I love opening lines. Some I have to work at them, tweaking them over and over again while I’m writing the rest of the story. And sometimes they just pop into my head as-is.

One of the “popped into my head” opening lines became Yours To Keep, and it refused to go away. This was a problem because 1) I thought I was done with the Kowalskis and 2) I was getting ready for a funeral and I was writing that opening scene instead of finding my missing shoe.

“Still as ugly as ever, I see.”

Sean Kowalski flipped the bartender the bird and dropped his duffel on the floor next to an empty stool. “Runs in the family, cousin.”

Another that popped into head ready to roll was the opening line of “Alone With You”, my novella in the Be Mine anthology.

“Ashgabat.” The sexy stranger’s breath blew warm over her neck as he whispered the word near her ear, and Darcy Vaughn chased a full-body shiver with a big gulp of martini.

Kind of makes you wonder what’s going on, doesn’t it? I guess that’s the point.

And Josh’s first line was jotted down in my Evernote files before I even wrote All He Ever Needed and All He Ever Desired…

Josh Kowalski’s life could be summed up in just a few words—thirty years worth of itches he couldn’t quite scratch.

Last lines, though? Those are hard. I wish the last line of every romance novel could be “And they lived happily ever after”.