Hook ‘Em Dano: Writing the Grabber Opening Scene
Online Workshop with Linnea Sinclair
April 15 – May 15 2025
Today’s editors and readers don’t have time to waste getting into a book or its characters. While ‘Four score and seven years ago’ might have worked fine for Old Abe, starting a book/story with flashbacks or lengthy descriptions has fallen out of favor with a generation raised on Netflix and YouTube. This course will dissect the good, the bad, and the ugly of openers, why they work, and why they don’t. It will examine different categories and styles of opening lines and scenes and help students analyze their own writing. Workshop teacher Linnea Sinclair is a multi-award winning science fiction and romance author whose plots, according to reviewers, readers, and judges, ‘hit the ground running and never let up.’
About the Instructor
Winner of the prestigious national book award, the RITA®, science fiction romance author Linnea Sinclair is a name synonymous with high-action, emotionally intense, character-driven novels. Reviewers note that Sinclair’s novels “have the wow-factor in spades,” earning her accolades from both the science fiction and romance communities. Her books have claimed spots in the Locus Top Ten and received starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly. Romantic Times BOOKreviews magazine consistently gives Sinclair’s books 4-1/2 stars (their highest rating). Starlog magazine calls Sinclair “one of the reigning queens of science fiction romance.”
Sinclair resides in Naples, Florida with her husband, Robert Bernadino, and their thoroughly spoiled cats.
Registration cost for this month-long course is:
- $30 for COFW members
- $35 for all others
About the Google IO Group
Our Education Chair is using Google IO Groups, and your invite should come out around April 8th, 2025. You will not receive any email until then. The fact that PayPal gave you a success message is your confirmation you’ve been registered.
Register now, before we fill up. This is another superb instructor and course.