the numbers shot up so quickly that I missed the landmark in a flurry of new friends - I'm thrilled to pieces!
To say thank you, I'd like to giveaway a couple of brand new copies of books that I adore.
Chloë by Freya North is my 'go to' read when I'm feeling down or ill. The blurb says:
When Chloë Cadwallader's beloved godmother Jocelyn dies, she leaves Chloë a letter instructing her to give up her job (lousy) and her boyfriend (awful) to travel the four countries of the United Kingdom during the four seasons of the year. As the seasons unfold, so too does Chloë's journey. From Abergavenny to St Ives, from the Giant's Causeway to the shores of Loch Lomond, join her as she discovers love, lust, life - and a man for each season.
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen is delightful and enchanting. The blurb:
Welcome to Bascom, North Carolina, where it seems that everyone has a story to tell about the Waverley women. The house that’s been in the family for generations, the walled garden that mysteriously blooms year round, the rumours of dangerous loves and tragic passions. Every Waverley woman is somehow touched by magic.
Claire has always clung to the Waverleys’ roots, tending the enchanted soil in the family garden from which she makes her sought-after delicacies – famed and feared for their curious effects. She has everything she thinks she needs – until one day she waked to find a stranger has moved in next door and a vine of ivy has crept into her garden . . .
Claire’s carefully tended life is about to run gloriously out of control.
I love both of these stories and hope you will too! All you have to do to win them is:
1 Follow this blog
2 Post in the comments box your favourite opening line of any book.
That's all! I'm excited to read all your favourite first lines and to share them here. I shall draw a name with random.org when I reach the magic 200 and will ship anywhere.
Feel free to spread the word on your own blogs :-)
Finally...
I am very happy to have received this award from none other than my beloved MrB, Tony Benson at Fireside Park. We rarely visit each other's blogs as that would be twee in the extreme! We are, though, best friends and love sharing our writing hours together with our two cats.
Have a wonderful Wednesday you gorgeous bunch x
Very thoughtful haikus. My mind is with Japan as well.
ReplyDeleteThese are wonderful giveaways. Whoever gets them is a lucky winner.
Congrats on the lovely award. Have a blessed week :).
Great haiku. Yes it is really hard to imagine the devastation and heartache that Japan is experiencing.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the almost 200 followers! YAY!
Those books look great. I share the opening line of one of my fav books: 'I thought I'd been to Africa' (Small Island by Andrea Levy):O)
Wow, Margo!!! Congrats on the almost 200 followers, that's amazing! So, my favorite opening line. That's a really hard one. For now, I will share the first line of Shiver. Not my favorite book, but the opening line is genius: "I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves."
ReplyDeleteI share your sentiments on Japan with a prayer on my lips!!
ReplyDeleteA fort devastated by natures fury and we have cause to fear this catastrophe on our planet!!
Love the Haiku's and prayer is forever in my heart for Japan. Congrats on 200 and the award. :)
ReplyDeleteJules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow
Congrats on the award! I'm not entering the contest- but I think it is a good one- The books look entertaining.
ReplyDeleteYour first poem I really liked- and the second one really shows us about Japan. Thanks so much for posting.
Your haikus are just lovely!!!
ReplyDeleteYay for your 200 plus and growing band of gorgeous followers!! Take care
x
Nice haikus. Sending love to Japan. Congrats on the award. I awarded you with yet another award (see my blog) - no worries if you choose not to play.
ReplyDeleteNice! I'm thinking about those in Japan a lot too. And congrats on almost 200. Will be following along to see you reach it!
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts and prayers are with Japan as well as New Zealand and Australia for all the different things they have suffered.
ReplyDeleteUgh, I despaired, I so would love one of those books. Then I thought, why not check out some of my recent books on the TBR list. Here goes:
"NOT A DROP OF HOT TEA," SIR NICK Cassil growled.
The Keepers of Sulbreth by Susan Gourley.
Yes, it was all caps just as I entered it.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, The Treasures of Carmelidrium, Special .99 through April 30
Congrats on your 200+ followers!
ReplyDeleteMy heart goes out to the people in Japan as well. Such tragedy.
Almost 200 - that's great!!!
ReplyDeleteBoth Haiku so well written I think your Haiku to Japan is wonderful it is inspiring to read so many works honoring Japan so we do not forget their plight, yours is beautiful
ReplyDeleteBeautiful haikus! I'm in for the drawing!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line: "Jim Qwilleran slumped in a chair in the Press Club dining room, his six-feet-two telescoped into a picture of dejection and his morose expression intensified by the droop of his oversized mustache." ~ from The Cat Who Saw Red, by Lillian Jackson Braun
You're so right - the planet is in fear. Well said, although it really drives home what we're all feeling.
ReplyDeleteWonderful haiku!
ReplyDeletePoignant haikus.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on nearing 200 followers!
Oh that first book about visiting the four parts of the UK in the four seasons - what a fun concept! Let's see it's England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, right???
ReplyDeleteLoved the Haikus. Japan has been on my mind a lot lately too - but I thought it's interesting that you used planet in there.
My favorite opening line... um. That's hard! Probably Pride and Prejudice, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune..."
Congratulations on reaching almost 200 followers! Beautiful haikus :)
ReplyDeleteI, too, feel so sad for Japan.
Congrats! Love the haiku.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite 1st line has to be: It was the worst of times. It was the best of time.
Fantastic first lines! Thank you so much everyone - I knew I'd enjoy this....only 10 more followers...!!
ReplyDeleteOh excellent Haiku, Margo
ReplyDeleteThe first line that springs to mind first off is one I read just recently:
In the prison under the castle Allaze, in the dark mouldy cells where the greatest criminals in Mellinor spent the remainder of their lives counting rocks to stave off madness, Eli Monpress was trying to wake up a door.
The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron
Somewhat narcissistically, my favourite first line of my own was "When he woke, he was unquestionably a woman."
Yay, congrats on (almost) 200 followers! I loved the Haiku, sounds like a great giveaway - will post it on my blog :)
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Rach
So many favourite books, too many of which have their essence in the first half dozen sentences, so I have chosen this, from one of Scotland's most marvellous poets, Andrew Grieg,the opening sentence of his first novel 'Electric Brae':
ReplyDelete'The baby cries, the Scots pines whisper, I write for you by the light of the moon'
[and 'Chloe is one of my comfort books too ;-)]
Lovely haikus. Already a follower. From one of my favorite books: Amos the bear was standing on the toymaker's bench, looking through the casement window at the purple-black storm clouds rolling in from the east. From Dean Koontz's Oddkins.
ReplyDeleteGonna post this on facebook!
Hi, Margo... only five more!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book is kind of odd because it' a kid's book, but it came to me at a very sad time in my life and lifted my spirits and introduced me to the world of fantasy reading.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
The most astonishing thing about this beloved book is today agent would turn it down. The first chapter is riddled with passive voice and adverbs... LOOK there's one in the first sentence!
Have a great weekend!
Michael
You're almost there! Glad I made it in time.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite first line:
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.
From one of the books I love the most, Jane Eyre.
Not entering the competition, but congratulations on the almost-200!
ReplyDeleteLike everyone I've found the news from Japan devastating. What a terrible year it has been - the only way I'm avoiding living in fear is by avoiding listening to or watching the news, though I know I can't avoid awareness of these tragedies forever. :-(
I am game!! I just started following you now!! My favorite lines are "They drift through space in their own orbit unrelated to the
ReplyDeleteorbits of the planets, the stars, or the galaxies" from the "Surviving the fog"
with warm regards
http://becomingprince.blogspot.com