I was elated when I found out my first novel, 'Leaving Patrick,' about a woman who walks out on her husband, was going to be published.
In 1980, I published my first novel, in the usual swirl of unjustified hope and justified anxiety.
I hate sequels. They're never as good as the first book.
The first book was my first attempt at writing full-length prose.
It is so much hard work writing your first novel. You're not even sure that it is possible to do.
In course of time my first novel appeared. It was a love story.
I remember the first time I held my book, my first book in my hands. I cannot tell you how it moved me.
A second book that makes you rethink the first book is the Holy Grail of a series.
Now, I'll tell you something that might interest you. Casino Royale was the first Bond book that Ian Fleming ever wrote. And he couldn't get anybody to touch it, to publish it - he couldn't do anything about it at all. Nobody wanted to know.
A first book often has enough material in it for half a dozen.
That wasn't a bad price for a first book. My agent upped it as much as possible. I was 27 and had nothing behind me. I was working like a fool to earn a living and pay for my apartment.
Your first book is the only one that matters. Perhaps a writer should write only that one. That is the one moment when you make the big leap; the opportunity to express yourself is offered that once, and you untie the knot within you then or never again.
The first writer that I think of immediately that I studied with at Michigan is Peter Ho Davies. He was really important to me, tackling that first novel. Just writing it.
I really absolutely loved writing my first book.
I dreamed of becoming a writer. And this dream is about to become a reality with the publication of my first, and hopefully not my last, children's book.
In Courtney Moreno's In Case of Emergency the working class save the world and themselves. A wonderful first book!
I completed my first novel when I was 19 years old.
I sold my very first novel when I was 24 or 25 years old.
The opening novel of the 'Bayou Trilogy' was the first one I finished.
I was twenty-seven when I began to write seriously, and after two years of rejections, my first book, 'The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo,' was accepted for publication.
I started writing at the kitchen table after midnight. It took ten months to finish that first book; I sent it to a publisher and I got some kind of prize, so it was like a dream - I was surprised to find it happening.
I was twenty-seven when I came up with the idea for my first novel.
My Life in CIA is the first time that I've ever written a story in my own name.
I always thought the name of my first book would be 'The Insecure Chef,' because when I started cooking, I was so nervous.
I started writing 'The Lobster Kings' the day after I sold my first novel, 'Touch.'
